💰ARUBA on a BUDGET? SLOW TRAVEL Aruba cost of Living.

[@ericaghelfi3240]

Thank you for this video my husband and I are considering buying a house here and I am eating up all these videos thank you so much!

[@PlanFree]

Oh you're very welcome. We are so happy we can help in some way. And thank you so much! Congrats on the plans! Sounds like you are already in Aruba? It has been several years since we lived in Aruba but we we call many things about the island so ask away if there's anything else we can help with. Fun times for you! ...we'll have to visit! Ayr & Lori

[@hsenaltan1721]

Thanks!

[@PlanFree]

YOU are SUPER @hsenaltan1721!! We thank YOU so much for the love! We are very happy we helped you in some way. We wish you safe and very happy travels! Ayr & Lori

[@Getawaywithshontae]

Thank you!

[@PlanFree]

Any time!

[@stanchau7682]

Always enjoy watching your videos, informative, down-to-earth, straight-to-point, smoothly edited and most importantly, with good vibe! Aruba is on my plan now!

[@PlanFree]

Yayyyyy! Love your support and encouragement Stan! You're awesome. It's so kind of you to watch and to give us feed back in that way, really means a lot. We'd even take some constructive criticism from a guy like you. 😉 Glad you like our vibe. That's us! We're just being normal! Haha Aruba was a cool (read: hot!) place to live and explore. Very cool for a year. We hope you get to check it out.

[@ScotKuykendall-zy9rj]

Thanks for taking the time great Vedo.

[@PlanFree]

Glad you enjoyed it! Are you on your way to Aruba soon? Been there before? Thank you for watching and commenting.🍹

[@mortimersnerd1348]

As a fellow Canadian I appreciate this information greatly. I and my wife have been to Aruba 3 times so far and absolutely love it there. We've inquired about real estate there, but way too expensive. Would love to just rent like you did but lack the contacts who are in the know and can steer us in the right direction. We're nearing retirement and still fantasize living in Aruba even if it's just for 6 months or a year, then return home here to Nova Scotia Canada. I think we'll just have to chalk this one idea up to just another "pipe dream". It's discouraging, but don't know what else to do to get over the logistics hurdles. Thanks for the video.

[@PlanFree]

Hi @Mortimer Snerd, Well it might be a little quick to throw in the beach towel. We can try to help. What we very often do is rent a place on VRBO or Airbnb for 1 week, we get a car (which by the way we would have a contact for a nice local man who rents out a vehicle or two at a good price) and then we drive around to the areas we like and look for For Rent signs and talk to neighbors and people all over. We do that for 3-4 full days in areas that we want to be in. We also look on Facebook and Facebook Marketplace in the country and area we're interested in and make connections that way and then book a day to go and see the property. Another tip is when you find a property on VRBO or Airbnb you can sometimes get an idea of the neighborhood and a picture of the front of the building and then if you go by that building in your car you can meet the owners or the agents and make a private longer-term deal which is what we did in this video. The last idea we would have for you too is to either on Facebook or in a real estate search online, connect with real estate agents in Aruba and tell them you're looking for longer-term rentals and they should be able to connect you with the people who are rental agents to find you properties to consider looking at. Does this help? We're glad our video and information encouraged you. Don't give up yet, let's try a few things! Did you happen to like the apartment and location of the place we rented and show in this video by any chance? If so, we could send you the landlords name and WhatsApp # in an email perhaps. 👍 Please click the LIKE button for us on our videos, that hhelps our channel, we thank you!

[@mortimersnerd1348]

@@PlanFree Appreciate your followup, but I believe we've consigned ourselves to staying put and simply visiting Aruba as funds come available We have other issues, regarding other family members, we need to address also in the near term. It's complicated. Thanks for the offer, however. Perhaps someday we'll be in a better place to follow through with you. In the mean time, we have great memories of Aruba.

[@PlanFree]

@@mortimersnerd1348 Yes, life, family, business all require attention at times. We hope you get to enjoy Aruba again soon. If you get to go back to Aruba, be sure to check out Hooiberg hike (if you haven't already), it's a cool one!: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m2GuY4dma5V3oac Happy travels, and perhaps you can enjoy seeing the destinations that we visit through our other channel videos. We welcome you!

[@PlanFree]

@Mortimer Snerd, Feel free to connect more with us on our new Substack subscriber community. We'll be publishing great content there a time goes on (though it's new for us right at the moment) and feel free to comment there any time also! It will be a kind of a newsletter. ☺️ ayrloriplanfree.substack.com Does that link work for you?

[@seasunfoodfun]

Another excellent video!

[@PlanFree]

Hi @rocklava110! How are you? Well, thank you so much for the kind works, we appreciate it. We put a lot of work into giving great and accurate information so it's super nice to hear the praise! And by your comment it sounds like you know us and/or know our material? Let us know from where... have we met before? Ayr & Lori

[@tombertino70]

This is great! Thanks for the info!

[@PlanFree]

Our pleasure @Tom Bertino! Do glad you liked it. Good thing we keep receipts hey!? Being a nerd (Lori) helps when compiling info to share with folks! haha Thank you for watching and for your comment, love it!

[@mrog5481]

Super helpful video!!

[@PlanFree]

Glad it was helpful! Are you planning a trip to Aruba soon? Been there before? Thank you for watching and commenting.🍹

[@JuanMoreno-wo5yb]

Howdy guys!! I am still in Mexico and down south where it is getting hotter!! Thanks for the video. 👍

[@PlanFree]

Hey Clemente, @Juan Moreno, sounds like you're well, and it's great to hear it! Look at you wandering all over Mexico now that you're a temp resident! Feels good hey!? Did you like our info on Aruba? Have you ever thought about traveling there to check it out?

[@JuanMoreno-wo5yb]

@@PlanFree I really am only interested in the Spanish speaking places. I know you like the playas!! I forgot if you have been here: Huatulco Oaxaca Mexico. There are 9 bays and 36 beaches so that would keep you busy for some time. Have fun and see ya in your next video!!!

[@PlanFree]

Well you're quite right and we love Spanish speaking countries as well. Perhaps it might surprise you then, that even though Aruba isn't officially 100% Spanish, Spanish is one of the component languages that make up their local language called Papiamento! In fact when we lived in Aruba, there was a slim chance that we would learn more than a few words in Papiamentu but we often spoke Spanish and people understood us just fine. 😲😄 ... now we got you thinkin hey!? We do love those beaches! Hold down that sand for us Clemente!

[@Jetmab04]

Thanks a lot for sharing. I LOVR your way of "touring' which seems a copy of "my way" and, among local people - why else would we travel 😊!? 👍👍👍

[@PlanFree]

Indeed! That's often why in our videos we say "living in" because we love getting to know our area, our new country, neighbors, landlords, fruit stand lady, etc. It's the best! It's our pleasure to share with you, you're welcome! We really hope we gave you some good information. We hope you like the rest of our content and let us know if there's any areas we can try to assist in! Where will you travel next?

[@Jetmab04]

@@PlanFree Thanks and yes exactly - getting to know the people and the area one is in is so important 💞 I will be moving from Ireland to Ecuador in just under 3 years and right now these years, I am trying to finish off visiting Europe, by visiting all the islands I don't know yet and, was just home from the amazing Azores a few weeks ago but, will be back there again. As I only managed to visit one in nine islands this time, the rest have to be visited!! The Azores, the people there, a stunning nature and not least, all the whales, dolphins etc simply have to be explored. It's one of my travels on which, I barely met any other northern Europeans. I off course know a lot of Europeans but, it was refreshing to visit a new place and, meeting people from other nations...not at all like travelling the Caribbean but, the vibe a little similar and I love these small islands in the middle of the Atlantic, - volcanic feeling, fruit and tea plantations, plenty of perfect walking trails, food, wine etc and, a good chat with and, getting to know the locals...I love that!!! And, as the Azores are same type of islands as Cape Verde, these 10 islands off the African coast definitely will be visited as well before Ecuador ... One more place in Scotland to visit as well and, I'm sure with a lot of places and people to visit/re-visit in Ireland as well before I'm leaving for South America, I will not be bored 😊 Where are you heading after Aruba? Any plans yet?

[@PlanFree]

@@Jetmab04 your travels through the Azores and places in Europe and Scotland sound like the perfect plan. Good for you! We can tell by your personality and attitude that you have no problem meeting anybody! ...locals or other tourists along your journey as you sample the wine and food in all these areas. Good for you! We hope we are 2 of those people that you meet one day! After Aruba, we actually lived in Australia, Bali, Mexico and now we are currently in Ecuador! Aruba was in 2018/19 or so. We go back every year to Canada, usually for six months during the nicest weather, and then we choose a new country somewhere around the world that we are interested to learn about and go and live there for six months. We slow traavel. We do it to stay warm mainly and for lower costs of living. (and for the people, the food, the education, learning and experiences....!) Slow travel all the way!

[@Jetmab04]

@@PlanFree 🤗🤗 ah, you're in Ecuador - perfect!! And yes, the people, learning new things/ways/places/food/wine etc...this IS Life as it would be!! The Azores are absolutely wonderful - 100% recommendable! I plan to "invade" the indigeneous people in Ecuador....to get to know them and, to get just a fragment of their tons of knowledge is something I promised myself to do already when I was a teenager many years ago and, I can't wait to get to know these wonderful people - and the Amazonas!! Wanna visit the other central- and South American countries as well, as I know people living in each of these countries - hopefully with a home-base in the Andes in Ecuador.. Slow travelling sounds perfect...please stay in touch and our routes may cross 👍👍 Take care and, safe travels!!! And, a hug to yourselves and the lovely Ecuadorians from here 💕💓💕

[@buckw65]

Thanks for all the work you put into this video. Very informative and detailed. In a few years we're looking forward to a few months in Aruba. Is there anyway I can contact you for some extra details. Totally up to you.... Thanks again for the video

[@PlanFree]

Hey @Paul MacLean, Any time! You are most welcome for the video and we're still so pleased that you found it informative and detailed! It's such a lovely Island to explore for a few months and even longer term a year or two. We appreciate you watching and we really appreciate you taking the time to let us know that our information was helpful to you! Please click the LIKE button for us and feel free to share the video on Facebook if you think others might like it too, that really helps our channel. 👍

[@buckw65]

I've heard you can only stay 90 days in Aruba. How did you manage to stay 6 months without upsetting the government?? What service did you use to track down your home?? I have more questions if I'm not being too pushy ??

[@PlanFree]

Hi again @Paul MacLean, No no you're not being pushy at all. Happy to help! You can buy us a coffee one day. 😉 The service we use to track down our apartment was Airbnb initially. The year before Aruba we had been living in Curacao for 6 months and we knew the following year we would be living in Aruba so the last few days of our winter away in Curacao we did a search on Airbnb for apartments and made a list and contacted the hosts and asked I'd we could come and have a look. We then flew to Aruba, stayed 4 days, rented a car and drove around to all 10 or 12 different apartments to see where they were located on the island of Aruba, whether we liked the area and the apartment itself etc. We narrowed it down to our favorite one and left a small deposit on the apartment for the following year and then when November rolled around again we flew to Aruba from Canada and signed a 6-month lease with the landlord at a far better deal than Airbnb (sorry but true!) because it was for a much longer term. In regards to your question about staying longer than 90 days: actually as a tourist you're only allowed 30 days in Aruba and so within your first 30 days you must make your way to the immigration office and talk to the people there and apply for the extension to 90 days. That's the first step. The second step to extend to 6 months is you go back to the immigration office again and what we were told is that we would actually have to leave the island country of Aruba for a few days and then return and she would grant us a further 90 days. So sticking true to our nature, we're not really interested in upsetting any authorities in any way soooo we just went to immigration within our first 30 days and asked all the questions to be able to stay 6 months and she told us what we would have to do and we did it. (we flew to Miami for 3 or 4 days enjoyed that city and then flew back to Aruba). Good stuff hey!? 🤭😜☺️

[@buckw65]

@@PlanFree OMG that is some fantastic information. I so appreciate the reply with the details. We love Aruba, and that's going to be our winter stay in 5 years once we retire. You've saved us a lot of research work. We usually go back to Aruba once per year. If your there when we're there I'd love to buy you two a nice meal out somewhere. On a side note....have you been to the Big Island of Hawaii?? We're going there at the end of March. It's another favorite of ours. Would enjoy you two reviewing the Big island

[@PlanFree]

Oh well, we gleen point of information from other people and online when we search also so we know the value of getting a really valuable answer to a question. It's absolutely our pleasure and please feel free to ask anything on any of our videos. I (Lori) have been to the big island of Hawaii but it was a large number of years ago. It's just fantastic that island! Ayr has not been there (yet). And we'd love to go. We would likely have to make a special trip there to visit as we have no plans in the near future for that area. You're planning to go in March of 2024?

[@theresakuhn6380]

Love your videos❤ we are looking to spend extended time in Aruba and Curacao when we retire. What do you guys do for health insurance?

[@PlanFree]

Thank you so much! We put a lot of effort, research and experience into our videos so it feels good to hear your feedback! 😘 Much thanks for your sweet comment! and for watching too! Every year we make several inquiries into health travel insurance. We happen to have a health spending account from our own company that we have, and it happens to have a travel health plan included that covers us for the first 45 days of any trip, so really all the extra calls we make after that, would be for what's called a "top up" from day 46 to day 180. We call and call and call (!) around to maaany different companies. They alm seems to change every year. Then we choose the best coverage/premium/deductible that we want at that time. Some names to get you started are: Tugo, World Nomad, Safety Wing. After that, a good Google search and many more calls (😅) will get you on the right path. Does that help?

[@theresakuhn6380]

YES!!!!! Thank you for your quick response,well look into those@@PlanFree

[@yigal2060]

very good video but i see film from pre Covid, so i must comment that prices have increased dramatically

[@PlanFree]

Ah yes? It was pre Covid in fact, yes @Y?. Please share some updates here for us, we'd love it for others who want to know. Thank you for watching and for your comment! Clicking the LIKE button helps the channel for free too. 😉

[@ianpatrick23]

Thanks so much for the cost breakdown of living in Aruba. Looks great!

[@PlanFree]

You are very welcome! Sounds like we helped a bit then? Are you planning a vacation or a move? Thank you for watching, we welcome you to our channel warmly! We also appreciate you taking the time to write your comment, we love that!

[@FocusedFighter777]

Interesting about the water. I'd like to know how that works. Imagine being stranded on an island or a boat, and having a means to at least turn the saline water into something drinkable !

[@PlanFree]

Yes, it would be definitely cool to find our how they do it. We maybe should have joined a grade 5 class and gone on a tour or something! haha Perhaps it's a system of evaporation? Like, if you take saline water and put a bag over it, heat it up (in the sun for example) and have the fresh evaporated water wick off to one side and catch into a separate vessel....wallah! Drinkable water, no? It really was delicious though. 😋

[@FocusedFighter777]

​@@PlanFree I will invent this, and live off sewage water FOR EVAH! Kidding, of course.

[@PlanFree]

Woah woah woah How did we get from salinated to sewage!? 🧐

[@FocusedFighter777]

​@@PlanFree XD

[@thehighpriestess8431]

My husband and I live on our boat and we have a water maker. RO water is the way to go :)

[@Kevin-et5zs]

Thank you, great info! But, is "lighting your hair on fire" a Canadian thing? Just curious!

[@PlanFree]

Only if it's part of a stage show! 🤣 But hey it's cold up there! We've got to light what we can just to keep warm @Kevin! 🔥 ...haha....love that phrase do you!? Ayr has a million of them! You'll hear many hilarious things when you watch our vids, he's full of em and we try to keep as many as we can in when editing for comic relief. Hope it doesn't take away from the info we want to share with folks. Thank you for watching and we REALLY thank you for writing your comment. We love that so much. Please click the LIKE button also, helps a lot! What is your experience with/in Aruba?

[@expressionpilates8698]

Great video! My husband and I wish to visit Aruba and since we just retired, we are wishing to do like you,:spend 6 month away from the cold winters of Canada. You proposed to another person, in the coments, to give him the contact of your landlord. Could you give it to us since we plan to visit Aruba in a few week? We could go and check out if a long term renting is possible for next winter. We liked your apartment. Also, one more question... My husband is latino-american and speek only spanish. Is it easy for a spanish speaking person to live in Aruba? Thanks in advance. Sylvie and Hugo

[@PlanFree]

Bonjour Sylvie & Hugo! How are you? We imagine GREAT! Since you jusr retired! Yahoooo 🎉 Congratulations!! Aruba us fabulous and we would be pleased to help. If you send us an email at planning2bfree#gmail.com we can connect you with the WhatsApp phone number of the man that we rented from. Hopefully he is still renting his apartment out. 🤞 We are so glad you liked our video and thank you for leaving us a comment. If you haven't already please click the like button and share the video those free things help our channel greatly and we thank you. Ayr & Lori

[@sunnykgaming2541]

Out of all the places you been which is one place you think you’d stay forever?

[@PlanFree]

Your question is a good one! ...but it's also broad. We'd say the place that checks the most boxes! So cool that you found us and we are glad you're watching and commenting, we appreciate that. Ayr & Lori

[@NickTalib]

Great video guys and very informative …as a canadian wanting to stay I. Aruba lo get then 30 days, do you need to notify the Canadian or Aruba Authorities? Is a tourist visa required for a canadian wanting to live 6 months there?

[@PlanFree]

Hi @Nick Talib, Thanks for watching and for your questions. I'm sure we can help based on what we had to do and our experience. 1. We got our information on what to do here: www.aruba.com/us/plan-your-visit/getting-to-aruba/immigration-regulations -scroll down under "How long can I stay in Aruba?" -go to the 3rd bullet point and read there. 2. Get travel insurance for the full length of your intended travel time in Aruba (3 months, 6 months, what ever is your case). Our case was 6 months. Print a copy of your travel medical insurance and take a copy with you to the below office. 3. Within our first 30 days in Aruba, we went to the Aruba Migracion office. Here: goo.gl/maps/N4FFZtvLUcptjt3k6 The Migracion officer (ours was a lday) was easy about this process and only asked to see our insurance and then granted us, fairly easily, our request to stay up to 90 days. Here is some additional info to your question, because we wanted to live in Aruba for 6 months: the immigration officer lady told us that on the 90th day we would have to fly out of Aruba somewhere and then enter again for her to be able to extend us to a full 6 months. We actually had to take a flight to Miami (which was totally crazy!) but we did do it..... we stayed for 3-4 days and enjoyed Miami and then flew back to Aruba. We went back to the Migracion office and she gave us another three months allowable stay in Aruba. Easy peasy!? 🤪 lol Does that help?

[@NickTalib]

Did you have to fly to the US or could you have flown to, say St Martin, stay there a few days and back to the happy island?

[@PlanFree]

@@NickTalib We could have flown anywhere out of the island country of Aruba. We chose Miami, because it was a mix of proximity to Aruba, flight cost and food/shopping availability for us to have a few days of fun. You can chose anywhere. You just need that stamp of Aruba exit and re-entry. 👍 How long are you planning to visit Aruba? If you search our channel, we made oh geez...probably 8 videos on Aruba! (from this Cost of Living, to a comparison between Aruba and Curacao, to Aruba's beaches, to our experience living in Aruba for 6 full months, Hooiberd hike, Casibari Rocks, Arikok Park, Aruba To Do, Aruba NOT to do! .....on and on. Let us know if there is something you'd like a quick link to!.

[@molovesentertainment1989]

What kind of work do you guys do?

[@PlanFree]

We are opportunistic entrepreneurs that manage our own business, rental properties and investments remotely, independent of location. How about yourself @molovesentertainment1989?

[@kmprash]

great info. 1650/month

[@PlanFree]

Yes you got it @kmprash, USD. And that is for 2 people. Pretty awesome when you hear of all the huge prices that many vacationers spend to go and experience Aruba! Thank you so much for watching and we appreciate your comment! Welcome to the channel. We hope you discover some of our other videos too, we talk about the cost of living in other countries such as Mexico and Ecuador. Welcome!

[@kmprash]

thanks for your response. Reached 50 few weeks back and started looking in to future, retirement etc. Will look other videos as well.

[@PlanFree]

Our pleasure in replying to you. We're here to help where we can. We don't know it all but we have traveled extensively for over 13 years now and have learned quite a bit about many different countries so we can try to assist a little bit with helping you determine climate, cost of living and things like that. Ask anything and either we will reply or one of our viewers will 👍. Ayr & Lori (We are currently 48 and 50 also!) ...we started traveling full time and slowly when we were 35 and 37 yrs old. 👍

[@kmprash]

very nice. during your stay in other countries do you guys do any part time job or complete relaxation (use your prior earnings) or may be use passive incomes

[@PlanFree]

@kmprash We have never worked in other countries. As visitors it is not allowed. We are Canadian and we have rental properties, a small business and a healthy savings from much work we did when we were younger that we live on from wherever we are. God has blessed us indeed. Two of the most important things we think a person can do, starting at any age but especially when they're younger, is to live below their means and not have any debt at all except what's necessary (for example a mortgage). Then a 3rd step would be to have a small business that you can hire the right manager or employees in to run while you are away keeping only a small amount of the profits for yourself and paying those people very well. 🙏 Ayr was a financial planner and stock broker in the early part of his career and he has a YT financial channel that helps to teach people some of the core things we did to get free. youtube.com/@planfreefinanceandabundance?si=ppXEtnbO4buM2OXl

[@Getawaywithshontae]

I am interested in moving to Aruba, can you please list the apartment that you stayed in? Or please drop some apartment names that you may know of? I am seeing a lot of purchase realty.

[@PlanFree]

Hi and thanks for your question. We actually just got this question from someone else and reached out to our landlord in Aruba who told us that he has rented his apartment out for the next year or two long-term and so it will not be available. Sorry! We would love to help you more but most places do not have names. When we were looking, most of the apartments were owned by local people and rented privately. We found the ge wral area they were located in on Airbnb and theb drove there to ask around. The best thing to do (and we've done this in many countries) is to rent an Airbnb for about 10 days and then rent a car and search the Facebook Marketplace group for that area, or Airbnb, and go and look at some apartments in person. Works great! Does that help? Ayr & Lori

[@andreiter]

Which was cheaper, Aruba or Curaçao?

[@PlanFree]

They are about the same/similar, neither is "cheap". Have you visited either of these places? Plan to?

[@andreiter]

Only on a cruise stop, spent a day on each island.

[@andreiter]

I would like to do a hostel/bedroom stay. I don’t need anything fancy, as I will be out all day, everyday. I won’t even eat much on the trip, to save money. Tap water is free, perhaps a beer at the end of each afternoon on the beach

[@PlanFree]

Ahhh you'd likely love spending more time on each. We hope you get to do that one day! If you do, check back. We have lots more videos on both islands.

[@rumas3352]

❤❤❤

[@PlanFree]

Hi @rumas3352, Thanks for the love! Did we help give you some information that you can use in your travels? Thanks for watching!

[@rumas3352]

@@PlanFree yes, a lot. I wish you two all the best. Thank you for lovely videos

[@PlanFree]

@rumas3352 our pleasure! So glad you took a minute to let us know, safe travels to you also!

[@yegorkrutov1540]

1600? That’s cheaper than place like Ohio

[@PlanFree]

Wow that is crazy isn't it!? The USA and Canada are getting out of control for prices, for sure. Soooo you got your flights to Aruba booked!? Thanks for watching and for your comment, we love that! Ayr & Lori

[@yegorkrutov1540]

@@PlanFree Been to Aruba twice already, waiting to explore other places, but I’ll surely return one day.

[@PlanFree]

Ah yes, good for you. Have you visited Curacao or Bonaire?