Puerto Rico in 3 days

In December 2022, I decided to travel to Puerto Rico to escape the New York winter, and also to see the world famous bioluminescent bay. I planned a three day budget trip from Dec 15 - Dec 17. I flew into Puerto Rico in the evening of Dec 14, and flew out the morning of Dec 18. Here is a day by day plan of my trip along with special tips and some of the best things to do in Puerto Rico (with pictures).

Day 0 : Flying in to San Juan airport, Puerto Rico

My flight landed at 11 PM in San Juan airport. I was traveling solo and had booked a hostel called 'Mango Mansion' in the Condado area. The cost per night in a 6 bed mixed dorm was about $45/night which included breakfast. It was very easy to find Ubers at that hour at the airport and I found the ubers to very cheap and reliable. It cost about $14 to get to the hostel. I spent the night resting and recharging for the next day of exploration.

For lunch, we headed to a restaurant called Barrachina. This restaurant claims to be the place where the Pina Colada was invented. It costs $8 for the pina colada. The food was pretty awesome and reasonably priced. We spent the afternoon roaming around the beautiful streets of Old San Juan. The streets are paved with cobblestones and the walls are colorful in the Spanish colonial style architecture. Calle Fortalaza is one of the famous streets with a variety of shopping and food options. We also walked around the Paseo de la Princesa (a walk by the ocean) and saw the sculpture at Plaza de la Rogativa. It's also a great place to just sit by the ocean and hear the crashing waves. Old San Juan is a really pretty place to explore just by walking.

Getting from San Juan to Vieques

There are two options to get from San Juan to Vieques. You can take a short 20 min flight whose one way ticket can be around $70 each way if you book months in advance. The far cheaper option is to take the 45 minute ferry which costs $2 each way ($1 extra for luggage). That is a dramatic price difference and I of course took the ferry. You have to take the ferry from the Ceiba ferry terminal. Note that the ferry terminal is about a 1 hour drive from San Juan. Often people rent cars and park at the terminal. I instead took an Uber to the terminal. The uber cost was about $50 each way from San Juan to Ceiba, and I could easily find an Uber. It would be great if you can find people to share the Uber cost. It would be cheaper than renting a car. The Ceiba ferry terminal does have proper restrooms, but for food there is only a vending machine. So carry your snacks. The Vieques side has plenty of restaurants so things get far better there.

Book ferry tickets early: Only a certain percentage of the ferry tickets are sold online and rest are sold at the ticket counter. The tickets sell out fast, so book as early as you can. There are multiple timings to choose from. There is a nice trick if you can't find your desired time for the ferry. You can either take your chances and buy tickets at the ticket counter right before boarding. There could be long lines so get there early. The other option is to buy the ticket for a timing that isn't great for you, and then you can go to the ticket counter and get it exchanged for the ferry timing that you originally wanted. They are happy to do it free of charge if seats are available. If there are no seats, then at least you still have a ticket for Vieques, albeit at a less preferable timing.

I got to the ferry terminal about an hour before boarding. That's what they recommend but you can board even if you arrive 15 min before departure. And after a nice 45 minute ride in an air conditioned ferry (no option to go on the deck), we docked at Vieques. Once you get out of the Vieques ferry terminal, there would be shared taxis waiting for passengers. These are big white vans and charge $10 per person (cash only) to take you anywhere on the island. You just have to stand outside and wait, and they would show up at the ferry terminal. I booked my stay at the Vieques Guesthouse. It was a private room, extremely clean and very conveniently located. 5 stars to the Vieques guesthouse from me. It cost me about $130/night. They offer complimentary beach towels, but other beach stuff can be rented for $10 or so.

I reached my guesthouse around 3 PM and after a 1 hour rest, I headed out. The guesthouse is a 30 minute walk to one of the beaches on my list, Playa Negra (Black sand beach). It is common to rent a car or a golf cart to get around the Vieques island. It costs easily around $70/day. I decided to book this guesthouse as it was 30 min walk to some very nice beaches. So I started my 30 minute walk along the road to Playa Negra. After walking about 20 minutes on the road, you have to take a sandy trail through the woods to get to the very scenic black sand beach. When I went, the beach only had like 5-6 people and looks absolutely stunning. The sand is really black, but I would admit it's not the best beach for swimming. A great one to take pictures though!

I walked back from the beach around sunset and headed to the restaurants in the Esperanza area for a quick dinner. It was soon time to head for kayaking on the bioluminescent bay, called Mosquito bay. Esperanza has plenty of options for a decent dinner for about $20. I had booked the kayaking tour through viator for $60/person. The tour company meets everyone at a certain location and takes them to the biobay in a bus. The meeting point was just a 10 minute walk from my guesthouse, so again no car needed. I reached the spot on time and we were soon off to the bay after signing a waiver. It was a bumpy 15 minute ride through a forest but made very entertaining by our driver and guide.

As we reached the bay, we were loaded onto two person kayaks with a clear bottom. I recommend sitting at the back to be able to see the clear bottom. Under a spectacular starry sky (almost no light pollution here), we began to kayak into the bay. It was an incredible experience to kayak in the Mosquito bay and thankfully there were no mosquitoes, so no bug spray required when I went. Soon you begin noticing that as soon as your paddle hits the water, the water lights up. As we go in deeper, the lights become brighter. Tiny microorganisms in the water light up everytime you touch the water. It was surreal and truly magical. We kayaked for about 20-25 minutes, and then the guide stopped all of us in a group. Our guide then proceeded to tell us about the bay, its protection, answered questions and even gave us a night sky constellation tour with a laser. You will get plenty of time to play with the water and see it light up. If you have a phone camera or in fact, a non movie production level camera, don't bother trying to capture it in pictures or videos. It won't happen. This experience is truly just for the eyes and to keep in your memories. I know only one video on youtube where they managed to capture it somewhat. I have put the link below. A final tip would be to book the kayaking trip at a time when the moon is less than half full, or hasn't risen at the time of your expedition. The darker the skies, the better would be the experience.

Day 3: Early morning beach day at Vieques and back to San Juan

After the amazing biobay, I was tired and walked to my guesthouse for some rest. I had planned an afternoon return to San Juan, which means I can use the morning to explore Vieques. I got up at 7 AM, had some complimentary yogurt, fruits and granola bars to get a start to my day. My first agenda was a 30 minute walk to the beginning of a hiking trail, called Cayo de Tierra. This is a hiking trail in complete contrast to any hiking you may have done. This trail basically makes you climb to the top of a small island and get amazing views of the Vieques island.

After walking about 30 minutes, I arrived at a shore of the Vieques island. From here, there is a small patch of water about 50 m long that you have to cross to get to cayo de tierra. It was just above ankle height for me. Once you cross it, you are technically on a different island. When I went, there was no literally no one on the island, so it was completely deserted.

When you reach this island, bear left and you would need to walk on white stones along the ocean for about 10-15 minutes. As I kept walking, I went past a wrecked sailboat. It all added to the charm of this hike. Soon after passing the boat, you would see a red marked stone. That's the beginning of the trail and so you have to immediately turn right and start going into the bushes. After this, you climb on a proper trail in the woods for about 30 minutes. It's a gentle climb but the trail is full of small harmless hermit crabs. So watch where you step constantly. As you reach near the top, you will see a path going towards your left. It's not well marked and kinda covered with grass, but you can identify it. Walk along this and in a couple minutes, you will be at a cliff enjoying some stunning views of the island from the top. There was literally no one there and I enjoyed some solitude.

Once you climb down and head back to the civilization side, you are pretty close to a very popular beach called Sun bay. A mere 10 minute walk later, you can wash off your sweat and tiredness by taking a dip in the ocean. The sun bay beach is pretty long and you can easily find a spot which isn't crowded. It's great for swimming and also has some bathroom facilities. One can walk 20 minutes further to another great beach called Media Luna beach. I decided however to chill on the sun bay beach only. It was a quiet day and I had a great time in the water.

After the dip in the ocean, I walked back to my guesthouse for 30 min. I had booked a 2:30 PM ferry back to the Ceiba ferry terminal on the main island. The guesthouse had several taxi numbers that I could call for a taxi. At your hotel or guesthouse, you would have to call to book a taxi. After speaking on the phone, the taxi promptly showed up in 5 min and charged $10 cash to take me to the ferry terminal. The ferry took 45 minutes to get to the main island. From the Ceiba ferry terminal, I was able to find a $50 Uber ride in 5 min to get me back to San Juan in an hour.

My trip was almost over now. My last night was booked at the mango mansion hostel, and I had an early morning flight next day back home. I reached my hostel around 4:45 PM, completely exhausted. The last night can be used to further explore some parts of San Juan. I decided to get a $8 Uber to old San Juan to grab dinner at the Cafe el Punto. I had an amazing salmon dish with a Chilean style salad. I did some souvenir shopping and walked the pretty old San Juan streets one last time before taking an Uber ride back to my hostel.

And just like that, my three days in Puerto Rico were over. Although it was a fully packed trip, it still included proper amounts of rest at the end of the day and even some time for shopping. If you are planning a budget adventure to Puerto Rico, I hope you find this itinerary and the tips helpful.