A walled city, a rainforest and a bay that lights up. All within an hour’s drive.
Which El Yunque trip actually reaches the waterslides. What the Culebra catamaran costs once the ferry is off the table. Whether the Fajardo lagoon or Vieques is worth the late night. Reviews of every tour you can book in Puerto Rico.
The rainforest, the old city, a glowing lagoon and the boat to Culebra.
Four bookings a first week on the island hangs off. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The forest morningSmall-Group El Yunque Rainforest Vivid Day Tour with TransportSmall group, transport from San Juan, and out of the trees before the cloud comes over the peaks.
02The old cityOld San Juan Walking TourTwo hours on the blue cobbles, the forts, the cathedral and the stories behind the door knockers.
03The night paddleBio Bay Kayak Tour in FajardoKayaks through a mangrove channel into Laguna Grande, where every stroke lights up the water.
04The island dayCulebra Snorkeling Tour by Catamaran from FajardoA catamaran from Fajardo across to Culebra, snorkel stops on the way and Flamenco at the end.
The reef is fifteen minutes offshore. Pick your hull.
Turtles graze the seagrass off Escambrón within sight of the city wall, catamarans run to a sandbar island nobody lives on, and the mangrove channels out east are flat enough to paddle at night. Four kinds of day on the water, and what it costs to get on each one.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · San Juan Guided Snorkel With Turtles Tour and Videos
Snorkelling tripsReef and turtle stops, gear aboard, a ladder off the stern.
Deserted-island sailsA catamaran out to a sandbar, lunch and a long anchor stop.
Kayak tripsMangrove channels and lagoon paddles at your own pace.
Dive daysFirst dives off the city beaches, full trips for the certified.
All 70 days on the water →
San Juan first, then whichever direction the road takes you.
A walled capital on the north shore, a rainforest an hour east of it, the marina town the boats leave from, two offshore islands and a surf coast at the far west. Six starting points, and the best day out from each.
El Yunque makes its own weather. Go in the morning.
All the El Yunque trips →
Twenty-eight thousand acres of cloud forest an hour east of the capital, the only tropical rainforest the US Forest Service looks after. Mornings are clear and the pools are cold; by early afternoon the cloud has come over the peaks and the trails are running water. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the forest.
La Mina, La Coca and the tower
The main corridor runs on timed vehicle reservations, which is why so many of these come with transport: somebody else holds the slot. Bring shoes you can swim in and expect the pools to be genuinely cold.
Natural waterslides and a rope swing
Water has polished whole sections of bedrock smooth, and the guides know which ones you can sit down on. This is the cheapest serious day out on the island and the one people come back talking about.
Ziplines over the forest floor
Cables run from platform to platform across the valleys on the forest edge, so you get the canopy from above rather than from under it. Operators post minimum and maximum weights; read them before you book a family on.
The days out more people take than anything else here.
Every Puerto Rico review →The tours that fill first on this island, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
San Juan Guided Snorkel With Turtles Tour and Videos
Meet your guide at Escambrón Beach for a shore-entry snorkel in warm Caribbean water. You’ll get gear, a safety lesson, and help from guides such as Lily, Jill, or Rey, then look for turtles, rays, coral, and reef fish. The 1 to 1.5-hour trip suits beginners and includes a GoPro video.
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
Three bays light up here. The moon decides how much.
Single-celled dinoflagellates flash when the water round them moves, and in three sheltered Puerto Rican bays they sit thick enough to read by. Mosquito Bay on Vieques is the brightest measured anywhere. Laguna Grande at Fajardo is the one you can reach on a weeknight. Go on the dark nights either side of a new moon and skip the week the moon is full.
Old San Juan is seven blocks wide and five centuries deep.
The cobbles are blue because they came over as ship ballast and got laid where they landed. Two forts hold the headland, the cats on the wall have their own charity, and the whole thing is small enough to walk before lunch. Cruise mornings are the crowded ones.
Every Old San Juan walk →
What a day out on this island actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A surprising number of the best Puerto Rican days come in under the cost of dinner.
Old-town walks, fort entries, the forest waterslide runs and the dance classes.
The full-day standards: bio bay kayaks, reef boats, ziplines and the cave rivers.
The catamaran crossings to Culebra, private drivers and the once-a-trip charters.
Culebra, Vieques and a sandbar nobody lives on.
Two inhabited islands sit off the eastern end, plus Icacos, which is a sandbar with palms and a reef. Culebra has Flamenco, the beach every list puts in its top ten. Vieques has wild horses and the bright bay. Getting across is the whole planning problem, which is why the catamaran days out of Fajardo exist.
- 1Culebra Snorkeling Tour by Catamaran from Fajardofrom $180
- 2All Inclusive Snorkel and Slide Boat Tour: Icacos or Viequesfrom $135
- 3Icacos Deserted Island Catamaran, Snorkel, and Picnic Cruisefrom $138
Three days out the rest of the Caribbean cannot sell you.
Warm water and colonial streets exist all round the Caribbean. A bay you can read by, a rainforest with a federal ranger station and the largest premium rum distillery on earth do not.
Mosquito Bay
A narrow mouth keeps the water in and the nutrients high, so the dinoflagellates in Mosquito Bay reach concentrations recorded nowhere else. Paddle it on a moonless night and the blade of the paddle draws a line of cold light, fish leave streaks, and a hand through the surface comes up glittering. Swimming is not allowed any more, and that is why it is still this bright.
- 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
This is the only tropical rainforest in the United States forest system, and it behaves like one: two hundred inches of rain a year, cloud sitting on the ridge by mid-afternoon, and tree frogs that are louder than the traffic. The main road runs on timed vehicle reservations, so the practical way in is a tour that already holds a slot.
- 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 rum cathedral
The Bacardi plant at Cataño is the largest premium rum distillery in the world, and the ferry across San Juan Bay costs less than a coffee. The tours split between the history side and a mixology bench where you build your own daiquiri. Either way you leave knowing why the island claims the piña colada.
- 1Mixology Class at Casa BACARDÍ in Puerto Rico★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,469 reviews
- 2Rum Tasting Tour at Casa BACARDÍ in Puerto Rico★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,095 reviews
- 3Legacy Tour at Casa BACARDÍ in Puerto Rico★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 737 reviews
Four Puerto Rican bookings that will not wait.
Most of this island can be arranged the night before over a plate of mofongo. These four run on federal reservations, lunar calendars and boat timetables that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Top Rated El Yunque Rainforest & Waterslide – SmallGroup TourThe main forest road runs on timed vehicle reservations with a daily cap. In high season the slots are gone well before the week you want.
- 02Bio Bay Kayak Tour in FajardoThe glow tracks the moon. The dark nights either side of a new moon go first, and nobody adds extra boats to a bright week.
- 03Culebra Snorkeling Tour by Catamaran from FajardoCrossing is the bottleneck, not the beach. The catamaran days out of Fajardo fill long before Flamenco does.
- 04Old San Juan Walking TourCruise mornings put several thousand people inside seven blocks. The small-group walks that avoid them are the ones that sell out.
The cloud comes over the Sierra most afternoons. Plan the second half under a roof.
Rain here is a scheduling fact, not a ruined day. The forest clouds over by early afternoon and the north coast gets its share too. Do the wet, green things in the morning, then go somewhere a roof is part of the point: a distillery across the bay, five hundred years of vaulted brick inside a fort, a kitchen, a drum and a dance floor.
By where you set out from
San Juan, the forest, the lagoon, the island: the week almost everybody does first.
El YunqueJust reviewed on the island.
More new Puerto Rico reviews →
CLEAR BOTTOM KAYAKS Tour in Bioluminescent, Mosquito Bay
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Private Tour of the White Canyon Ancestral Route in Utuado
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Window Cave and Indian Cave private tour with an archaeologist as guide
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“Unique Tour” Loiza, Cultue, Art & Bomba Dance Class on The Beach
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Private Wellness Tour of Puerto Rico Waterfalls and Hot Springs
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El Yunque Rainforest- Water Slide, Luquillo Beach Guided Tour
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Authentic San Juan Guided Walking Food Tour with Pina Colada
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USDA El Yunque National Forest and Luquillo Beach Tour
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Tropical Rainforest Wonders Full Day Experience from San Juan
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Private Transportation from San Juan to Dorado or VIceversa Puerto Rico SJU
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