museo arubano

Nestled in the interior courtyard of Fort Zoutman, the Aruba Historical Museum was one of the highlights of my week long stay on the island. If memory serves me correct I believe admission here is free. After checking in at the front desk I was given a tour of the premises by a very enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and considerate guide.The museum proper consists of two rooms for the permanent collection and an adjoining room for a special exhibit. The main entry room consists of a number of historical items from the colonial period documenting a wide array of island life; harvesting aloe, merchant weights and measures, gold mining, and musical instruments are all covered here among a wide variety of other topics. English descriptions are spotty at best but present, while my guide provided a number of valuable insights. The main collection's adjacent room consists of period Dutch furniture that is pleasant to look at if not particularly illuminating. The third room consists of a rather unique temporary exhibit. Historians from the museum worked with local schools to have students pilfer their own homes to look for unique items from relatives that might illuminate the multicultural background of the island. Large storyboards display over a dozen students with the artifacts, which range in diversity from a wedding ring to a wooden cabinet to a recipe for cactus soup (!). Detailed descriptions place the items in the context of the student and 19th/20th Century history.Overall my visit here was memorable and the time was well spent. The main collection could have had better descriptions for each display but I still gained an impressive amount of information after the tour and on my own. The temporary exhibit with the students was very well done and one of the best I've seen in my years of travels. Although it doesn't cover much of pre-colonial life this museum dovetails nicely with the Archeological Museum (see separate review) to provide the best available review of island history. Highly recommended.

There is not much in this museum, but the guides (a $5 donation is requested) are excellent. Though the artifacts are few, if you get a good guide as my husband and I did, we learned more about Aruban history and culture in 40 minutes than we did from reading anything online. Like Oranjestad is mostly post-colonizarion fill, and the old natural seashore came up to the fort. You can realyl get a feel for what life must have been like on the island in times past, along with the hopes, fears dreams and daily cotidian activities of poor native and rich settler alike. Well worth it!

First, I must admit that I am an Archaeozoologist so this was a must visit. I was quite impressed with the quality of exhibits and the gardens were lovely. I had hoped for more educational labeling for many items on display but being such a small museum, we thought it wonderful. We are also 25 years plus cave explorers and just loved the "caver" with ancient glyph drawings projected onto the walls. Super fun! And great for a day out of the searing sun. Please support them and what they do... small museums need us to visit and why not learn about the indigenous cultures before European occupation and destruction of the Native lifeways?

What a pleasant break this nice museum is from the the shopping and heat! This restored historical building gives a nice history of the island and its people. While some of this displays are static, others are interactive. The museum is cool, clean, and quiet. We enjoyed the use of the archeological relics to tell the story of the islands peoples. 30-60 minutes is a reasonable amount of time for this pleasant museum. A worthwhile use of our time.

It was well organized and explained. Lots of very interesting exhibits.It tells the history of the island.

The exhibits were informative about early Arubian culture. Not a guided tour, so you can take your time to read and take pictures along the way. Located a easy walk from the bus terminal in downtown. It is very small and for the time of our visit they didn´t have any writen information in english or spanish, but anyway is a good place to know.

We got a great view about the One Happy Island. To see how it all starts this beautiful Island. What was part of Holland

We enjoyed this museum very much. The exhibits were interesting and informative about early Arubian culture. Small entrance fee and was worth the price. Not a guided tour, so you can take your time to read and take pictures along the way. Located a easy walk from the bus terminal in downtown.

I enjoyed this museum thoroughly. It is housed in what used to be a fort, and the building is great--if you're a photographer, it's worth visiting just to shoot the building. The exhibits range from crude farm and industry tools to old maps to personal artifacts of society life. The admission is very reasonable and it even includes a drink at the bar (soda or lemonade, not beer!). The staff was friendly and eager to answer questions. They even gave us directions to our next stop. We were the only ones there and thought it was a hidden gem. Much better than the archaeological museum, which we also visited.

Es un museo muy sencillo con tres salas pero solo una dedicada a objetos historicos los cuales además son escasos y poco ilustrativos. No entregan folleto ni orientación alguna asi que creo que no vale la pena pagar 5 dolares para esta visita.

La isla tiene poco sitios históricos le recomiendo que pasen por el museo es muy interesante y esta en el centro de la isla

conhecer a cultura é fundamental, ainda mais neste local maravilhoso!!!! é um banho de arte!!!!!!!!!!!

Vale a pena ir, se estiver com tempo.. o local é novo, parece que foi reformado... enfim vale a pena ir!!!

Wij waren erg verast door dit museum, ontzettend leuke rondleiding gehad en veel geleerd! Het museum bevindt zich in het oudste gebouw van Aruba (de klok toren) en is erg goed bereikbaar en centraal gelegen in Oranjestad. De rondleiding is een aanrader!

Me parece que le hace falta un poco mas... Pienso que podría explotarse mejor. No todo puede ser Malls y Joyerias.