10 days in Puerto Rico

Getting to Puerto Rico

Gilligan's Island, Guanica

First and foremost, how much does it cost to travel to Puerto Rico? Prices vary on the distance traveled and the season (high season, low season). Most people that travel to Puerto Rico travel during Holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, Spring Break and/or Summer. These are what we call the high seasons. During the Christmas, flights leaving from the Miami (MIA) can be found as low as $350 USD round trip. In other major airports like New York (JFK) or Chicago (ORD), we have found tickets as low as $450 USD round trip. These prices are from major airports. Normally when flying out of a non major airport, for example, Pennsylvania(ERI), be ready to pay $700 USD or more. If you really want to visit Puerto Rico during high season, try to fly out from a major airport and save some money.

No one wants to stay at school or at home for their Spring Break. Usually Spring Break flights to Puerto Rico will be around the same price as high season tickets, it can get cheaper if you do your search right and book your flight months in advance. The average flight cost on spring break will be $450 USD round trip. For summer vacations, everyone wants to travel. To get the cheapest flights, try to arrange your vacations for either the first two weeks of May or end of summer. This year we flew to Puerto Rico with Southwest Airlines on July 31st until August 10th for $380 USD round trip. Usually we fly with Southwest, but flights can be cheaper with other airlines like Frontier Airlines or Spirit Airlines.

The low season are pretty much any other time, except any other holiday not mentioned (Labor Day Weekend, Thanksgiving, New Years, etc.). Flights from Chicago (ORD) to Puerto Rico (SJU) in the middle of October go for $225 USD round trip and this will typically be the average price from any major airport to Puerto Rico during the low season.

If you are coming in from Europe, some airlines like Iberia and Lufthansa offer direct flights to Puerto Rico, but at a pretty high price. If you are flying to Puerto Rico from Europe and coming in through the US, your best bet will be to fly into any airport in New York, Chicago (ORD), Atlanta (ATL) and almost any of the airports in Florida.

How much time does one need to visit Puerto Rico?

If the trip is going to be focused on a specific area, for example the northern parts of Puerto Rico, 7 to 10 days should be enough. But if the goal is to visit and/or stay around the island, more than 10 days will be necessary. The length of your stay may vary depending on your interests as well.

When in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory which means that the currency is USD. Exchange currency if needed at the airport. Public transportation in Puerto Rico is not efficient, we recommend renting a car - any car you can afford will be fine, a 4x4 is not necessary. Puerto Rico is a small island – traveling by car from east to west takes about two hours and using the GPS you can get anywhere. The most popular area to visit would be Old San Juan where you can find most of the local businesses, arts and crafts. Here, one can visit places such as El Morro, El Castillo San Cristobal, El Parque de las Palomas, Cuartel de Ballaja, and La Fortalza. You will have a variety of restaurants offering the best of the local food, as well as stores where you can buy souvenirs.

What to do in PR

The information provided below is based on where we have stayed, visited and explored during our last visit to Puerto Rico. Depending on the region you decide to visit, you will find many beaches, restaurants, and various other activities.

East

Beaches we visit a lot on this side of Puerto Rico are the Balneario at Luquillo, La Pared at Luquillo and Seven Seas at Fajardo. Other beaches one can visit are at Culebra. Culebra is a small island that is part of Puerto Rico, and it is accessible through Fajardo. The most popular way to travel to Culebra is by water transportation such as a public ferry. In Culebra, you will find beautiful beaches such as Flamenco Beach, as well as places to stay. The island is so small, one can rent a golf cart to get around, however, other vehicles are available to rent. Other than going to the beaches, you can also snorkel in the Natural Reserve.

The only rainforest in the National Forest System is located in Rio Grande, and it’s called El Yunque. El Yunque is great for people who like to hike and bathe in rivers. Remember to check the weather before heading to El Yunque – it is not recommended to go if its raining heavily. (Fun fact about El Yunque: it is one of the Seven Wonders of the World!)

Places to eat

When in Puerto Rico,it is a must to try the street food. In Los Kioskos de Luqillo one can find a variety of local street food and enjoy it near the beach. This place has about 58 kiosks, all with their own number, offering food, souvenirs, drinks and music. A lot of street food stores only accept cash, so remember to withdraw some money beforehand since there is no ATM near to do so. One of our favorite kiosks at Luquillo is called Antojitos (Kiosk #23). Their prices on food range from $1.00 to $4.00. The Mojito Lab has the best mojitos in this area. This kiosk is fairly new and does not have a number but you can find it behind two other kiosk, so keep a lookout for it. They offer 32oz mojitos for $10.00 and they have a variety of flavors. Other than street food, there is a restaurant in Rio Grande we recommend visiting that is great for trying traditional local food, its called Don Pepe.

Places to stay

As for vacancies on the east coast, we recommend any Airbnb that you can get near Luquillo. By staying at Luquillo, you will be centered near El Yunque, the kiosks and the beaches. We stayed at Rio Grande which is really close to Luquillo. We also stayed at a local ranch that was turned into a Bed and Breakfast, located in the mountings of Rio Grande in between El Yunque’s entrances. The place is called Hacienda Siesta Alegre. It offers incredible views to the rainforest, as well as an out of this world breakfast made with their own harvest and amazing service.

South

Where we usually go to bathe on the South of Puerto Rico is at Playa Rosada ( Pink Beach) at Lajas. This beach has a boardwalk over the water that leads to a natural pool that is great for pictures. There is a bioluminescent bay at Lajas that you can go to by ferry or by renting a kayak.

There is also Ponce, where you’ll find El Parque de Bombas, a historic fire station in the center of town. In addition, there are a lot of stores where one can buy souvenirs and a local ice cream shop. The Art Museum is located in Ponce if you are interested in looking at some of Puerto Rico’s art history. Ponce also offers water transportation to another Puertorrican island, Caja de Muerto where one can enjoy Pelicano Beach.

Places to Eat

La Via del Chicharron, Salinas

Near Playa Rosada there is a place called La Parguera which offers a variety of kiosks and restaurants with street food, traditional local food and pina coladas. At Ponce, one can find La Guancha. La Guancha is a boardwalk on the south coast that counts with puertorrican chinchorros (kiosks or small store that sale mostly street food) and other small shops. If you happen to be closer to the east side La Casa de los Pastelillos in Guayama is without any doubt a spot to visit. They offer some of the largest pastelillos on the island made with any ingredient of preference - they have a long list of ingredients. Even though all of these places are good to visit and eat, our favorite spot go to is La Via de Chicharron in Salinas. La via del Chicharron will be your typical Puertorrican chincharro at its best. This restaurant is known for their huge amounts of tasty Puerto Rican street food. A medium plate (shown on the image below) will go for $26.00. Based on their menu, this plate feeds four to six people (we were a party of 5 and we had leftovers). The biggest size they have is an XXL plate which can feed an entire party.

Places to visit

There is a Sunflower field in Guanica with an entrance fee of $1.00 per person. Yaucromatic at Yauco is a very colorful part of town. Yaucromatic is an area where the buildings have been painted in different colors and local artists have painted beautiful murals. It is worth to take a walk through this town’s streets. From Guanica, one can take a ferry to another Puertorrican island called Cayo Aurora, also known as Gilligan’s Island. It is a really small island, so small that it looks like a private beach.

West

This is our favorite region of Puerto Rico. When one searches Puertorrican beaches on Instagram, most likely what will pop up are beaches from the west side of the island. The west side includes the following popular cities: Cabo Rojo, San German, Mayaguez, Rincon, and Aguadilla.

Places to Visit

For many the only interest here on the west side are the beaches. In Cabo Rojo some of our favorite beaches to visit are Buye Beach, Playa Sucia and El Balneario at Boqueron. For the most part all of these beaches will offer clear salt water. Playa Sucia though, has a cliff nearby with rock bridges and it is popular for taking pictures. As for nightlife in Cabo Rojo, you can head down to el Poblado de Boqueron where you can find bars, enjoy delicious food in any of the restaurants, music and karaoke.

Rincon is very popular for people who like to surf. They have some of the best beaches to surf, in fact many surf tournaments occur at Rincon. Sandy Beach and Domes Beach are our recommendations for surfing, though Sandy beach can still be enjoyed visiting without the intention of surfing.

Aguadilla has nice calm beaches. The most popular is Crash Boat Beach. Crash Boat Beach is the most popular beach in Aguadilla, and it has a lot of kiosks where one can buy snacks. What makes this beach unique is the bridge it has over the water which people often use to dive off of. It also has some small boats that have been painted puertorrican themed – painted with the flag for example. One can also find an abandoned B52 airplane in Aguadilla which you can climb into and take photos.

Crashed B52, Aguadilla

Mayaguez is a college campus town. The town is the best place to hang out for young adults - cheap drinks, great music, good vibes.

In Cabo Rojo there is a National Salt Refuge where one can go and look at from a tree house as well as walk through the high concentrated salt water. The salt concentration in the water makes it change to color like pink, white and blue.

Salt Refuge, Cabo Rojo

Places to Eat

Don Maceta is a really good place to find traditional food. Don Maceta has a dish called El Maceton which is literally a totem of chicken filled with sweet plantain and bacon topped with cheese. Sasonao’ is another great restaurant in this area with great flavors and traditional food.

North

Places to Visit

The North is where you will find San Juan, which is the most popular tourist area. In Old San Juan one will find a variety of local shops and beautiful landscapes such as El Morro where you can rent a kite or have a picnic. At night there will be a variety of bars with great music everywhere you go - the most popular street is San Sebastian. San Sebastian street is full of bars with different happy hours and great music.

El Morro, Old San Juan

Near Old San Juan you have Condado. At Condado one can kayak and paddle board in the bay. It is also a great place to walk around and it offers a variety of restaurants, shops and a small beach, great to spend the day at.

Isla Verde is another place tourists visit frequently due to the variety of hotels close to the beach. Isla Verde offers a variety of beaches and all of them are great to bathe at. Here is located one of the most famous clubs in this area, Brava. Brava is inside Hotel San Juan – it has a cover of $20.00 per person. Some nights only people 21+ may enter. Near Isla Verde there is a place called Pinones, where one can find other beaches and kiosks with street food.

Santurce is a small town inside the city of San Juan where you can find beautiful murals made by local artists, local stores and great food. At night, what is called La Placita de Santurce turns into a street party, and it is full the entire weekend. We like to go and enjoy some drinks.

If interested, you can enjoy a Rum tasting tour at the Bacardi House located in Catano.

Some of the nicest beaches on the northern area of Puerto Rico can be found in Manati and Arecibo. A few names of beaches are Poza de las Mujeres and Mar Chiquita, which is another beach located in Manati similar to the one in Arecibo. Personally, we like Mar Chiquita better.

The last drive-in in Puerto Rico is located in Arecibo. It is called Drive-In Santa Ana, you only pay about $2.00 per person and the showings begin around 7:00 P.M. While on the road, one can stop at Quebradillas’ viewpoint, Mirador de Guajataca which has a beautiful view of the northern coast.

Mirador Guajataca, Quebradillas

Some other nice experiences that you can do in the island will be Zip-lining through the forests of Puerto Rico and/or experiencing a river tour. There are many companies and places that offer these, so just a simple google search for these activities can get you the perfect experience. Toro Verde is one of the favorite places to zip-line and they offer discounts on their website (this place is located center-east of Puerto Rico).

Places to Eat

Old San Juan is full of restaurants with authentic food. Some of the popular restaurants would be Raices, Barrachina and El Jibarito. If you are looking for authentic authentic food those will be your best choices. Old San Juan has been getting some attention for being a dessert hotspot lately. A place that caught our attention was Rare Candy Creations Ice Cream Shop & Bar. In the street of Old San Juan you will see people with small carts selling local ice cream which are based on local fruits and piraguas which are snow cones or shaved ice-cones of different flavors. Old San Juan is also good for nightlife from Thursdays through Saturdays and the legal drinking age is 18.

Photo by Rare Candy Creations Ice Cream Shop & Bar

Puerto Rico offers many places to visit and many places to be discovered, there is something for everyone to enjoy. We encourage anyone that plans to travel to Puerto Rico to explore it as much as possible. Visit other travel blogs available for more information and pictures.

As always, we hope you got inspired to check Puerto Rico out of your bucket list.