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San Nicolas is the southernmost region of Aruba as well as the island’s second largest city. It’s a great place to immerse yourself in local culture and enjoy some beautiful beaches.
City of San Nicolas
The first place to start exploring should be the city of San Nicolas (Sint Nicolaas). It’s home to a vibrant multi-ethnic community created by the town’s industrial roots.
History of San Nicolas
San Nicolas was originally a settlement of farmers and fishermen as well as migrants and local laborers working at a nearby phosphate mine. It later became a boom town heavily connected to the Lago Oil Refinery, which opened in 1924. It was a subsidiary of Standard Oil and operated until March 31, 1985. During that time, the refinery survived an attack by Nazi submarines during World War II on February 16, 1942. Coastal Corporation reopened it in 1991 and ran it until 1995, and Valero did the same from 2004 to 2009. Plans to modernize and reopen the refinery since then have not been successful.
At its height, the refinery employed over 10,000 people from 56 different countries. Many foreigners who worked there stayed in San Nicolas or other parts of Aruba after it shut down, creating a unique and diverse local culture. Our guide, who was born and raised in the city, believes San Nicolas is the only place on the island where a true Aruban culture has developed.
San Nicolas Visitor Center
Before exploring the town, make sure you stop into the San Nicolas Visitor Center. It’s just across the street from the public parking lot and is open Monday through Friday. The visitor center staff is friendly and enthusiastic and are happy to tell you about all the wonderful things to see in the area. They also have maps of the murals around town, and you can learn about the free walking tours that take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30am and 2:30pm.
Lolita
In front of the entrance to the visitor center is a sculpture called Lolita. According to the information panel, “Lolita represents the many hard-working, entrepreneurial, free-spirited strong Caribbean women that came to San Nicolas during the beginning of the oil industry. Here they raised their family and help build the largest refinery in the world at the time.” They also help to create the Aruban Dutch Caribbean society seen today.
Nicolaas Store
One of the major landmarks in town is the Nicolaas Store. It was built in 1940 in the local style and was a traditional Aruban merchant’s house. The building functioned as a shop, warehouse, office, and residence, and features a row of three double doors on the ground floor. It’s connected to a second structure at the back. The Nicolaas Store was restored in 2015 and 2016 and became the community museum. It also hosts the Kulture Café on the ground floor.
San Nicolas Community Museum
The San Nicolas Community Museum is housed on half the ground and the full upper level of the Nicolaas Store. It opened in late 2017 and preserves items donated by members of the community. Admission for a guided tour is US$5 (as of February 2024) and it’s open daily except Sundays. Our guide did a fantastic job telling the story of San Nicolas, covering its vivid past, what it’s like to live there in the present, and what he believes is in store for the future. Overall, the tour was wonderful and one of the highlights of our visit to San Nicolas.
Ground Floor
The Community Museum is designed to give a feel of familiarity displaying items visitors may have seen or used in the past. On the ground level are several objects that would have been used in local homes, including music boxes, dishes, and electronics. Our guide gave a demonstration of a music box while Marisol accompanied him with another instrument. On the back wall, the guide explained the significance of paintings of popular local businesses, some that are still operating today.
Sculptures
On the way up to the upper level, we saw the original sign for the Lago Refinery as well as a few pieces by local artists.
The blue sculpture is San Nicolas: A Leap of Faith by Osaira Muyale. It represents the values within the multi-ethnic community through the transformation of Saint Nicholas, the namesake of the town.
The red sculpture is Bao Palo (Under the Tree) by Gilbert Senchi. It was constructed using scrap materials from Aruba’s oil refineries and industrial plants, symbolizing “the spontaneity of community and how informal meeting spots are continuously created by everyday habits and patterns”.
Upper Floor
The first room on the upper floor continues the theme of familiarity. It’s full of more objects that would seem familiar to visitors. They surround a traditional Aruban living room. Items include several pieces of luggage and trunks representing immigration from the Caribbean and all over the world.
The next room features objects donated by important locals. In one section are cameras used by Nat Groeneveld, who was born in Sint Maarten in 1907 and arrived in Aruba in the 1930s. He ran Nat Groeneveld Photo Studio and photographed the community for several years.
Across the room is a barbershop chair and equipment used by a famous local barber for several years. Next to it is a cabinet filled with memorabilia related to the Lago Refinery, including firefighting equipment, toys, and magazines.
In a corner of the room is a quilt stitched together using pieces of cloth brought to San Nicolas by immigrants from all over the world. It represents the diversity and solidarity of the community.
Finally, looking out the window is a good view of a small section of the Lago Refinery. Once we finished the tour, we thanked the guide and took a long slow ride down the historic pneumatic vacuum elevator to exit.
San Nicolas Museum of Industry
The tall water tower a couple blocks north of the Nicolaas Store hosts the Museum of Industry. It chronicles the industrial development of Aruba from the discovery of gold to the rise of tourism. Admission is US$5 (as of February 2024) and it’s typically open Tuesday through Thursday.
Visitors start with an excellent multimedia presentation projected over a cutout of Aruba. It’s a great introduction to the exhibits in the museum, which start with the discovery of gold in 1824.
The next industries covered are aloe and phosphate. Both grew in the second half of the 19th century. Aruban aloe is still considered some of the finest in the world today, while the phosphate rush employed about 250 men in 1882.
The exhibits follow with oil. Thanks to its proximity to oil fields at Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, natural harbors, and political stability, Aruba was a natural choice to build oil refineries. The oil industry dominated the island for most of the 20th century.
Next is tourism, which is what Aruba is best known for today. It covers the island’s humble beginnings with small hotels in the 1950s and rapid growth culminating in the construction of large resorts.
The final industry covered is the island’s unlikely growth as a coffee exporter from the 1960s to 1980s. A few resourceful locals benefitted from the unfortunate sociopolitical climate in Colombia during that period to turn Aruba into one of the largest coffee exporters in the world.
Saint Theresa Church
A block west of the Museum of Industry is the Saint Theresa Church (Santa Teresita di Niño Jesús). This Catholic church was built in the 1940s.
Bernard van de Veen Zeppenfeldstraat
Bernard van de Veen Zeppenfeldstraat is one of the main streets running through San Nicolas. Lots of businesses mentioned at the Community Museum are or were located there, including La Deseada and Charlie’s Bar. I imagine it was much livelier during the town’s heyday.
Murals in San Nicolas
San Nicolas is full of some incredible murals. They were created by some of the best street artists from Aruba and around the world as part of the Aruba Art Fair. You can easily visit the murals either on a self-guided or guided walking tour of the town. We did a self-guided tour after picking up a map at the visitor center. Some of the murals were completed after the map was printed, so not all of them are listed.
I’ll finish this section with photos of most of the murals we saw. Unfortunately, I don’t have the titles for all of them:
Where to Eat in San Nicolas
If you’re looking for a good place to eat while exploring San Nicolas, I can recommend two places.
Kulture Café
For breakfast and coffee, we stopped into Kulture Café. It’s located on the ground floor of the Nicolaas Store and opened in 2019. I had the avocado toast, topped with fried eggs, bacon bits, tomato, red onion, and balsamic vinaigrette. Marisol had the French toast with fried eggs, while our little one had the pancakes. We all enjoyed our breakfasts but thought the coffee wasn’t that great. Service was excellent and very friendly.
Charlie’s Bar and Restaurant
Charlie’s Bar is one of Aruba’s most iconic restaurants. It opened on September 19, 1941, and is one of the oldest existing businesses on the island. The founder, Charles Brouns Sr., was originally a seaman from the Netherlands, and his son and grandson carried on the family tradition after he passed.
Don’t let the eclectic interior full of “junk” hanging from the walls and ceiling fool you. You’ll probably have one of the best meals of your trip there, along with good live music and friendly service. The restaurant is open daily except Sundays.
Charlie’s Bar specializes in seafood and creole dishes but there are also steaks, burgers, and lamb chops on the menu. We opted for the fish of the day, which was barracuda, and the creole calamar (squid). Both were delicious.
Red Anchor
Heading east out of the town of San Nicolas towards Baby Beach, you’ll come to a “T” junction. At the center is the huge Red Anchor, which is a memorial to all seamen who have lost their lives at sea. It was dedicated in 1985 by Charles Brouns Jr. (1941-2004), the owner of Charlie’s Bar at the time. The anchor was manufactured by Hoesch Dortmund Horde of Germany but how it ended up in Aruba is a mystery. It weighs 21,772 kilograms and is about 10 feet 6 inches wide and 15 feet 6 inches tall.
Boca Grandi
If you turn left at the Red Anchor, you’ll come to Boca Grandi. This windy beach is popular with advanced kite surfers. Because of the very strong currents, swimming is strongly discouraged. The setting is beautiful but there was an unfortunate amount of plastic that had washed up on the beach when I walked around.
From Boca Grandi, it’s possible to spot the Aruba Correctional Institution (Korrektie Instituut Aruba). Further north you can see the wind farm at Vader Piet outside Arikok National Park. In fact, if you continue north, you can reach the Vader Piet entrance to the park.
Baby Beach
If you turn right at the Red Anchor, you’ll end up at Baby Beach. This is one of the most popular beaches on the island and is great for families with small children. Officially named Klein Lagoen, Baby Beach features soft white sand and calm shallow water. It allows bathers to wade out quite far into the water and also has good opportunities for snorkeling. There are restaurants as well as chair and umbrella rentals, snorkel rentals, and a large parking lot.
Rodgers Beach
Just around the corner from Baby Beach is Rodgers Beach. It’s also good for families with calm and shallow water, but there are far fewer people than at Baby Beach. Unfortunately for us, the weather wasn’t cooperating so we had to skip spending time there.
Rodgers Beach is named for Captain Robert Rodgers, a Scottish agent working for the Lago Petroleum Company. He was responsible for choosing San Nicolas as the location for the Lago Refinery, which is easily viewable from the beach. The photos of the refinery at the beginning of this post were taken at Rodgers Beach.
Seroe Colorado
Seroe Colorado marks the easternmost point of Aruba. If you follow one of the roads east from the main road to Baby Beach, you’ll come to the Seroe Colorado Lighthouse, which stands 8 meters (26 feet) high and can be seen for 21 nautical miles (39 kilometers or 24 miles). You can park your car near the lighthouse to explore the rugged terrain and take in some spectacular scenery. Best of all, you’ll probably have the whole area to yourself!
Seroe Colorado was the location of the Colorado Guano Mine, which was involved in the phosphate industry, from 1878 to 1914. It features a rounded plateau about 38 meters (125 feet) high with an area of about 54 acres. The eastern and southeastern sides contain a steep cliff where you can see the waves crashing into the rocks. It’s quite windy, so take care when visiting. You should also wear closed shoes with strong soles to try to prevent needles poking into your feet.
Views from Seroe Colorado
If you walk from the lighthouse around towards the left side of the cliffs, you’ll get an amazing view of the shoreline looking north towards Boca Grandi. You can also spot the Lago Refinery and Aruba Correctional Institution from there.
Seroe Colorado Natural Bridge
Rounding the corner, if you look down you should be able to spot the Seroe Colorado Natural Bridge. It sits 27 feet above the turbulent waters and spans 60 feet. It’s possible to hike down to it carefully, but I decided it would be unwise with the windy conditions and strong waves during my visit.
On the way back to the car, I walked around to the southern point of Seroe Colorado where the cliffs flattened out. I was able to spot a crested caracara, or Mexican eagle, surveying the land.
