Local guide · Aruba
Eating Cheap on Aruba: The Local Guide to Budget Food
0 spots · updated May 27, 2026
Aruba has a reputation as an expensive island, and for good reason — the hotel strip is priced for North American tourists. But step off the main boulevard and you find a completely different food economy: snack bars where lunch is $8, pastechi trucks doing three for $3, truki pan routes that feed the island's working population every morning. This is where Aruba really eats.
- When
- Pastechi trucks and truki pan are best in the morning (6–10 am). Plate lunch spots peak at midday. Budget food options are available all day except late evenings.
- Try
- Pastechi (fried pastry with cheese, tuna or meat filling)Plate lunch at a local take-awayFresh-squeezed juice from a market vendor
- Good for
- budget travellers who want to experience real Arubabackpackers and longer-stay visitors watching their spendanyone who wants volume and flavour without the resort markup
Where to get them?
Order: most good reviews from locals first.
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See them on the mapOr walk the tour Oranjestad Food WalkMore tours
Aruba Truki Pan TourMore about this guide
The pastechi is Aruba's great budget food: a deep-fried pastry filled with cheese, tuna, or meat that costs a dollar or two from a truck and makes a perfect breakfast or mid-morning snack. The truki pan routes — bread trucks that also sell snacks, drinks and pastechis — are a mobile food court that comes to you. Plate lunches at local take-aways run $8–12 and are filling enough to last the whole afternoon. Food courts in shopping centres like Caya Betico Croes area in Oranjestad serve local food at local prices. The rule for budget eating in Aruba: follow the workers. If a snack bar has a queue of people in work clothes, the food is real and the price is fair.