Aruba
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50 free Aruba trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Aruba is a small island with an outsized story. It sits at the dry southern edge of the Caribbean, far from the lush image most people have of the region, and it has been ranch, mining camp, refinery town and holiday escape in turn. Its people mix indigenous, European, African and Latin roots, and everyday speech on the island borrows from half a dozen languages. These questions cover the ground a good trivia night needs: geography and landmarks, the long road from colony to self-governing country, local food and festivals, wildlife found nowhere else, and the singers and sports stars the island has produced. Every answer comes with a short explanation that tells the story behind the fact. The quiz suits visitors planning a trip, hosts putting together an Aruba round for a pub quiz or a resort trivia night, and anyone curious about the Dutch Caribbean. The questions run from easy openers to a few that will test people who know the island inside out.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which plant once covered two-thirds of Aruba and still appears on the island's coat of arms?
Aloe vera
Aloe vera made Aruba the world's largest exporter of the plant after its introduction in 1840. The industry continues today on a smaller scale.
Q 02Aruba and Curaçao are the A and C of the Dutch Caribbean's ABC islands; which island is the B?
Bonaire
Bonaire, unlike its two self-governing neighbours, is a special municipality of the Netherlands itself.
Q 03Which country's coast lies just 29 kilometres south of Aruba and can be seen on a clear day?
Venezuela
Venezuela's Paraguaná Peninsula is the nearest land, and Aruba's refineries were built to process crude from that country's vast oil fields.
Q 04Aruba-born dancer Bobby Farrell was the male face of which 1970s disco group?
Boney M.
Boney M. put Farrell out front, but producer Frank Farian confirmed in 1978 that he, not Farrell, had sung the male parts on the records.
Q 05Aruba-born singer Dave Benton won the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest representing which country?
Estonia
Estonia won with Benton, who had settled there in 1997 after meeting his Estonian wife on a cruise ship, singing alongside Tanel Padar.
Q 06Which Aruba landmark, once the island's most visited attraction, collapsed in September 2005?
Natural Bridge
Natural Bridge was a coral limestone arch some 30 metres long, the remnant of an ancient cave, and it featured in nearly every promotional flier.
Q 07Which hazard does Aruba largely escape because of its position far south in the Caribbean?
Hurricanes
Hurricanes usually form and track to the north of Aruba, though two brushed the island in their early stages late in the 2020 season.
Q 08Which wind-bent tree, known in Aruba as watapana, grows pods long used for tanning leather?
Divi-divi
Divi-divi rarely reaches its full nine-metre height, because the winds that batter exposed coasts contort its growth.
Q 09Which city, nicknamed Playa by locals, is the capital and largest settlement of Aruba?
Oranjestad
Oranjestad means Orange Town in Dutch: the village on the bay was given the name in 1824, in honour of King William I of the House of Orange.
Q 10Which creole language, blending Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch, is the most widely spoken in Aruba?
Papiamento
Papiamento is spelled with a final o in Aruba but with a final u on the neighbouring islands, which chose a phonetic spelling instead.
Q 11Which currency, pegged to the dollar, did Aruba introduce in 1986 to replace the guilder?
Florin
Florin banknotes were redesigned in 1990 by Aruban artist Evelino Fingal, who drew on pre-Columbian pottery and animals unique to the island.
Q 12Which conical hill at the heart of Aruba, pictured on the coat of arms, is climbed by a concrete staircase?
Hooiberg
Hooiberg, Dutch for haystack, rises 165 metres, and its staircase was built in 1951 so that the instruments on its summit could be maintained.
Q 13Which Aruba landmark is named after a steamship that was wrecked off the island in 1891?
California Lighthouse
California Lighthouse went up between 1914 and 1916 to prevent a repeat of the disaster, and the wooden steamer's wreck still lies in shallow water nearby.
Q 21The two narrow stripes across the lower half of Aruba's national flag are which colour?
Yellow
Yellow stands for the island's prosperity, past and present, and for local wildflowers such as the kibrahacha.
Q 22Aruba-born shortstop Xander Bogaerts won the World Series in 2013 and 2018 with which team?
Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox scouts signed him at 16, and he went on to play more games at shortstop than anyone in the club's history.
Q 23Sarah-Quita Offringa of Aruba won back-to-back freestyle world titles in 2010 and 2011 in which sport?
Windsurfing
Windsurfing also brought her the 2011 slalom world title, and with it a nomination for World Sailor of the Year.
Q 14Which stronghold, completed in 1798 and now a historical museum, is the oldest building in Aruba?
Fort Zoutman
Fort Zoutman was named after a Dutch rear admiral who never visited Aruba, and it stood right on the shoreline when it was built.
Q 15Which metal did a 12-year-old herder discover in Aruba in 1824, setting off a rush?
Gold
Gold was found by Willem Rasmijn, three centuries after the Spanish had written the island off for its apparent lack of mineral wealth.
Q 16After Aruba's huge refinery closed in 1985, which industry grew into the island's largest?
Tourism
Tourism was pushed hard after the closure, because the lost refinery had supplied half of all government revenue.
Q 17The freighter Antilla, now a wreck off Aruba, was scuttled in 1940 by its crew from which country?
Germany
Germany had invaded the Netherlands that same morning, and the crew used a delay in boarding to start sinking the ship rather than surrender her.
Q 18Which politician, honoured as the Libertador of Aruba, fell into a coma on the eve of separate status?
Betico Croes
Betico Croes founded the People's Electoral Movement in 1971 and never regained consciousness to see the status he had won.
Q 19On 1 January 1986 Aruba broke away from which federation of Dutch Caribbean islands?
Netherlands Antilles
Netherlands Antilles had seemed dominated by Curaçao to many Arubans, and the federation itself was dissolved in 2010.
Q 20Aruba Dushi Tera, the national anthem of Aruba since 1976, is written in which musical form?
A waltz
A waltz already popular in the 1950s, it kept its melody because the 1976 anthem committee advised against turning it into a march.
Q 24Keshi yena, a classic dish of Aruba, is a hollowed ball of what, stuffed with spiced meat?
Cheese
Cheese rinds are where it began: enslaved cooks are believed to have stuffed leftover shells of Gouda or Edam with scraps of meat.
Q 25Pastechi, a deep-fried breakfast snack sold across Aruba, is most similar to which Latin American food?
Empanada
An empanada in all but name, the crescent-shaped pastechi has slightly sweetened dough and fillings that can include Indonesian chili paste.
Q 26Which national park, established in 2000, protects roughly a fifth of Aruba's land area?
Arikok
Arikok takes its name from Arie Kok, who once owned a small plantation there; his adobe house still stands inside the park.
Q 27The cascabel, found only in Aruba and among the rarest of its kind, is what type of animal?
A rattlesnake
A rattlesnake confined to the dry southeastern half of the island, it may not be exported, and zoos now breed it in captivity.
Q 28The shoco, a subspecies that lives only in Aruba's dry scrubland, is what kind of bird?
A burrowing owl
A burrowing owl that nests in holes in the ground, the shoco shares the island's national park with the prikichi, Aruba's own parakeet.
Q 29Which kind of building, shipped from the Netherlands in pieces and rebuilt in 1961, is a restaurant landmark in Aruba?
A windmill
A windmill first built in Groningen in 1815, De Olde Molen was taken apart, shipped across the Atlantic and reconstructed in Aruba.
Q 30Which form of transport in Aruba's capital, opened in 2012, is the Dutch Caribbean's only passenger rail line?
A streetcar
A streetcar line run with heritage-style single- and double-deck cars, it was laid as part of a project to revive the main shopping streets.