Puerto Rico

[drrich2]

When you talk about topside attractions, nothing beats the history and charm of Old San Juan. We have spent two or three days each trip staying in one of the classic hotels, and nothing beats the variety and quality of food available.

I've visited on cruise stops, and it's nice but from ginovega's posts it's my understanding for the really good diving, that's not the place to base yourself. My 2 dives in Puerto Rico were at the tail end of our honeymoon, after a cruise we stayed at the Hyatt Dorado, and the guide picked us up in a van and took us on a long drive to Sea Ventures' shop in Fajardo.

So I take it that for a dive trip, one would spend a little time in San Juan (note: Old San Juan and San Juan don't mean quite the same thing), but stay elsewhere for the dive portion of the trip?

For our 2020 trip, we had planned to visit the El Yunque rainforest.

Took me years to get us a tour there on a cruise; it was pretty!

 

[ibj40]

So I take it that for a dive trip, one would spend a little time in San Juan (note: Old San Juan and San Juan don't mean quite the same thing), but stay elsewhere for the dive portion of the trip?

When we first started researching before our 2009 trip, it was pretty clear that the best diving was away from OSJ/SJ.

We did meet a divemaster from the SJ area on one trip who told us that there is some diving close to the city. One area we've subsequently identified is a place called Escambron Beach which appears to have some shore entry diving.

In 2009 we spent a couple of days in OSJ, and then went to Rincon but found that to be a little bit backward. We decided that we would rather dive first, and then "out gas" in OSJ, so that is what we did in 2015 and 2017, and was the plan for 2020.

 

[Gene]

Although not recently, I've been to San Juan, PR twice in the 2000s while working on two different movies. (Dirty Dancing 2 -- Havana Nights and The Reaping.) My family went with me both times and had a blast.
On the second trip, knowing more having been there earlier, we flew from San Juan for a brief trip to Virgin Gorda, BVI. We dove on the wreck of the Rhone and stayed at a place right near the Baths. I highly recommend that. Back in San Juan, I arranged an intro to scuba dive experience for my son with a shop I believe was called Scuba Aqua Dogs or some variation. The owner was extremely nice and competent, and he and I enjoyed a dive after we did my son's shallow intro dive. This was in a cove harbor area near old San Juan.
We enjoyed both trips to PR, and also did a day trip to El Yunque rain forest. Loved the history, people and food.

 

[mcohen1021]

Any thoughts on why it doesn't seem to be more of a mainstream dive destination (I'm thinking land-based, but live-aboard is also a worthy question) with more 'mindshare' (as judged from forum threads and trip reports)? Even if I focus on boat diving and exclude shore diving focused destinations, Cozumel, Roatan and Belize seem to heavily lead in the region...with the Florida Keys also getting attention.

Puerto Rico is large, it's got topside attractions, it's a U.S. territory...seems like it'd be a rocking good dive destination with a number of package deal offerings (e.g.: hotel, # of boat trips - like Rainbow Reef Dive Center offers in Key Largo).

I have not been to puerto rico since 1993, but even back then the military were walking the streets with M16s. And hotel staff specifically told us not to go out on the beach after dark. That being said, the scuba @ Fajardo was "meh"...

Food is great in PR... El Yunque was destroyed my hurricane Maria... Lucillo beach was nice, but so are beaches elsewhere... Unless i am missing something here, PR in my mind is the last place I'd spend money on to go diving,

I will say though, I have always been curious however of diving @ the NW corner of the island, which is a LONG hike from san juan airport.

 

[drrich2]

El Yunque was destroyed my hurricane Maria...

Yeah, I heard about that...something along the lines of 'If it's green, it's gone.' From Wikipedia - "Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricanethat devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico."

But El Yunque Rainforest sprang back! From our visit August 1st of 2019:

 

[mcohen1021]

But El Yunque Rainforest sprang back! From our visit August 1st of 2019:

I wonder if any indigenous species perished...? Will be interesting to research.

 

[ibj40]

Yeah, I heard about that...something along the lines of 'If it's green, it's gone.' From Wikipedia - "Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricanethat devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico."

But El Yunque Rainforest sprang back! From our visit August 1st of 2019:

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That is what our research shows as well.

Thanks for the confirmation!

 

[Damselfish]

There’s an international airport on the NW corner of the island in Aquadilla. When I looked into planning a trip in the past I was hoping it would be possible to fly there from Boston with just one stop someplace, but I couldn’t make it work. One of those not enough flights with the right airlines or times things. Has anyone flown into there rather than San Juan?
Out of curiousity I looked up the airport. The wikipedia entry of all the history is interesting, and talks about very recent plans to expand the airport. (Also about previous plans to expand the airport, unclear if any of it happened.)

 

[chillyinCanada]

Americans are leery of Puerto Rico IMO. There are some tremendous dive operations all over the island, including Vieques and all around the west, south, and east sides.

I wonder why most folks haven’t looked into it?

Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, all have excellent diving.

Hmm . . . I have a friend who works in diving in Dominican during the winters. He thinks the diving there sucks but it's otherwise a good gig for him.

 

[drrich2]

Hmm . . . I have a friend who works in diving in Dominican during the winters.

Any idea what part of it he dives? I've read the Bayahibe region is the place to dive in Dominican Republic.

Quick note for newer travelers who may run across this thread in the future; Dominican Republic and Dominica are 2 very different Caribbean dive destinations. The Dominican Republic and Haiti are the 2 parts of the large island of Hispaniola. Dominica is a lushly vegetated island of its own.