Aruba Other Nighttime Entertainment

Party Buses

Kukoo Kunuku (tel. 297/586-2010; www.kukookunuku.com) invites you to party on a colorfully painted school bus. A bar crawl on wheels, it’s like getting drunk with the Partridge family. The coach has no glass in its windows — the fresh air will do you good — and every reveler gets maracas. Prepare to sing a solo and do the Macarena. The carousing attracts a mixed crowd with a surprising number of folks over 40; the minimum age is 18. The price of $5 per person includes champagne at sunset, an Aruban dinner under the stars, and the first drink at each of three watering holes. The carousing begins at 6pm and lasts until about midnight, Monday through Saturday. Pickup and drop-off is at your hotel.

In the same vein but without dinner, the Banana Bus (tel. 297/593-0757; www.bananabusaruba.com) rolls Tuesday through Friday from 8pm until midnight. After your guide and driver rounds up the gang, you zoom away to three local bars. For $37, you get free drinks on the bus, door-to-door transportation to three bars, and a free drink ticket at each destination.

Theme Nights

Just about every hotel in Aruba offers theme nights with buffet dinner, live entertainment, and dancing. Options include the Aruban folkloric show (Occidental), Havana night (Westin), Fajitas and Margaritas (Hyatt), Latin Night (Tamarijn Aruba), Mexican Night (Renaissance), and Western Night (Holiday Inn), among many others. Friday nights are particularly frenetic, with many hotels offering happy-hour drink specials as well as a Carnival night, which gives visitors a taste of the island’s favorite season to party in the streets. Contact your hotel for specifics.

Movies

Aruba’s only indoor movie theaters are at the Renaissance Cinema in the Renaissance Marketplace shopping mall in downtown Oranjestad, L. G. Smith Blvd. 82 (tel. 297/583-0318; www.seaportcinemas.com). The six-screen complex shows first-run films — mostly Hollywood blockbusters — in English. Midnight flicks are popular on Friday and Saturday. Tickets range from $3 to $7. Don’t waste your money on the 20-minute multiscreen Aruba Panorama show in the Renaissance show lounge. Despite some nice aerial images of Aruba’s spectacular landscape, for the most part it feels like a thinly veiled, but very loud, commercial.

A real throwback to a simpler time, the E. De Veer Drive-In Theatre, on Kibaima, across from the Balashi Brewery on the road to Savaneta and San Nicolas (tel. 297/585-8355; www.seaportcinemas.com), is a rare treat. The chance to watch a film (usually American) in a vast field under the stars? In Aruba? That’s exotic. Admission is about $4, but Sunday and Wednesday are “car crash” nights — $6 admits an entire carload. Expect tons of Aruban teens, sweethearts, and families with kids in tow. Scheduling information is available online.