Aruba, St. Thomas, Curaco, St. Maarten and Puerto Rico Island Tips
 

Traveling on RCCL's Adventure in a few weeks. We are hitting Aruba, St. Thomas, Curaco, St. Maartin and San Juan.

Any tips and/or must sees/do? Want to hit the best beaches and we are thinking about renting a jeep on one of the islands to explore on our own. Also thinking about hiking the rainforest in San Juan.

We are staying in San Juan at the Marriott for one night before the cruise also, any restaurant recommendations and must do. We are arriving there at 2pm and the cruise doesn't leave unti; 10pm the next day.

Thanks for your help!

Visiting El Yunque Rainforest is by far one of the best things you could do in Puerto Rico. It's a 45 minute drive east of San Juan, and it's totally worth it.

When you arrive to St. Martin, my advice is to skip the Dutch side and go directly to the French side. The beaches and the town are great.

I hope this helps. Enjoy!

If you like beaches, go to Orient Beach in St. Martin. Just get a taxi on your own when you get off the ship. There are chairs for rent and restaurants along the beach. In Aruba you can do the same thing. Take a taxi to Palm Beach. We took an organized "jeep safari" on Aruba and absolutely loved it. It ended with GREAT snorkeling on DePalm Island right off the coast of Aruba. St. Thomas has good shopping and beaches. You could also ferry over to the beautiful beaches of St. John. Curacao is such a cute little town. We just did our own walking tour there.
We love San Juan. The rain forest is great. Also, you might want to visit El Morro (huge fort)and just walk on your own through Old San Juan

In Aruba rent a small 4x4 and go to see:
1. The natural bridge
2. The abomdoned gold mine
3. The rugged beauty of the north coast
4. Kasibari rock formation.
5. Shop till you drop in town
6. If you snorkel you can see a sunken WW II German freighter off of Palm beach.
7. You can hit the casinos.
San Juan is also pretty cool to see and sites to consider are;
1. El Yunque as mentioned
2. Bacardi rum factory
3. Meander Old San Juan
4. See the forts, esp. El Morro.

St. Thomas is very crowded with cruise ship passengers in Charlotte Amalie. Unless you really have your heart set on shopping while there, my advice would be that it may be a more suitable place for taking the ferry over to St. John. Curacao has good quality shopping and it may be a better idea to wait until that port before shopping.

Thanks for your help!