There’s a reason why Puerto Ricans put Boquerón at the top of their list of things to do in Cabo Rojo, the southwestern part of Puerto Rico. Its delightful combination of beach and beach town makes it an awesome place to spend a day!
We visited beautiful Balneario (Public Beach) Boquerón (pronounced Boh-kay-RONE) and discovered all kinds of wonderful things – soft golden sand, clear water in a languid mile-long bay, a grassy park dotted with flamboyant trees, a huge parking lot, a working (kind of) bathroom, a jumping stingray, some awesome open-water swimming, a boat club, and (possibly) Puerto Rican parrots. Just get there early enough to snag one of the shade trees and you are set for a lovely day.
This beautiful public beach sits a short walk (or drive) from the colorful beach town of Boquerón, which bustles with shops, restaurants, bars (of course; this is Puerto Rico, after all), and a bunch of sidewalk kiosks. It’s quiet during the week but very lively (and loud) on weekends.
A big beach cleanup and reconstruction project to fix the damage inflicted by Hurricane Maria in 2018 is starting this month, so Boquerón should become even nicer very soon.
We visited the Bioluminescent Bay in La Parguera on a recent Friday night and discovered a fishing village that has come alive again, post-COVID. La Parguera, in southwestern in Puerto Rico, is best known for its proximity to one of Puerto Rico’s three bioluminescent bays, but it also offers mangrove forests to kayak through and nature reserves to explore. The tropical waters are rich with marine life, and you can take snorkeling and diving trips out of La Parguera.
The trip to the Bio Bay happens after dark and is impossible to capture in a video. But come visit the village at night with us! We’ll walk a boardwalk teeming with people, music, restaurants, bars, artisan’s kiosks, and more.
Our tour operator was Aleli Tours, a small operation run by a bilingual, U.S. Coast Guard-certified captain, marine biologist and ecologist with over 30 years of experience. The cost for the two-hour tour in a small powerboat was $150 for the first three passengers and $40 apiece after that, up to six people. http://aleliecotours.com/
Buye is a popular family beach in Cabo Rojo, on the west coast of Puerto Rico. It can be a little crowded on weekends and very lively. The water is calm, perfect for swimming, and there is a kayak concession at the southern end and some decent snorkeling at the north end. You’ll also find an open-air restaurant, a mini-market and a frappe place (usually only open Friday through Sunday). The beach fronts a popular family cabin camping area.
Don’t expect Buye (pronounced BOO-yay) to be as pristine as some of the public beaches you’ll find on the island. But if you’re looking to sit under a shade tree and watch the kids play in the sand while you listen to someone else’s radio pumping out Bad Bunny and take in the beauty of the turquoise water, you could do a lot worse than Buye Beach. It’s not a pristine touristy beach. What it is might be even better: a true Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, beach experience.
Buye has some unique features: a close parking area ($4, or park farther away for free), bathrooms, showers, and a spectacular hiking area nearby, Guaniquilla.
The southern Puerto Rican city of Ponce (pronounced PONE-say) has been celebrating its annual carnival for 165 years, making it one of the longest-celebrated carnivals in the Caribbean. The festivities are brought to life by vejigantes, a local folk character that wears a colorful paper-mâché mask and a bright jumpsuit. Since we have commissioned a couple of vejigante masks from renowned mask maker Miguel Caraballo, we were eager to see the colorful masks in use during a carnival parade!
The event spans six days right before Lent. The carnival parades include King Momo’s appearance and the Carnival Queen’s coronation, a masquerade ball, and the Burial of the Sardine, a simulated funeral marking the beginning of Lent.
We were there on Saturday night for the kids’ day and Queen’s Coronation activities, which included a family-friendly version of the main event. It was a delight! (But thank God we brought our earplugs.) Enjoy!
Playa Ostiones is the very definition of off-the-beaten path. It’s a little neighborhood beach, not mentioned in any tourism brochures. It has a small, deeply-potholed dirt parking lot among the palm trees, a put-in for small boats and jet skis, a small beach and swimming area for families, and a few wooden benches. No bathrooms. No restaurants. No facilities. There are a couple of small condo complexes behind it. But if you have simple tastes and a deep appreciation of nature’s beauty, it has everything you need.
You can walk through a nature reserve down a path beautifully maintained by a dedicated local man by the name of Harvey John Ducot, and take your choice of countless small beach areas tucked within the mangroves. You can sit under a low shady tree and watch the placid water. You can snorkel from a beach, or kayak out onto the water, and see countless reefs, plants and sea life. You can do yoga in the sand, fish off the jetty, or just laze the day away.
(Shh, don’t tell anyone!) Playa de Ostiones is our definition of Paradise.
Note: In the summer, the crowds on weekends can be loud and raucous, with lots of jet skis and speakers blaring Daddy Yankee.
The name Bacardi is synonymous with Puerto Rican rum – even if is originally from Cuba. We decided to take a tour of its factory! We combined it with a $75 mixology class, which you can watch in a separate video.
The tour itself was very crowded and not as comprehensive as we expected for such a sprawling factory, but the drinks were great! Interestingly, Bob did this tour in 1994 and it was dirt cheap, maybe $5. How times have changed! Rum tours are now big business, and an obvious revenue stream from tourism. But if you’re on a Puerto Rican vacation, why not? Experiencing rum is an important part of experiencing the local culture. Bacardi offers a number of different tours, ranging in price from $40 to $200.
Normally, to get there, you take a ferry across the water from the ferry terminal in Old San Juan – an awesome experience in its own right! – then grab a quick Uber to the factory in Catano. We went on a Puerto Rican holiday when no ferries were running, and had to drive.
Ron del Barrilito) is the original Puerto Rican rum, and many would say the finest. Bacardi, rum purists claim, is originally from Cuba and therefore not Puerto Rican at all – despite its huge factory in San Juan and its reputation worldwide as THE Puerto Rican rum of note.
We decided to tour both, starting with Barrilito. The name means Rum from the Little Barrel, a reference to the little barrels that the original moonshiner hawked his potion from in 1880. The factory is in Bayamon in greater San Juan, and easy to get to by Uber if you’re a tourist without a car. (Also a short drive, if you have rented a car and have the heart to navigate traffic in San Juan.) The tour isn’t cheap ($80), but it’s fun! You’ll learn a lot about the different types of rum and have a great time learning about island history and rum culture.
We spent our time in the southeastern corner of the island searching for beaches. Since the one at Palmas del Mar was covered with seaweed and had dangerous waves, we headed west, and discovered El Cocal and Punta Santiago.
We’ve lived in Puerto Rico for only two months, and already a number of friends, and friends of friends, have reached out to us looking for recommendations or advice for visiting the island. I realize no one has time to go through our whole travel blog in search of ideas on what to do or see on La Isla del Encanto.
So if you’re coming to Puerto Rico and staying around the capital San Juan, here are a few of our favorite things to do, see and experience!
Urban Beaches
If you’re staying in San Juan, you will enjoy Isla Verde Beach, with its wide swath of sand and crashing waves. Ocean Park Beach is quirky and fun, but difficult to access unless you’re staying close by. We also recommend Balneario Carolina, or Carolina Public Beach, just east of Isla Verde, which features bathrooms, showers, shade trees, and beach bars. Admission is free, and parking is just $4. The sand is soft, the waves are gentle, and you can while away an afternoon in a beach chair with a mojito in hand while watching jets take off from and land at San Juan International Airport, right behind you.
Stroll west down the sand and enjoy lunch or dinner at Ocean Lab Brewing Company, which serves up really good pub food and a variety of craft brews on a large open balcony facing the ocean and the beach club below. (Make sure you enter from the street side; the beachside door is for members only.) Don’t miss the gift shop!
You can snorkel for sea turtles at Escambron Beach on Puerto de Tierra in San Juan. It’s not the best snorkeling on the island by any stretch, but it’s convenient if you’re staying in San Juan. And the chances of seeing a sea turtle are high!
For some truly spectacular snorkeling, go on a snorkeling day trip on a catamaran to Icacos Island, embarking from Fajardo. We did the Catamaran Spread Eagle II, and it was a blast. https://g.co/kgs/ZwRNd2
Viejo (Old) San Juan
Old San Juan is worth a day trip just to experience 500 years of history mingled with today’s rhythm of life. Enjoy strolling around the old city while you soak up the beautifully preserved Spanish Colonial architecture, shop for local crafts, and eat and drink Puerto Rican fare. Take in the historic sights, especially the iconic fort San Felipe El Morro, the governor’s residence La Fortaleza, and the Museum of the Americas. Definitely spend at least a day!
If you’re a Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, In the Heights, Tick Tick Boom) fan, take a trip to his family’s hometown of Vega Alta, less than an hour’s drive from San Juan, and spend a couple of hours in the Galería de Lin-Manuel Miranda. Lin used to fly down from New York to spend summers visiting his abuelos (grandparents) here when he was a kid. In fact, his grandfather was a local celebrity decades before Lin started winning awards! https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/galeria-lin-manuel-miranda?tab=visit
This mural in Vega Alta honors Lin and his grandfather
Rum and Spirits
If you fancy rum or just a good time on vacation, we recommend taking the Mixology Class at the Bacardí Rum Factory. Take the ferry to Cataño from Old San Juan (Park at Doña Fela) for a spectacular experience. https://www.bacardi.com/casa-bacardi/tickets/
Mixology class
Another rum option is to take the tasting tour at Ron Barrilito, the original Puerto Rican rum. https://rondelbarrilito.com/
These are splurges, about $80 each. Both are worth it!
If you want to hike in El Yunque, the rain forest, you need to buy your tickets in advance on the first day of the month, from the US National Park Service website. They get snapped up fast. However, the site doesn’t work well, so be prepared for Plan B. If you fail, which is likely, you can always book a guided tour.
Afterward, relax at Balneario (Public Beach) Luquillo (closed Monday and Tuesday). Again, free entry, $4 parking, bathrooms, gentle surf, and golden sand. (Note that this is NOT the beach behind the Kioskos. That one is also called Luquillo, NOT Balneario Luquillo, and is interesting, but with a gritty locals vibe. Be prepared to encounter lots of trash) https://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/balneario-monserrate-luquillo/
Drink a passion fruit mojito! Try red snapper (chillo) with criollo sauce!
This is a passion fruit mojito
If you’ll have a car and are willing to explore a little, visit the Pork Highway, a coffee plantation, or Gozalandia Falls. If you have more time, come to our lovely southwest corner of the island, Cabo Rojo, which has clear, calm beaches facing the gentle turquoise waters of the Mona Passage. It’s 2 and 1/2 hours from San Juan.
Our Favorite Tour Guides
If you want someone with energy, knowledge, and enthusiasm to create a tour for you and show you the island, consider Rosario and Chan’s Adventures. Julio and Chan are fantastic! Tell them Bob and Lisa sent you! https://m.facebook.com/100082685624263/
More Great Sources of Info
Discoverpuertorico.com
Puertoricodaytrips.com
Messysuitcase.com
Youtube.com/messysuitcase
This should get you started. Enjoy this wonderful island!
After a tumultuous 2022 that was disrupted by health setbacks, we are finally here in Puerto Rico, our new winter home, three short blocks from Playa Ostiones, and looking forward to a healthy and adventurous 2023.
We currently have a full house with two kids and two cats sharing our space in Casita Fortaleza.
We love our rooftop
Happy New Year and Feliz Año Nuevo from Messy Suitcase!
