Half-Day Animal Sanctuary Tour in Aruba

This was one of the best excursions I’ve EVER been on! If you like animals, this is the excursion for you. Request Nano! The experience was a blast, but he made it so much better. I don’t know if it would’ve been as fun with anyone else. If it’s your first time in Aruba, do this first thing. Nano gave me a tour and Aruba information on the way to each location. It was like a tour on top of the excursion. Thank you Nano for a great day! I don’t think anyone else could top that experience.

I definitely recommend this tour, it was very memorable! It was also a great way to explore the island. It was special to able to feed the donkeys and ostriches and learn more about them. We also were able to go to an "animal garden" where we fed more animals (horses, goats, and more). Nano was a great tour guide at El Tours.

We had a great time. Water was provided which was a plus! I never thought I would be feeding a Camel in Aruba, but hey! There’s always a first

This half-day tour by El Tours took us to three animal facilities, beginning with the Donkey Sanctuary that provides a safe and secure habitat for the few donkeys remaining on Aruba. The staff greets you with a short talk about the history of donkeys on Aruba and their work to create a nice place for them to live. There are plans underway to bring more donkeys from other nearby island to enhance the genetic diversity and to improve the health and survivability of the donkey population. It was nice to see how well they care for these animals. The second facility on the tour was to an ostrich and emu ranch, where you can hand-feed – and even pet ostriches. The people there are also as interesting and caring as at the donkey sanctuary and work to keep the birds healthy and happy. They do breed the birds, who provide both fertile and infertile eggs, the latter of which are used in the kitchen to make lunches for the visitors. I wish I had known in advance that you can enjoy a nice ostrich-egg omelet there, but you have to order it a day in advance because of the time it takes to prepare one. I think that I will certainly do so the next time I visit Aruba. The final stop on this tour was to a small zoo for small animals, birds, and reptiles. We were given small bags of feed when we arrived and were urged to feed “the four-legged animals”. Other wildlife there have special dietary needs, so we only observed them. Some of the more interesting (from my perspective) occupants were the Shetland ponies and the African parrots, all of which seemed quite content. They also have a white python that looked to be a couple dozen feet long!! This was a nice tour with multiple interesting sites and some variety. I would plan to do this one again, especially to revisit the donkey sanctuary once they have acquired new animals for the herd.

Well- organized tour, with full exposure and interaction with the animals. I wish the government provided some financial aid

The trip was wonderful we learned so much about the donkeys and the ostriches. The interaction with the animals was great and the farm that we went to to see rescued animals was also amazing. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The tour guides were friendly and accommodating.

We were a 3-generation family and all enjoyed this experience. Learned a lot about ostrich and emus. The wild animal sanctuary was full of different rescued animals. Everyone is given a bag of food and the animals come running to the fences to eat. Watch out for the camels - one took the whole bag! Donkey sanctuary was good too.

You won’t regret it if you love animals and getting to know more about the Aruban culture. I loved this tour!

Visiting the donkey sanctuary and ostrich ranch were both educational and fun! We fed and brushed the donkeys close up and trusted the ostriches to eat over our shoulders! The guides were very informative. We also visited an exotic small zoo. Be careful , don’t get too close to the camels!

This was a really nice and fun tour. I had never seen an ostrich in real life and they are huge! A unique experience