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jbunderwater
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You’re certainly right. We prefer the Airbnb travel versus an all-inclusive experience, but there’s nothing like Buddy Dive in PR as far as I know. We also were traveling as 5 people altogether, including my 3 year old daughter who sleeps early, so hotels aren’t the best if you are with small children.
We travel almost exclusively with Airbnb and we generally plan out where we will stay 9-12 months in advance. Finding what we considered reasonable accommodations in San Juan (~$600/night) with 4 bedrooms, a pool and not feel like it was decorated in 1990 was challenging. Our accommodation which was $550/night didn’t have AC in the living room or toilets - it wasn’t a huge deal because we like sitting outside - but it gives you a sense of the price of things here. You can find it the DR level of comfort in the $900+/night range (which in the DR we had for around $500/night). All this to say, things are expensive here compared to some other choices, especially considering what you get for the money.
I think Rincon and La Parguera are cheaper than staying in San Juan.
San Juan to Rincon is a bit over 2 hours.
Rincon to La Parguera is about 60-70 minutes.
Driving isn’t much different than on the mainland other than the lawless driving. People will turn left from a far right lane, frequently blow red lights, drive either 20 under or 20 over the speed limit. Everyone is on their cell phones. But there’s no other way to get around. Traffic is bad at rush hour. All in all though, the driving wasn’t a big deal since we were here for 2 weeks.
You’re right - I forgot to mention this. The nature in PR is some of the nicest you’ll find in the Caribbean (in the same category as the DR which I visited for 2 weeks earlier this year). El Yunque is wonderful. I was mostly referring to the towns which, besides Old San Juan - which is really nice, are not attractive. It’s full of strip malls and dilapidated buildings. There’s reasons for this. Although PR is a richer island than the DR and other Caribbean destinations, it is still not a rich destination and the infrastructure has taken a hit over the years. Besides Old San Juan, I found most of the towns pretty ugly when we drove through. Exceptions would include Rincon and La Parguera both had cute town centers with restaurants that you could walk around to if you stayed downtown.
I don’t think you should visit PR without checking out Old San Juan and El Yunque, which is really impressive. In the city, the two major forts on the island actually saw battle and they are very interesting to visit, along with the rest of Old Town. The restaurants were also excellent here. If I were making an ideal itinerary, I’d probably fly into SJU and then immediately drive to Rincon for 2-3 days of diving, then move to La Parguera for 2-3 days, and then go back to the capital and spend 2 days so that you can take a side trip to El Yunque and also visit the city. It gets tight to cover everything in one week but you can do it. We took 2 weeks because we really wanted to see some of the top side activities.
Rincon and La Parguera both have Coffee Plantations / Haciendas nearby that are quite cool to see. There’s also crash boat beach in Rincon that is popular for hanging out or water sports (you can do a shore dive there too).
When it comes to beaches, tamper your expectations. The beaches are okay here, but frequently have zero infrastructure and they are not like you would get on Culebra, Viques, DR, or as good as anywhere else honestly. Several times we had to change beaches because there were no umbrellas to rent, no food, or no toilets. Remember though, we’re traveling as a family with a small child and a grandmother, so these were important for us and may not be relevant to others depending on what you want from a beach. If you’ve ever been to Tel Aviv or Rio, don’t have those expectations here.
With all these criticisms I’m giving, I still think it’s a great destination to go to and completely under appreciated for diving. But it’s probably for certain kinds of travelers who don’t necessarily care about an all-inclusive experience and instead want to make a more bespoke trip.
I love the island food, specially the fritters stuff with seafood, and the whole roasted pork found on the side of the road mom-pop shacks
