Most visitors to Aruba spend their time on the calm beaches on the west coast of the island and never get to experience the beauty of the rugged, windy, east side. A great way to immerse yourself in Aruba’s nature is by renting a mountain bike and riding on some of the easy single-track trails.
Where can I rent a mountain bike?
The closest bike shop is FX Sports. It’s about 1.3 KM north of Treasure Palms on route #2. They can set you up with a good quality rental and help you get oriented.
Where are the trails?
My favourite ride is going from Boroncana to the Alto Vista chapel and back. This short ride only takes about an hour. The starting point is at the end of the Borancana road. It’s about a 5 minute ride from Treasure Palms and about 10 minutes from the bike shop.
Look for this rock that marks the start of the trail.
From here, head south on the trail. You’ll see a water reservoir in the distance – that’s roughly where you are heading. As you get closer to Alto Vista, you will see the chapel spire. After about 800 meters from the start, you’ll come to a fork, both forks will lead to Alto Vista. There are a couple branches off the trail, if you end up at the ocean or on a residential street, just turn around.
You can’t really get lost around here as you’ll be able to see many landmarks. I would suggest having the maps.me app on your phone with the Aruba map downloaded. Maps.me is an offline mapping app that can show your location using your phone’s GPS.
When you get to Alto Vista, you’ll see a trail map on a sign. The return loop is just across the parking lot.
Where else can I ride?
There are lots of trails all up the easter coast of Aruba, many are unmarked. Apparently there is a project underway to create a trail map. The guys at FX will have the latest info. Alltrails.com also has some mapped out trails.
If you want to stay on roads, there is a dirt road that follows the coast. You can ride to the tip of this island, past the lighthouse and back towards Treasure Palms along Arashi, Malmok and along LG Smith Boulevard.
