Midwestern winter is longgggg. Even when it’s a relatively ‘easy’ winter, it’s just so gray for so long! That’s why we decided to take an actual spring break this year: Puerto Rico!
Puerto Rico appealed to me because of its beautiful beaches, year-round average temperature of 80 degrees, and no passport/customs needed. When we found nonstop flights from Chicago, we were sold! After researching possible sights and activities, we decided to be ambitious and split our stay across 3 different parts of Puerto Rico. We all agreed that staying in different areas was a big part of the fun!
This is how we split up our 6-night stay: 2 nights in Carolina, 2 nights on the island of Vieques, 2 nights in Rio Grande.
Carolina
The first two nights of our trip were spent in the Carolina region. We knew we’d have a long travel day when we arrived, so we decided to stay close to the airport to start. We picked Carolina because of its close proximity to San Juan and Old San Juan, and we found a rental with the most beauuuuuutiful waterfront view.
- Isla Verde Beach was our first stop! I had read that beaches on the northern side of PR could be pretty rough, so I was apprehensive, but we had a great time! We just stayed close to the shore and enjoyed the waves, sun, and nice, smooth sand.
- Ocean Lab Brewing Co. was a great spot for a chill dinner and beer flight. It’s an interesting location that’s part of a beach club, which is probably really fun during the day if you’re looking for a party in the sun.
- Distrito T-Mobile was our destination the second night. When we arrived, there was live music going on outside, which made it fun to wander around. We decided to give the kiddos what they wanted and spent quite a bit of time at the Toroverde arcade before grabbing a late dinner! Parking was in a paid lot, but it was easy and inexpensive.
- Miramar Food Truck Park – our first time attempting to visiting Old San Juan, I failed, BADLY, in my planning and we could not find a parking spot and got stuck in traffic on tiny roads, so after a while we turned back and happened upon this cool food truck park. My daughter was super excited to order a unicorn ice cream cup, and we tried different trucks for lunch since there was a great variety of options (Greek, Puerto Rican, Asian fusion, etc)
- Old San Juan was a success our second time around, after a friend shared a tip that there was easy parking if I used the Raices restaurant as my destination. Lo and behold, there were parking garages with plenty of availability! We didn’t get to hit all the historical spots in Old San Juan, but we really enjoyed exploring (especially with a cold mojito and then some pops from Señor Paleta !)
- Museo del Niño de Carolina was something I kept in my back pocket in case we had a rainy day. Thankfully, the weather cooperated, so we got to spend lots of time outdoors, but it’s on my list for next time!
Island of Vieques
For the next leg of our adventure, we drove about an hour to Ceiba to catch a ferry to the island of Vieques! When researching PR, I learned that Vieques is the home to the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world, along with some fun and beautiful beaches. Because bio bay tours are at night, Vieques calls for an overnight stay – I’m glad we did, because I really enjoyed this leg of our journey!
- Puerto Rico Ferry – I was led to believe, by the good people of Reddit, that the ferry would have me reaching for a barf bag the whole time. Because of this, I prepared by taking a Dramamine the night before our trip (so I wouldn’t be drowsy day-of). I ended up being fine! There were some moments where it felt pretty bouncy, but we all ended up falling asleep on the 40ish minute trip. We had purchased our tickets for the passenger-only ferry online, so we just had to arrive and wait in line and easily boarded and grabbed seats on the lower level. My only regret is that I hadn’t planned a ride from the ferry to our rental car company, which left us waiting around for a bit.
- Jeep rental – when I researched Vieques, there was some amount of discussion about Jeeps vs golf carts. I ended up renting a Jeep through Avis and am really glad I did – some of the roads were really rough!
- Old Crow Hotel – because Vieques is tiny, the options for lodging are somewhat limited. We were happy with our choice of Old Crow! Our room was spacious and literally steps away from the swimming pool, which is a huge plus when you have water-lovers. The free breakfast was not anything crazy (bagels, toast, coffee, juice), but the view from the breakfast area is incredible. I loved to relax and enjoy the view with my coffee.
- Mango Taphouse is right down the road from Old Crow. We popped in for a quick dinner after we arrived. Friendly staff and fresh, healthy food – perfect stop for us after .
- Caracas Beach was our first beach on Vieques. I LOVED it. It felt like a private beach – tucked away, with soft white sand and fun-to-play-in waves. We had such a good time here.
- Sun Bay Beach was our second beach, since it was highly regarded in many of the reviews I read, but we actually didn’t care for it! There wasn’t a good spot to lay out our towels, we had to walk through bunch of sticks and stuff to even get to the water, and the waves were too rough for us once we got there. Plus, there were many wild horses right nearby, so we had to dodge horse poops too. We made the best of it, though, stopping at the little cafe to have a coconut and some fruit bars.
- Wild horses – oh, right, I forgot to mention: Vieques has a large population of wild horses! They’re everywhere and it’s pretty surreal to see. I read that they were brought over by the conquistadors hundreds of years ago and the population grew and stayed behind.
- Bio Bay Tour – well, this activity was ambitious – LOL. When I booked the tour with Abe’s Snorkeling, I had asked if there was a bathroom to use before the tour and they said yes, but when we showed up at the meeting spot, there was not. Thankfully, my potty-anxious 4 year old was fine for the tour, but that was kind of a weird start.
Anyway, we drove to the meeting spot, where we met our group and received our life vests, then we boarded the vans to get to the bay. Once we arrived, we got into the kayaks (2 people max in each) and began to paddle. Honestly, it was hard on the way out! I learned that it was a ‘challenging night due to the wind’ which made me feel better for sure! Then we stopped and linked all together and listened to the guide give us information about the bay. On the way back in, the wind was to our backs, so the paddling was easy and we got to see the beautiful blue lights in the water in all their glory!
Would I recommend the bio bay tour for a parent with a 4 year old – probably NOT! I think she and I were both pretty scared in the dark water. So a bit of a mom-fail, but we faced our fears! My son (6) seemed fine, though, with his much more confident-kayaker father. - Mar Azul was the other restaurant we tried on the island. We liked our food and it had a really pretty view of the water. But what I remember most is how many roosters we spotted on the way from our parking spot to the Mar Azul – our son really got a kick out of them and, as he said, “liked to kinda hate them.”
- Vieques Air Link – we decided to try a quick plane ride for our return from Vieques to the mainland. We checked in at the airport, paid our overage fees for having too-heavy luggage, then boarded the TINY little six-person plane. The flight took only about 8 minutes once we were up in the air and it was a very pretty view. The kids really liked this experience. Surprisingly, it made me more motion-sick than the ferry did! Now I know to just take the dang Dramamine when trying any new transportation, haha.
Rio Grande
We ended our Puerto Rico adventure in the Rio Grande area! After we tried a hike in the Great Smoky Mountains last fall, we were optimistic that the kids would be open to a hike in El Yunque rainforest.
- Yunque’s Pizza – after the journey of flying back from Vieques, driving to our Airbnb, and checking out the beach and pool, we were TIRED. We were pumped that this place offered delivery so we could stay in and play Uno 🙂 The choripan was tasty too!
- El Yunque National Park – we decided to try the Mount Britton trail. Some reviews made the hike sound easy, while others made it sound tough – we decided to try our luck. We left our Airbnb a bit around 9 and drove to the park. When you pull into the national park, you can choose to go to the visitor center, with bathrooms and information, but it costs money. We opted to skip it and go right to the trail. I would say that the drive from the park entrance to the Mount Britton trailhead took about 20 minutes, so prepare for that!
Once we reached the trail around 10 am, we parked along the road (for free), slathered on sunblock, and made the sure our waterproof backpack had the essentials (water, snack, bandaids, etc). The kids did great on the hike! It was a pretty steady incline, but it was paved and pretty. The trail was pretty narrow, but it wasn’t so crowded that it was a problem to get out of the way of other hikers. We made it to the tower in about 45 minutes (way to go, kiddos!!) and, of course, it was quicker going down. You know your kids – if they’re good listeners and have decent stamina while walking, it’s totally doable, based on my 4 and 6 year old! - Luquillo Kioskos – After the hike, we hit up the Luquillo kioskos. I was excited about this – a row of all different little food places that we could try! It wasn’t quite the experience I had hoped, though, since it was hot, the kids were crabby, and we couldn’t find any kiosks that had the one thing they wanted (ice cream – how weird that we couldn’t find it, huh?). But we did find one that sounded good to everyone, where we had some snacks and could sit indoor to cool down. I def think this is worth trying, we just had bad luck!
- RicoPan II – after we checked out from our Airbnb, we stuffed down our sadness with sandwiches from here (yum yum!)
- Carabali Adventure Park – one silver lining of our delayed fight was that we go to fit in a round of go-karting at the the adventure park, haha. The kids enjoyed the ‘real-life Mario Kart’ and then we wandered a little bit since we could see some animals around before we left.
Overall
Honestly one of my favorite trips so far! Beautiful beaches, warm weather, lots of outdoor activities, and a reason to reach back into my memory and use some of the Spanish I learned in junior high. Our kids loved it too, with our daughter regularly asking if “we can go back to Puerto Rico, but NOT the kayak.” 😂 I get it, girl, I do.
Want to plan your own Puerto Rico adventure? Check out my google map to get you started!
