At Aruba Wine & Dine, we've spent years creating evenings people remember long after they leave Aruba.
Great food.
Wonderful company.
And usually one more glass of wine than you originally planned.
Sometimes they end with dessert.
Sometimes they end with dancing.
Sometimes they end with a maraca.
For nearly 30 years, Kukoo Kunuku has been convincing perfectly normal people to dance with strangers, collect souvenir cups they'll probably never use again, and give 110%... for absolutely no reason at all.
Somewhere between the first maraca shake and the last dance move, strangers become friends.
Birthdays become legendary.
And somehow your name ends up riding through Aruba on the side of a bright red bus.
So when Kukoo Kunuku celebrated its 30th anniversary...
...we thought, why stop there?
Because turning 30 seemed like the perfect excuse to create two unforgettable new evenings.
Around here, every great evening starts the same way.
“You have to try this!”
Wine and tequila weren't destined to be friends.
So we introduced them anyway.
If you loved our original Aruba wine tour, we've uncorked its delicious next chapter.
Island Sips & Night Bites is a progressive dinner experience that moves through four Aruba favorites, with each stop bringing something different to the evening.
Begin with handcrafted cocktails and sunset views at KOKOA Restaurant & Beach Bar, continue to oceanfront Surfside Beach Bar, settle in for dinner and wine at Que Pasa Restaurant & Wine Bar, and finish at Arawak Garden, where the evening makes it awfully tempting to stay for just one more.
Bring your appetite.
We'll take care of the rest.
Because one great restaurant was never going to be enough.
Meet Taste of San Nicolas.
Creating this experience became personal for me.
The more time I spent in San Nicolas researching its murals, meeting its artists and business owners, learning its stories and rediscovering a part of Aruba I thought I already knew, the more convinced I became that visitors deserved a way to experience it too.
So I created an evening around exactly that.
Taste of San Nicolas brings together the city's murals, history, people, local culture and food, not as separate attractions, but as pieces of the same story.
San Nicolas, affectionately known as the Sunrise City, has been transformed by colorful murals that turn its streets into an open-air gallery. But the paintings are only the beginning.
Behind them are artists.
Behind the storefronts are families and entrepreneurs.
Behind the old buildings are stories from Aruba's refinery years and generations of people who built lives here.
And tucked among all of it are galleries, local flavors, music and the little surprises that kept bringing me back while I was creating the experience.
That's the San Nicolas I wanted our guests to meet.
Taste of San Nicolas is a Kukoo Kunuku evening experience combining the art, history, culture and food of Aruba's Sunrise City.
Rather than simply passing through San Nicolas on the way to somewhere else, guests spend the evening discovering the city itself.
We explore its murals and the stories behind them, learn about the people and history of the community, and finish with food and time to enjoy a side of Aruba many visitors never experience.
It's relaxed.
It's personal.
It's delicious.
And it's deeply local.
Absolutely.
San Nicolas is very different from Aruba's hotel area. Its murals, galleries, historic buildings and strong community identity tell another part of the island's story.
It's also a place that rewards curiosity. One mural leads to an artist. One building leads to a story. One conversation introduces you to someone else.
That's exactly how I fell for it all over again.
Yes, and twilight brings a completely different feeling to the city.
The light softens, the streets begin to change, and the murals take on a different character than they have under the midday sun.
That's one reason Taste of San Nicolas was designed as an evening experience.
That's what I love about these two experiences.
Island Sips & Night Bites lets you eat and drink your way through some wonderful Aruba restaurants.
Taste of San Nicolas takes you into a community and introduces you to the stories, art, food and people behind it.
Very different evenings.
Very Kukoo.
Because you didn't come to Aruba to go to bed early.
We've saved you a seat.
Explore Island Sips & Night Bites
Carla Cavallaro
Brand Manager, Kukoo Kunuku & Jolly Pirates | Creator of Taste of San Nicolas
Carla Cavallaro has called Aruba home since 1989 and helped launch Jolly Pirates in 1997. She created Taste of San Nicolas, a curated food, art and culture experience inspired by the remarkable people, stories and character of Aruba's Sunrise City. She works with both Kukoo Kunuku and Jolly Pirates and contributes stories to Yummy Aruba, part of Aruba Wine and Dine, sharing Aruba's people, history, food, culture and places visitors might otherwise miss.
Read more of her stories at Kukoo Kunuku and Jolly Pirates.
