PUERTO RICO Travel Guide 🇵🇷 The Best Caribbean Destination

Puerto Rico is an island that makes a traveler's heart beat faster. While not yet overcrowded with tourists in many places, the beautiful Caribbean landscapes attract with countless highlights. We'll focus on the most beautiful ones and give you tips for your next tour through Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States in the Northeastern Caribbean Sea. The main island is roughly rectangular, spanning 40 miles north to south and 110 miles east to west. Puerto Rico consists of the main island, Vieques, Culebra, and some smaller islands. Mountains dominate 60% of Puerto Rico, with the La Cordillera Central Range running east to west across the island. These mountains generously give rise to about 50 rivers, graciously tumbling their way to the northern and southern shores. The Taino people have inhabited the island of Puerto Rico since around 1200 and their presence continues today. They originally named the island Borican, which some historians interpret as Island of Crabs or Land of the Brave. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1493, he declared the island a Spanish colony, naming it San Juan Bautista in honor of John the Baptist, a Christian prophet. In 1508, the island's first governor, Juan Ponce de León, decided to simplify things by renaming it Puerto Rico, meaning Rich Port in Spanish, presumably due to the abundance of gold and treasures flowing through the island on their way to Europe. During this period, slave traders forced African people to the island to construct forts and labor on plantations. After Spain's less than stellar performance in the Spanish-American War in 1898, Puerto Rico came under United States control. In 1917, the island became a U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship through the Jones-Shafroth Act signed by President Woodrow Wilson. Though Puerto Rico is not a U.S. state, its residents use the U.S. dollar and have access to services like the U.S. Postal Service. U.S. citizens, including Puerto Ricans, do not need passports to travel between Puerto Rico and the mainland United States. San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, is the oldest European-founded city in the Americas and the center of Puerto Rico's history and culture. The city has a population of 350,000 residents. It's a remarkable blend of the old and new worlds, but also a center for more contemporary activities like dining, shopping, and nightlife. Old San Juan is the famous historic part of the city. It is notable for its recognizable cobblestone streets. The blue-colored stones were transported from Spain in ship ballast. You may see some of the best examples of Spanish colonial architecture by walking through these streets. The San Juan Bautista Cathedral is located in the center of Old San Juan. Dating back to 1521, it's among the city's oldest buildings. Puerto Rico's only UNESCO World Heritage Site is the La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site. Here, a number of defensive fortifications were built between 1400 and 1900 in order to safeguard the city and the Bay of San Juan. They are an impressive example of European military design modified for American harbor locations. The site includes bastions, powder houses, three-quarters of the city wall around San Juan, and of course, the famous forts San Cristobal, San Felipe del Morro, and San Juan de la Cruz. Santursa is the center of San Juan's culture. There are a lot of theaters, music venues, and art galleries here. The neighborhood is lively almost non-stop. Restaurants take over and start serving breakfast to early risers once the last of the late-night clubs and bars close, some of them even at sunrise. If you're seeking a classic beach vacation experience, go for the Isla Verde area. It is popular for its shopping centers, beach bars, and hotel strips. Hato Rey is the business district, and it is home to the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, the Hiram Bithorn Stadium, and the largest shopping center in the Caribbean, the Plaza Las Americas. Before we continue, please consider hitting the like button to support our channel and help this video reach a wider audience. Now, let's talk about the downsides of Puerto Rico. Similar to some other Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico has its fair share of crime and gang activity, understandably leading to some safety concerns. Theft is a real issue, predominantly involving pickpocketing and purse-snatching, fueled by the island's pronounced economic inequality. Weather is also a concern. Hurricane Fiona visited Puerto Rico in September 2022, bringing over 30 inches of rain, causing floods and mudslides, and once again disrupting the power grid. Despite these inconveniences, tourism remains largely unaffected. Airports are operational, cruise traffic is normal, and everyone on the island has power. Puerto Rico is still one of the safest Caribbean islands, with a lower crime rate than many cities on the U.S. mainland. So, maybe you should cancel your long-awaited Detroit vacation and visit San Juan instead. Often called Surfing Town and Little Malibu, Rincon is known to Puerto Ricans as a gringo paradise. The area predominantly speaks English, thanks to the many foreign surfers and expats who came here to live out their beachside fantasies. Rincon gained fame as a surfing hotspot after the 1968 World Surfing Championships, when images of its impressive 15-foot waves were broadcast globally. In winter, surfers can be seen here riding huge waves. Not into surfing? You'll find plenty of beautiful beaches ideal for swimming just south of the town. This relaxed beach town becomes a popular destination for locals on vacation in the summer when the water calms down and they enjoy its uncommercialized atmosphere. It's simple to pass the time by taking a whale-watching trip, visiting galleries and gift stores, seeing the 100-year-old lighthouse, or dining on the regional fair. It can seem unusual to want to jump on a boat and visit another beach given the wide range of perfect beaches on the mainland, but don't allow that kind of thinking stop you from doing one of the top things in Puerto Rico. Cayo Hicacos is roughly a 20 to 30-minute boat ride from Fajardo, a little town at the northeast end of the island and is famous for its amazing beach. Being a part of La Cordillera Nature Reserve, Cayo Hicacos is as close to a desolate island as it can get. There is really no development or human influence here. Most tourists go on a tour aboard a big catamaran that comes with transportation, food and refreshments. This excursion departs daily at 9am and returns at 4pm, stopping along Route to Snorkel at an offshore coral. Since there are no facilities on the island, you'll have to bring your own food, water and equipment. Spanish for the anvil, El Yunque is a magnificent promontory with a flat summit in the northeastern part of the island. It's been an icon since the pre-Columbian times and rises high over rivers and streams below. Scientists claim that El Yunque should be covered in vegetation and eroding quickly due to Puerto Rico's humid tropical climate. However, it isn't. Blown by the trade winds, storms regularly strike the region. Rain falls here three times a day on average. Over 14 feet of rain falls annually. Rainwater rushes through rivers and rivulets in the Luquillo watershed after cascading down the headland of El Yunque. The El Yunque National Forest, the only tropical rainforest in the United States, attracts over half a million tourists every year. A main highlight are the waterfalls. La Mina Falls is the ideal place for a cool swim. You should park the car and take a hike into the jungle to experience El Yunque's beauty. The popular El Yunque Trail is roughly 2.5 miles long in each direction. Sounds short, right? But don't be fooled, it's a pretty difficult and steep climb. The second largest city in Puerto Rico is Ponce, also known as La Perla del Sur or the Pearl of the South. It sits on the southern coast of the island. Ponce was founded in 1692, and its museums and colonial buildings are legacies of the time when it served as Spain's capital for the southern part of the island. The 130,000 locals extend a warm and thankful welcome to visitors. La Guancha, Ponce's boardwalk with views of the Caribbean, is a nice spot to visit the stands serving local food. The iconic, wood-framed, red-and-black striped Parque de Bombas was the island's first fire station, built in 1882. It is now a museum dedicated to remembering Ponce's firemen. The far more recently built cathedral and the city hall are two other noteworthy buildings. The free trolley service is a fantastic choice if you're short on time and want to see as much of Ponce as you can. You can get on and off the trolleys at any time as they stop all throughout the city. Placed about 7 miles off the east coast of Puerto Rico lies Vieques, one of the offshore island municipalities. It's one of the few places that genuinely resembles the Caribbean of the past. The military of the United States acquired 60% of Vieques' land during the 1940s. Due to the lack of work opportunities, a large number of the inhabitants were compelled to emigrate to Puerto Rico and St. Croix in search of a place to call home. Today, Vieques is serene, lush, and uncrowded. With dozens of undiscovered beach coves and Mosquito Bay, the world's brightest bioluminescent bay, Vieques is the real definition of tropical happiness. Another attraction here are the wild horses. They roam the island freely and are descended from early European settlers. Many tourists and Puerto Ricans travel by ferry to Vieques as an affordable and enjoyable day trip. We can recommend you to fly to Vieques during holiday weekends in order to prevent disappointment, long queues, and the possibility of not being able to board the boat at all. The small island of Culebra lies east of Puerto Rico's main island. On his second voyage in 1493, Columbus is said to have found this island north of Vieques. After the Spanish began to colonize the Puerto Rican mainland, the Taino Indians, the first recorded inhabitants, sought shelter on Culebra. Culebra's arid climate, which receives barely 35 inches of rain annually, is arguably its most notable attribute. There is always some sunshine here. Flamenco Beach, known for its flamingo sightings in the winter, takes its name from the nearby lagoon. You can visit this beach during the week to avoid the crowds on weekends and holidays. It's surrounded by low scrub and trees instead of tall palms. Many visitors come here as day trips from San Juan. The beach is the only one on Culebra with all the facilities. It is simple to see why pirates enjoyed hiding out on Culebra's rugged coastline with its caves and hidden coves. The island has copious amounts of diving opportunities, which more than offset its lack of entertainment alternatives. Around the island, there are supposedly 50 dive sites. The majority of them are found around the caves and on the island's periphery reef. Covering the towns of Kamui, Hatilo, and Lares, the Rio Kamui Cave Park is found in the northwest of Puerto Rico. The Cabrada neighborhood of Kamui is home to the park's main entry. Formed by the Rio Kamui, the world's third largest underground river, the caverns are part of an enormous network of naturally occurring limestone caves and underground streams. According to archaeological findings, the island's native population first explored the cave system hundreds of years ago before it was formally discovered in 1958. The Kamui Cave System has been documented to have almost 10 kilometers of caverns, 220 caves, and 17 entrances. Still, this is a small portion of the system. Many experts estimate that there are 800 more caverns in all. Reservations are necessary, and the complex is only partially accessible to the public. We hope you liked our journey to Puerto Rico. What place should we visit next? Tell us your ideas in the comments below. If you loved this video, please hit the like button and subscribe to World Travel Guide to help our channel grow.