Tipping in Aruba

Because Aruba runs on US tourism, tipping expectations are closer to home than in much of the Caribbean or Latin America. At a restaurant with no service charge, 15 to 18% for good service is normal, and staff will expect something.

It is more generous than the light-tipping norms of Europe, so budget for it as you would in the US.

Many restaurants add a service charge, often 10 to 15%, to the bill. If a service charge is there, that is largely the tip, so you do not need a full extra; rounding up or adding a couple of percent for great service is common.

Since the service charge is sometimes only 10%, a small top-up brings it in line with local expectations.

At resorts, tipping helpful bar staff, servers and housekeeping is appreciated. Taxis are fixed-rate (no meter), so agree the posted fare and round up as a courtesy. Tips can be in US dollars, which are accepted everywhere alongside the Aruban florin. For the wider picture, see cash or card in Aruba and the Aruba money guide.

Common questions

Quick answers.

More on Aruba

The little money things nobody warns you about.

• Do I need cash in Aruba, or can I use cards and dollars?Short answer: you can do almost the whole trip on a card and US dollars, and you never need to exchange for florin. Here is how to pay, and the one habit that saves you money.
• How much does the Aruba ED Card cost, and do you need a visa?Short answer: no visa, and the form itself is free. What you pay is a 20 dollar sustainability fee, once per calendar year rather than per trip. The reason people end up paying much more is a set of copycat websites that buy ads, outrank the government portal, and charge to file the same free form. Here is what it actually costs, and how to make sure you pay only that.
• Getting around Aruba: taxis, buses and carsShort answer: taxis run on fixed government rates rather than meters, there is no Uber, and a rental car or the cheap public bus fills the gaps. Here is how each works and what it costs.
• Aruba hotel taxes and fees, explainedShort answer: the headline room rate is not what you pay. Between government levies and hotel charges, a nightly rate can climb by a quarter to a third. Here is exactly what stacks on top.
• Staying connected in Aruba.Aruba is 20 miles long, covered end to end, and the kind of place where most visitors spend the week between a hotel, a beach and a handful of restaurants that all have wifi. That makes the honest answer here uncomfortable for us: often, buy nothing.
• What does getting sick in Aruba cost a visitor?Aruba's medical story is the honest small-island one: one hospital serves the island, and the complex case flies out. The hospital is decent, the island is safe and close to the US, and none of that changes what happens when a case outgrows what one island facility can do.