Puerto Rico is a hundred miles wide. Plan it as a week of day trips.
Which El Yunque trip actually stops at the waterslide. What a bio-bay kayak costs out of Fajardo. Whether Culebra beats Icacos on your one free day. Reviews of every tour on the island.
The old city, the rainforest, a glowing bay, a boat to an empty cay.
A first week in Puerto Rico hangs off these four. What each costs, and what the travellers who took them say.
01The first morningOld San Juan Walking TourThe blue cobblestone streets, the painted facades and the two forts, done on foot before the midday heat.
02The rainforest dayTop Rated El Yunque Rainforest & Waterslide – SmallGroup TourThe national forest and its natural rock waterslide, in a small group rather than a coach.
03The night on the waterBio Bay Kayak Tour in FajardoKayaks through the mangrove channel at Fajardo into water that lights up around the paddle.
04The boat dayIcacos Deserted Island Catamaran, Snorkel, and Picnic CruiseA catamaran out to Icacos, an uninhabited cay off the east coast with nothing on it but sand and reef.
The tours more travellers take than anything else in Puerto Rico.
Every Puerto Rico review →Snorkel trips off the San Juan reefs, the rainforest waterslides, the bay that glows after dark. These carry more people than anything else on the island.
1
San Juan Guided Snorkel With Turtles Tour and Videos
Snorkel from Escambron Beach near San Juan with a guide, tropical fish, sea turtles, gear, instruction, and a GoPro video included.
From · $42
Read our review →
2
Top Rated El Yunque Rainforest & Waterslide – SmallGroup Tour
from $45
3
Half-Day Yunque Rainforest Waterslide & rope swing Guided Tour
from $25
4
El Yunque Rainforest Waterslides and Luquillo Beach w/ Transport
from $49
5
Night Kayak – Condado City Lights Tour
from $75
6
Luquillo Beach Horse Ride from Carabalí Rainforest Adventure Park
from $164
7
Authentic Flavors of San Juan Food Tour
from $165
8
Small-Group El Yunque Rainforest Vivid Day Tour with Transport
from $75
El Yunque is one forest and three completely different days out.
The mountains an hour east of San Juan hold the only tropical rainforest in the United States forest system. What you book decides whether you spend the day on a boardwalk, in a river, or in a harness.
Old San Juan: seven blocks, five centuries, a fort at each end.
Everything in Old San Juan →
The old city is small enough to cross in twenty minutes and dense enough to lose a day in. Blue cobblestones underfoot, painted facades either side, and the Atlantic breaking on the seawall at the end of every street.
- 1Old San Juan Walking Tourfrom $39
- 2Old San Juan City Walking Tourfrom $39
- 3Old San Juan: Segway PT and Segway Xafari Ebike Toursfrom $108
On foot, before the ships dock
Guides take the shaded side of Calle del Cristo, cut through Plaza de Armas and finish on the wall above the bay. Start before eleven, when the cruise ships empty into the same five streets.
Mofongo, pinchos and a rum bar
Through the old city kitchens: plantain pounded in a wooden pilón, pork off a corner grill, and a rum bar at the end of it. Lunch is included more often than the listing admits.
El Morro and San Cristóbal
Two Spanish fortresses guard the headland, six levels of gun deck at El Morro and tunnels under San Cristóbal. The garita on the seawall is the shape Puerto Rico puts on everything.
What a day out in Puerto Rico actually costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what it charges a head. The island prices in dollars and is no cheaper than the mainland, but the old city and the rainforest both come in low.
Old-city walks, salsa classes, the rainforest waterslide trips and a distillery tour across the bay.
The standard full days: guided El Yunque with transport, bio-bay kayaks, snorkel boats off San Juan.
Catamaran charters out to the cays, the Culebra day boats, dive courses and a driver for the day.
The best Puerto Rican day usually starts at a marina in Fajardo.
Catamarans out to the Icacos sandbar, fast boats across to Culebra, reef stops where the green turtles come up for air. Fajardo is an hour from San Juan and a different island once you are on the water.
Puerto Rico has three bioluminescent bays. Most countries have none.
Single-celled plankton flash when the water is disturbed, so a paddle draws a blue line behind the boat. It works best on the dark nights around a new moon, which means the calendar picks this date and not you.
- 1Night Kayak – Condado City Lights Tourfrom $75
- 2Bio Bay Kayak Tour in Fajardofrom $89
- 3Historical San Juan Bay Sunset Sailing Tourfrom $115
San Juan first. Then whichever coast you are willing to drive to.
The old city and the reef off its beaches, the rainforest belt an hour east, the marina town the cays sail from, the surf coast at the far west, two islands off the end, and the limestone country along the north shore.
Three things this island has that the rest of the Caribbean does not.
Beaches and rum run the length of these islands. A bay that lights up, a rainforest inside the United States forest system and a river running through limestone do not.
The bioluminescent bays
Mosquito Bay on Vieques is the brightest bioluminescent bay ever recorded, and Laguna Grande at Fajardo is the one you can reach on a weeknight out of San Juan. Every paddle stroke draws light through the water. Book the nights either side of a new moon: a full moon washes the whole effect out, and the operators will tell you so only after you have paid.
- 1Bio Bay Kayak Tour in Fajardo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,762 reviews
- 2Puerto Rico Bio Bay Kayak Adventure Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,581 reviews
- 3Bio Bay Kayak Tour in Fajardo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,438 reviews
El Yunque National Forest
The only tropical rainforest in the United States forest system covers the mountains an hour east of the capital and takes more than a hundred inches of rain a year. The road is free, the main recreation area runs on timed reservations, and a river up in the trees has a rock chute that has been used as a waterslide for generations.
- 1Top Rated El Yunque Rainforest & Waterslide – SmallGroup Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 12,789 reviews
- 2Half-Day Yunque Rainforest Waterslide & rope swing Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,534 reviews
- 3El Yunque Rainforest Waterslides and Luquillo Beach w/ Transport★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 5,098 reviews
The karst caves of the north
Behind the north coast the limestone is riddled with sinkholes and caverns, and the Río Camuy runs through one of the largest cave systems in the western hemisphere. Cueva Ventana opens as a window in a cliff face over the Río Grande de Arecibo valley. The Tanamá is done on an inner tube, in the dark, with a helmet lamp.
- 1Cave, Waterfall and River Adventure in Charco Azul from San Juan★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,662 reviews
- 2Full-Day Cueva Ventana, Indian Cave and Waterfall Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 603 reviews
- 3Taino Indian Cave, Arecibo Hike and Beach Tour from San Juan★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 364 reviews
Four Puerto Rican days that run on somebody else’s calendar.
Most of this island can be arranged the night before over a beer at the kiosks. These four cannot. They run on the moon, on ferry slots, on a federal reservation system and on how much rain fell upstream.
- 01Bio Bay Kayak Tour in FajardoThe glow is at its strongest on the dark nights around a new moon, and those dates sell out first.
- 02Culebra Snorkeling Tour by Catamaran from FajardoCulebra is reached by ferry or a nine-seat plane. Both run to a fixed timetable with a hard limit on seats.
- 03Top Rated El Yunque Rainforest & Waterslide – SmallGroup TourThe main recreation area runs on timed entry reservations, released ahead of the day and gone quickly in high season.
- 04Tanama River Cave TubingCave trips run on group caps and river levels. Heavy rain upstream shuts the tubing with no notice.
It rains on Puerto Rico most afternoons, briefly and hard.
A tropical shower here lasts twenty minutes and then the road steams. It is only a problem if what you booked was a boat. Keep one of these in reserve: they are indoors, underground, or already wet.
By place — coast by coast
San Juan, El Yunque, Fajardo, Culebra, Rincón: the loop most first trips make.
LuquilloThe most recent Puerto Rico tour reviews.
Keep going →
Old San Juan: San Cristobal Castle and Old Town Walking Tour
Read our review →
Explore Indigenous Roots, Experience a day in the life of a Taíno
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El Yunque Rainforest, Waterslides & Beach Tour from San Juan
Read our review →
Half-Day Private Boat Experience – Appetizers & Drinks Included
Read our review →
El Yunque Rainforest- Water Slide, Luquillo Beach Guided Tour
Read our review →
Authentic El Yunque Rainforest Adventure — Waterfalls & Slides
Read our review →
San Juan Surfing Lessons: Ride the Waves in Puerto Rico
Read our review →
El Yunque Rainforest Tour with Waterslides and Beach
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