Activities in Puerto Rico
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FEATURED
San Juan Snorkel and Picnic Cruise
8 hours 30 minutes (Departs San Juan, Puerto Rico)
by Viator
Relax and unwind on a leisurely catamaran sail to Icacos, a deserted island paradise off the coast of San Juan, with miles of white sand beaches and crystal…Not LP reviewed
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La Casa del Mar Dive Center
Set inside the grounds of El Conquistador resort, the PADI-certified La Casa del Mar Dive Center is great for all levels. The ‘Bubblemakers for Kids’ appeals to the younger crowd (8 to 15 years; $49); more experienced divers can take the trips to local reefs (one/two tanks $69/99). A two-tank dive over in Culebra is $125.
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Captain Frank López
Captain Frank López offers fishing or snorkeling trips and sea excursions to Cayo Santiago. Prices are negotiable: start your bidding at about $30. Look for La Paseadora boat at Playa Naguabo.
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Island Adventures
Island Adventures offers 90-minute tours ($30) in an electric boat just about every night, except when there’s a full moon (take the trip to learn why!).
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Sea Ventures Pro Dive Center
Sea Ventures Pro Dive Center has three outlets in Fajardo, Palmas del Mar and Guánica. They’re staffed by very experienced professionals offering one-week PADI certification courses. For those who just want the basics or already know how to dive, there are multiple trips to Palominos and Icacos Cays daily (one/two tanks $65/99), and on Sunday there are trips to Vieques and Culebra.
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Caribbean Fly-fishing Company
Fishing is sublime in Vieques. Imagine Florida Keys with about one-tenth of the fishermen and enough bonefish, tarpon and permit to stock a mini ocean. Fishing boats can also allow you access to isolated stretches of coastline in the former naval zone. Caribbean Fly-fishing Company has received a favorable New York Times review.
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Ecotour of Laguna de Piñones & Laguna la Torrecilla
To see a patch of the rarely viewed coastal wilderness, you can join up with a kayak flotilla on a three-hour guided Ecotour of Laguna de Piñones & Laguna la Torrecilla. The lagoon features fish, birds and the occasional manatee. Copladet Nature & Adventure Tours in San Juan can hook you up.
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CORALations
Two of Culebra's most isolated beaches - Resaca and Brava - are nesting sites for the endangered leatherback sea turtle, the largest living sea turtle in the world. The nesting season runs April through early June and each year small groups of volunteers are recruited by the US Fish & Wildlife Refuge to oversee the delicate egg-laying process.
Volunteers meet at sunset before traveling out to the beaches where they are required to count eggs, measure turtles, and document the event for environmental records. At the same time, participants are able to witness one of nature's most transfixing and timeless events in stunning close-up. Volunteer postings are understandably…
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Island Ventures
You can reach Isla Caja de Muertos through Island Ventures. The name - which translates to Coffin Island - seems cribbed from the script from a swashbuckling adventure flick, but the big lizards here run a lazy show, trotting across dusty, cacti-lined trails and over the mangrove marsh. The morbid moniker itself even has a tame origin; it's thought to have come from an 18th-century French author's observation that the island's silhouette looked like a body in a casket.
But the opportunity for a refreshing, day-long escape from the congestion of Ponce is key, starting with some of the best snorkeling around and plenty of tranquil, if somewhat rocky stretches of beach. Day…
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La Coca Trail
This popular 1.8-mile hike will take you a little over an hour each way. The trailhead is just up the road past the falls of the same name - just before the Yokahú Tower - and there is a small parking lot here. It's a fairly benign, low-altitude trail following streams through tabonuco forest.
La Coca made its mark on El Yunque history when a US college professor disappeared here for 12 days in 1997, claiming after his rescue that he got off the trail and was lost. The Forest Service, which had enlisted a search party of 60 volunteers and aircraft, was hardly amused. If you follow La Coca to its end, you can go left (east) along Carrillo Trail to the eastern part of the…
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El Yunque Trail
This is the big enchilada for most visitors and takes you to the top of El Yunque (3496ft, 1049m) in 1½ hours or longer. Starting on Rte 191 Km 12.2 opposite the Palo Colorado Visitor's Center, the 2.4 mile trail is mostly paved or maintained gravel as you ascend through cloud forest to the observation deck, which is surrounded by microwave communication towers that transmit to the islands of Culebra and Vieques.
If you want a rock scramble from here, take Los Picachos Trail (0.17 miles) to another old observation tower and feel as if you have crested a tropical Everest. You can return via a different route by descending down the Mt Britton Spur/Mt Britton Trail and…
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Legends of Puerto Rico
Debbie Molina-Ramos is a well-respected guide for Legends of Puerto Rico, whose wildly popular ‘Night Tales in Old San Juan’ tour books up pretty fast. She also does ‘Legends of San Juan’ (from $30 to $35 per person) and many others, including a coffee plantation tour, an eating and drinking tour, and tours to El Yunque. Bus trips are available, as are special discounts for families with children (and child-friendly tours, too), as well as wheelchair-accessible tours (advance booking required). Aside from English and Spanish, tours can be arranged in German, French and Italian.
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Ferries Del Caribe
Mayagüez is Puerto Rico’s gateway to the Dominican Republic, at least by sea. Ferries Del Caribe, on the docks of Mayagüez north of the tuna canneries, offers the serious ‘off-island’ adventure across the Pasaje de la Mona. Its massive M/S Caribbean Express sails every other day across the Pasaje de la Mona for Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic (a 12-hour trip). On board you will find a restaurant, cafeteria, bar, casino and disco, as well as conference rooms, private cabins, a sauna and a Jacuzzi. There is room for 250 cars along with 1125 passengers.
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San Cristóbal Hiking Tour
The best way to visit Cañón de San Cristóbal is to plan ahead, make reservations and join an organized trek with San Cristóbal Hiking Tour run by local historian and geographer Samuel Oliveras Ortiz. Trips run on weekends and holidays and vary from a three-to-four-hour basic tour to a five-to-six-hour adrenalin-junkie fest with rock climbing and rappelling.
Wear secure shoes and appropriate clothing that you can take off at the canyon floor, where temperatures can be more than 10°F warmer than up on the brink. Of course, you will need water and maybe some energy bars to get you back up the canyon wall.
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Refuge
This refuge is about a mile north of the Hwy 3301 turnoff to El Combate. Its visitors center contains displays on local wildlife and wildlife management techniques. Outdoors you will find bird-watching trails among the ruins of an old farmstead in the Valle de Lajas (Lajas Valley). This area around the coastal plains and shores of Cabo Rojo is a major winter ground for migratory ducks, herons and songbirds, and more than 130 bird species have been sighted here. You can arrange guided hikes through the refuge at the Centro Interpretativos Las Salinas de Cabo Rojo.
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Caribe Aquatic Adventures
Caribe Aquatic Adventures operates out of the Normandie Hotel in Puerta de Tierra, but you needn’t be a guest to use the services. This outfit does dives near San Juan, but also further afield around the islands off the coast of Fajardo (Icacos for snorkeling and Palomino and Palominito for diving). Lunch and transportation from San Juan are included in trips to Fajardo. The company’s shore dives from the beach behind the hotel are regarded as some of the best in the Caribbean. Cruise passengers love utilizing this place.
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Mt Britton Trail
If you are short on time and want to feel as if you have really 'summited,' take the 0.8-mile, 45-minute climb up through the midlevel types of vegetation into the cloud forest that surrounds this peak, which is named after a famous botanist who worked here. This is a continuous climb on paved surfaces to the Mt Britton Tower, built in the 1930s. The trailhead is at the side of Hwy 9938, which veers off Hwy 191 south of Palo Colorado.
The more adventurous and fit can connect to El Yunque Trail via the 0.86 mile Mt Britton Spur.
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Scuba Dogs
You will find spectacular 150ft visibility (or better) in the waters around the island Isla Mona. There are excellent barrier and fringe-reef dives filled with lagoons and ruts on the south side of the island, with eight different kinds of coral. Divers particularly enjoy the sharp drop-off along one reef that creates an overhanging wall; some fascinating creatures come to drift in its cool shadow. Scuba Dogs is a San Juan–based diving outfit that organizes diving trips to the island.
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El Yunque Rainforest Half-Day Trip from San Juan
5 hours 30 minutes (Departs San Juan, Puerto Rico)
by Viator
lt;pgt;Sit back and relax on this leisurely half-day trip to the El Yunque rainforest. You'll discover an amazing world of nature trails, waterfalls, scenic…Not LP reviewed
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San Juan Snorkel and Picnic Cruise
8 hours 30 minutes (Departs San Juan, Puerto Rico)
by Viator
Relax and unwind on a leisurely catamaran sail to Icacos, a deserted island paradise off the coast of San Juan, with miles of white sand beaches and crystal…Not LP reviewed
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La Mina Trail
The forest's newest trail was opened in 1992 as an extension of the Big Tree trail, although it can be done in isolation from its starting point at the Palo Colorado Visitors Center. The trail heads downhill through palo colorado forest to La Mina Falls and an old mine tunnel. Mostly paved, it's an easy 0.7 mile walk down, but a bit of a hike back up. The La Mina trail connects with the Carrillo trail at La Mina Falls and with La Coca soon after.
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Tourmarine Adventures
For trips or tours around the area on a 33ft lobster boat, try Tourmarine Adventures. If you’ve got a big enough group (10 or more people), the owner will arrange trips to Isla Mona for approximately $150 per person. There are also snorkeling trips offered around the nearby cliffs ($40 without equipment), deep-sea fishing in the Pasaje de la Mona ($375 per half-day charter) and diving off Isla Desecheo ($75 per person).
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Taíno Divers
Located inside the little marina on the north side of town, Taíno Divers is probably the best outfit on the west coast. Guides are responsible, professional and very environmentally aware. They do almost daily runs to Desecheo (8am to 2pm) and shorter trips to nearby reefs (8am to noon). Snorkel trips, one-tank dives, whale-watching and sunset cruises are also available, as well as chartered deep-sea fishing trips.
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Hacienda Carabaldi
Hacienda Carabaldi is a 600-acre eco-adventure ranch southwest of town, does trail rides on Paso Fino horses along the Río Mameyes and into the foothills of the rainforest, with time out for swimming and a picnic. Beach rides and simple jaunts around the ranch are also offered, as well as two-hour mountain-biking tours along rainforest trails. Aluminum bikes, with helmet and gloves, are provided for $40 per person.
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Captain Duck Tours
Captain Duck Tours operates amphibious bus tours lasting 90 minutes: 45 minutes on land and 45 minutes floating around San Juan harbor, without once having to leave your seat. The tour skirts Old San Juan and Puerta de Tierra and enters the water in Parque Central west of Hato Rey before motoring around the harbor. Tours usually run twice daily at 11am and 1pm except Tuesday. Tickets cost adult/child/senior $24/17/21.
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Paradise Scuba Center
It's possible to travel offshore to Cayo Enrique or Cayo Laurel with Paradise Scuba Center on a four-hour snorkeling excursion. The fee includes drinks and snacks, homemade by the wife of owner Luis. You can also take a sunset snorkeling trip that includes swimming after dark in Bahía de Fosforescente. Many scuba fanatics use this service to dive places like the Wall and Trench Alley and night dives are possible too.
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