Thursday April 16th, 2026 Queen Anne, Oranjestad, Aruba
- Neil Wylie
- Feb 1
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
As this was our 3rd visit to Aruba, today we planned to just have a leisurely stroll into Oranjestad and have lunch at a café we discovered last year. Fortunately the cruise docks in Oranjestad at very close to the town so on exiting the port we found ourselves immediately on L.G. Smith Boulevard, the main street along the waterfront. Oranjestad is a huge tourist trap, and the street was lined with trinket shops, bars, cafes and hotels; as there was another ship in town along with the Queen Anne, the street was quite crowded, and we found ourselves weaving and dodging as we made our way along.
Santos Coffee is a small café located at the south end of the port area but set back about a block, so a bit off the beaten path – we found it quite by accident on our visit here last year. Even though it was not in the thick of the tourist area, the café was quite busy – filled mostly with locals taking a break from work for a quiet lunch. We had dreamed of the avocado on toast since our last visit and were therefore devastated to hear the café had run out of avocados, well perhaps not devastated. The sandwiches were a good alternative, though we found the bread to be a bit thick – and of course the coffee was outstanding.
The Historical Museum of Aruba is located right across the street from Santos; we’d seen this building on our previous visits, but it had always been closed – today we found it open and welcoming. Fort Zoutman, built in 1798, with the Willem III Tower added in 1866, have been repurposed into the Historical Museum of Aruba - these are the oldest remaining building on the island. The small lobby was located in the base of the tower, where we paid our entrance fee, a modest 5USD each – the kind employees encouraged us to climb the tower. The ascent of the tower was achieved via a set of 5 ladders, quite steep and rickety – none would pass a US OSHA inspection, and I was careful to give each handrail a good shake before putting my full wait on it. On the way to the summit I stopped on each of the intermediate floors, more to catch my breath than take in the views as the windows were very small and there were no historical displays at all. The view from the top of the tower was a great reward for the energy invested in the climb; I had could see all along the port area back to the Queen Anne as well as clearly into the interior of the island. The tower was originally a lighthouse as this location was at one time right on the coast; significant land reclamation to create the small craft harbor now puts the tower several blocks from the shoreline. The tower ceased to function as a lighthouse in 1963.
The rest of the original Fort Zoutman consisted of several buildings around a small central courtyard, with all of the museum’s collection located in the largest of these buildings. I found the collection to be most eclectic and somewhat randomly arranged with items ranging from the slave trade times all the way up to the early part of the 20th century. Clothing, sewing machines, furniture, a complete barber’s shop and early telephones were a few of the things on display; there was virtually no signage. Despite this rather haphazard arrangement I did enjoy this little museum, Sandra especially like the sewing machines and the clothing. The Historical Museum of Aruba, well worth a visit – a little diamond in the rough.
Comments