Planning a trip to Vieques island, Puerto Rico

If you have decided to visit the gorgeous Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, then, I would highly recommend including Vieques island in your itinerary.

Vieques is about 8 miles east of Puerto Rico mainland and known for its beautiful beaches, bioluminescent bay and island life.

How to reach there?

There are two ways to reach Vieques – by plane or by ferry. If you prefer air then you can fly from the San Juan (SJU), Isla Grande (SIG) or Ceiba (RVR) airports. The flight will be around 15-30 minutes long depending on which airport you fly from. My recommendation would be to take a ferry because it is much cheaper and takes just about an hour to reach there. However, ferry schedule is dependent on weather conditions – there can be cancellations during extreme weather. The ferry leaves from Ceiba ferry terminal. You should make a reservation in advance. Make sure to pay for your articles if you are carrying anything more than one personal item. The total cost of a round trip with additional luggage will be around $15 per person.

To reach Ceiba, you have a few options:

1. You can take a taxi from Old San Juan to Ceiba for about $100. It will be about an hour long drive.
2. If you already have a rental car then you can drive till Fajardo or Ceiba and drop the car off if your car rental has a drop off option in any of these cities (Enterprise does). The rental company will transfer you to the ferry terminal or the airport.
3. Drive your rental car to the ferry terminal and use the overnight parking. The parking is a 2 minute drive from the actual ferry terminal but they have a very frequent shuttle to transport people back and forth. The parking fee is $7 per day.

We wanted to take the 9:30 am ferry to Vieques island so we decided to stay in Fajardo the night before. We had a rental car which we decided to leave in the parking lot in Ceiba.There is a great bakery in Fajardo on the way to Ceiba – it is called El Timon. They have great sandwiches and pastries – makes for a perfect breakfast or light lunch. The service is easygoing so make sure you have 15-20 minutes to spare if you decide to stop there.

Where to stay?

On Vieques, I would recommend staying in Esperanza which is on the south side of the island. Esperanza has a few guest houses and hotels and some restaurants and bars nearby. Some of the well known beaches are on the south side of the island too so that reduces the commute time to 20-30 minutes. Also, many of the bio bay tours start in Esperanza. We stayed in Hotel El Blok. It is a nice hotel but a little on the expensive side for the amenities they have.

How to get around?

You will need a car to roam around the island. There are some taxi services and shared vans available but that takes away your flexibility and might also end up being more expensive.

You will probably get tempted to rent a golf cart to blend in with the island vibe but I do not recommend it. Golf carts are slow. It might take 30 to 45 minutes to go from one beach to another. Also, many beaches on the island are remote and roads leading to them are unpaved and it gets super dusty esp. when cars drive past – not really fun . With the high temperatures during the day, it also felt much better sitting in an air-conditioned car then would have felt in a golf cart. Also, the price difference in the rentals is not huge – probably about $30.

You should not wait to reach the island to rent the car (as we did). The island has very limited number of car rental companies and they get sold out during the peak season. Most car rentals would provide pick-up and drop-off from the ferry terminals. Maritza’s and Avis have good reviews.

Things to do

Given you are on this tiny beautiful island, I do not want you to have a long list of things to do. However, there are two things that you must do –

Explore the beautiful beaches – Vieques is known for its white sand beaches and blue water. The trip to this island cannot be complete without you spending hours on the beach just relaxing. Our favorite beach was Playa Caracas (Red beach) with sand so soft that you don’t want to stop playing with it. The water temperature was perfect. The snorkeling is pretty decent as well on the left side of the beach. It was not at all crowded – there were some other people chilling on the beach or snorkeling in the water. Some of the other nice beaches are Playa La Chiva, Secret Beach and Black Sand Beach.

There are a few grocery stores on the south side of the island from where you can buy everything you need for a great picnic on the beach. Ask your hotel reception for beach towels.

Do the bio-bay kayak tour – If you are on Vieques island, you cannot miss the bioluminiscent bay tour. There are many tour operators so you do not really need to reserve in advance. You should be able to find something after you reach the island but it does not hurt to make an online reservation beforehand. Make sure to check the online reviews before you make a reservation. We went with Melayas tours and had a good experience. To learn more about bio-bay tour, check out our post on what to know before visiting the bioluminescent bay.

Enjoy a drink or some food at Lazy Jack’s after your tour.

Hope you find this information useful. Reach out to us if you have any questions.