Hi all. This is my first trip report so sorry if it isn’t following proper formatting etc.
Just some basics first about why my wife and I chose PR: we wanted a vacation without the kids that would involve relaxation, adventures in nature, and isolation from crowds/tourists/etc. While we’d love a vacation with restaurant options, it was more important to us the above as a priority on this trip. At the same time, however, we knew we didn’t want to make and freeze our own meals (although we can manage easy breakfasts and lunches). PR came up as an excellent option since Chabad of PR has a service of providing takeout meals which are simple, delicious, and generous portions.
We visited PR in mid-July which was perfect for us since most of the kids are in overnight camp and it isn’t officially the ‘best’ time to visit PR (hence- less crowds).
As for accommodations, it was important to us to be near Chabad so that picking up food would be convenient. However, we chose to spend 2 nights at an Airbnb that featured a private pool (
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/637592170258375545) and the second 2 nights at the newly opened Residence Inn in Isla Verde.
Day 1 – Travel DayAt 7:55am sharp, I logged into
www.recreation.gov to be ready to snatch the limited reserved tickets to enter El Yunque National Park (they only release most of the tickets 24hrs in advance and they sell out within minutes). I got our entry ticket at exactly 8am and was surprised to see that it took an entire 10min to sell out!
Next preparation was to place an order to pick up our takeout food from Chabad of Puerto Rico from their website. Their cutoff time for pickup is 6pm but we messaged saying we’d be a bit later and got confirmation that it would be ok.
We took a JetBlue flight to SJU and the flight was on time and smooth sailing, BH. Loved the enthusiasm from the PR natives who clapped and cheered exuberantly upon landing! As soon as we arrived, we walked over to the car rental booth to pick up our reserved rental car. We headed straight to Chabad to pick up our food order. We then headed to our nearby Airbnb located in a gated community in Isla Verde, 10min from Chabad.
The food from Chabad was delicious and the amount of food was very generous. Meals were packaged in aluminum trays along with utensils. It would have been nice for there to be pictures of the meals posted on the website. We took some pictures of the food we ordered but the pictures didn’t come out nearly as great as the food so I’ll skip posting those pics so as not to discourage anyone 😊.
Day 2 – El Yunque National Park
Early morning walk to beach from Airbnb
We left our Airbnb at 7:30am to arrive in El Yunque at 8:30am, before any crowds were there. We wanted to do a moderate hiking trail so we chose to drive to the end of road (where it is closed off due to Hurricane Maria damage) and parked by the trailhead for El Yunque Trail. There are a lot of trail closures and most up to date info is posted on the official El Yunque app. We hiked into the rainforest along this trail until it met up with the Mt. Britton Spur Trail which brought us to the Mt. Britton Tower. Views were absolutely spectacular. Being in a rainforest was magical and we were lucky to have the trail to ourselves until nearly the end of the hike. It’s advisable to wear hiking boots and be prepared for rain (although it didn’t rain at all while we were there).
Britton Tower as seen from the parking area
After getting back to the car, we debated whether to change into bathing suits to enjoy the scenic and warm waterfall pools (tznius of other people was a concern to us). We decided to check out the Juan Diego Falls and discovered that the trail to the falls had many opportunities to veer off trail and snatch a semi-private pool along the river. Glad we did it! What a sensational experience…
Where we hung out
On our way out, we stopped by the Portal to El Yunque Visitor’s Center. The center is newly renovated and we found extremely fascinating and educational about El Yunque and Puerto Rico in general. It’s also an opportunity to see the famous Puerto Rican parrots which are endangered and only 13 of them exist on the island.
Day 3 – Snorkeling in IcacosThere are many snorkeling options in Puerto Rico. At first, we were thinking to do a full day trip to Culebra. However, we wanted to also maintain our objective of relaxation on this trip and we felt that spending 2hrs of driving to/from Fajardo + 2hrs of shuttling via boat to Culebra, was too much for us. So, instead, we booked an afternoon tour with Sail Getaway to the Icacos Islands. The boat was new and the captain was both entertaining and safety conscience. The trip started with a 20min ride to the islands followed by the snorkeling in the coral reefs off the shore. We were given about 45min to snorkel which was a fabulous way to experience the underwater beauty of the Carribean! We saw mostly tropical fish and jellyfish. Afterwards, we were shuttled over to the Icacos island beach to explore/swim/relax. We walked along the shore to find a semi-private nook to sit in the warm turquoise water.
Day 4 – Old San Juan/Playa Colora/Bio KayakingHere was a big day, perhaps too much for one day! We started with driving to Old San Juan and parked in one of the lots just outside the office of tourism. We walked around Old San Juan enjoying the bright colored homes and cobblestone streets. We headed towards the far edge of the village to tour El Morro, a must-see historical attraction.
After some casual shopping on our walk back to the car, we headed to our hotel for lunch and rest. We then headed out to Fajardo to check out a ‘secret’ beach called Playa Colora. The beach is accessed via Seven Seas Beach which has its own parking lot and restrooms. This website was helpful to describe how to get to the Playa Colora beach
https://wanderinghartz.com/travel/exploring-the-hidden-beaches-of-puerto-rico-playa-colora/. We enjoyed hanging out on this secluded and stunning beach.
Trail to Playa Colora
Playa Colora
After heading back to the car, we ate our sandwiches before embarking on our bio kayaking trip which was just minutes away in Las Croabas Park. Although there are many companies that do bio kayaking tours, we chose Yokahu since many others were already fully booked. For those who aren’t aware, the bio kayaking tours (in Fajardo) entails kayaking at sunset for about an hour through a narrow channel under mangroves to reach the Laguna Grande where there are luminescent plankton that illuminate at night. It is a sensational experience, both the mangroves and the luminescent water. However, be advised that this is physically strenuous! The trip back requires kayaking in pitch blackness along the same narrow channel against the current. We consider ourselves physically fit and exercise regularly but it was still very difficult! I’ll also add that our company launches their kayaks from Croabas instead of Kayak Village. As a result, we had to kayak through ocean currents as well. All said and done, it was a wonderful experience but we were completely zonked by the end of the tour and fought to stay awake for the drive back to San Juan. In retrospect, we should have followed the advice given to us by the tour company- don’t do strenuous activities before the kayaking. Apparently, the walking tour in Old San Juan under full sun really sapped the energy out of us…
on the Laguna Grande after sunset
Day 5 – Ziplining and Return HomeIt was difficult to decide what to do the last day. We debated between the much acclaimed Monster Zipline, various cave adventures, or more local zipline adventures. In the end, we decided to eliminate stress on the same day as travelling and choose the shortest commute- ziplining near El Yunque. We chose Junglequi Ziplining and are glad we made this choice! Their ziplines are situated in a former YMCA camp in the middle of the rainforest among trees and rivers. We really enjoyed the feeling of being in nature and ziplining right over flowing rivers and among trees.
Returning the car and boarding our flight went smoothly, BH.
