One week in Puerto Rico
I have to admit, Puerto Rico was never on my bucket list. My preconceptions of the territory were that it paralleled most other Caribbean countries. So why visit another Caribbean island when there are so many regions of the world I have yet to experience? That said, when my brother graciously gifted me a plane ticket to Puerto Rico for Christmas, I began to get excited.
After spending a little over a week on the island, I was genuinely taken a back at how beautiful Puerto Rico is. From the lively colours of Old San Juan, to Vieques crystal-clear blue waters, it is a place I hope to return to some day.
Here is a how my week went, and a few recommendations for how to maximize your time on this beautiful slice of the Caribbean, and hopefully you’ll be as pleasantly surprised as I was.
Day 1
I arrived in San Juan in the late afternoon, meaning we didn’t have much time to explore. By the time we got in to our Airbnb situated in Hato Rey, the sun had already set so I hadn’t yet gotten a feel for where we would be staying for the next week. After settling in and cleaning up, we headed out to TASTY Bar & Lounge for a drink. After a very long (nearly 24-hour journey) to San Juan, I was ready to settle in for the night and unwind before the next busy day.
Day 2
After a quick breakfast, we headed out to visit some of San Juan’s beaches on the West Coast. The drive was a little over 2 hours to the city of Rincon, where we relaxed at Playa Dona Lala for a couple of hours before eating a delicious Puerto Rican meal at Rincon Boricua, just a 10 minute walk from the beach. We then drove East to Cascada Gozalandia, where we visited beautiful waterfalls and swimming holes. While beautiful, the water was freezing. We finished the day off with a nice meal at Kosan, a Chinese restaurant and sushi bar in Condado.
Day 3
We started the morning off at Playa Pinones, near the town of Loiza. After spending a few hours looking through seashells, roasting on the beach, and treading in the waves, we ate lunch at Mi Casita Seafood, one of the many beachside restaurants on this side of the island. After which we headed to Old San Juan to get our first taste of the city. We enjoyed some street food (always take the chance to eat a good arepa), and walked around the colourful streets before heading to Jungle Bar for a late night drink.
Day 4
We started this rainy day off slowly, by running some errands and doing some groceries. Not wanting to waste the whole day, I headed into Old San Juan to do some shopping and enjoy a taste of the city’s coffee scene. If you ever get the chance, pop into Filtrado. I had a wonderful iced pour-over on their back terrace. After watching the sunset near the Castilo, I headed to La Garita in La Perla, where I had my first taste of Mofongo, a local dish consisting of stuffed mashed plantains - I, of course, chose octopus as my filling.
Day 5
The next couple of days were by far the most exciting on the trip. We drove to Ceiba, where we caught a 35 minute ferry to the island of Vieques. After exploring the little towns of Isabela Segunda and of Esperanza, we decided to stay the night. We booked a room at the Blue Horizon Boutique Resort, where we enjoyed the next 24 hours. The ocean-side hotel was complete with a bar, pool, and wild horses; our spontaneous getaway was better than we could have hoped for.
Day 6
Sad to have to check out of our beautiful room with a view, we tried to take advantage of the next and last day in Vieques. We hiked to the Playa Negra Trail, which led us to the beautiful Black Sand Beach. After which we enjoyed refreshments at Playa Negra Fine Foods; if you go, be sure to try their homemade hibiscus iced tea! We ended the afternoon by relaxing on Sun Bay Beach, before taking the ferry back to the mainland of Puerto Rico.
Day 7
We started the morning off by checking out Calle Loiza and the surrounding streets, where we enjoyed brunch at Lela’s Eatery. We spent some time exploring the area on E-Scooters, which can be found street-side nearly everywhere in San Juan. We then headed into Old San Juan for some more exploring. Our first stop was Don Collins, were we tasted a variety of Puerto Rican rum and learned a bit about local coffee, cigars, and alcohol. We explored a few of the bars in the area before watching the sunset from the Castilo and ending the night at Chinchorreando, a bar situated within walking distance of our Airbnb in Hato Rey.
Day 8
For our last day we bought entry tickets to El Yunque National Forest. We hiked about 1 and a half hours up to El Yunque Peak, only to discover that it was closed. Regardless, we enjoyed the view and the variety of palm trees, flowers, and bamboo that we saw along the way. We hiked for nearly 4 hours in total before making our way back to the car and heading back to our apartment to clean up before departing in the morning.
Our time in Puerto Rico felt complete, but that said there are a few things we wanted to do that we never got the chance to check out:
We headed to Vieques primarily for the Bioluminescent Bay, which happened to be closed due to the full moon (when the light from the moon is too bright, it makes it difficult to see the bay’s bioluminescence)
La Plaza del Mercado de Santurce, Distrito T-Mobile, and Lote 23 are all marketplaces that we hoped to check out but never made it to in time.
Cafeteria Mallorca, to taste an acclaimed mallorca with ham and cheese. Though I did get the chance to taste a mallorca with ham and cheese, I never did make it into Old San Juan around breakfast time.
La Factoria, a bar in Old San Juan where the music video for Despacito was supposedly filmed. Though I have no attachment to Justin Bieber or his music videos, the bar was one of the highest rated in the area and had an amazing vibe. We stopped by a few times but could never get a seat.
Lastly, we had been hoping to visit Cabo Rojo. We heard many great things about the municipality and its surrounding beaches but never got the chance to make it.
While we didn’t get a chance do check everything off our bucket list, our trip felt complete. A week in Puerto Rico was a good amount of time for an action-packed week, that still enabled us to relax and have some downtime by the beach. Looking to visit Puerto Rico? My one takeaway: rent a car. Without a car, we’d have been pretty limited to San Juan, and while Uber is cheap, visiting the surrounding regions ended up being the highlights of our trip.