cape air will bring us to vieques at around 5:30 p.m. from san juan airport. we are staying at hacienda tamarindo. would you recommend we eat dinner at the hotel that night or walk over to another nearby place? we usually just stay put for the first night but i was wondering what people who had been there have done. thanks.

I wouldn't advise walking from your hotel at night. The road is narrow and unlit. The tapas at hotel HacTam have been recommended.

Do you plan to rent a car? If not till after the first day, I would do as HighFlyer suggests and stay put.
When you see the roads, you will see why.
AS well as narrow and unlit, that portion of road is not heavily populated. Also the locals sometimes drive like crazy.

Also, I have a bit of restaurant info for anyone interested. We dined at Richard's Cafe this week. My DH and his friend had the porterhouse ($20 ish)
it came served on top of salad of lettuce, tomato, pepper and onions. The steak appeared large, but sliced thinner than we like. He said it was okay.
I had a chicken caesar salad and an order of tostones. The tostones were the best I have had and came with a plentiful dish of spicy sauce. There were probably 6 or 7 and were $2.50.
My salad was $7 and consisted of the same salad as the guys had on their plate. Iceberg lettuce, chopped small with tons of onion, pepper, tomato, chopped small mixed in. I am not a big fan of onion and pepper so found it annoying to try to avoid them in my "caesar" salad! It came with a packet of creamy caesar dressing, boiled chicken on top, no parmesan or croutons, or romaine for that matter! The man beside us had the whole fish dinner,I think it was about $20, but he had a very large fish served the same way as the steaks, on a large bed of salad. It looked good.
It is a totally inside restaurant, but the atmosphere is nice.
Would I go there again? Maybe, for lunch and have a burger and tostones!
Also, the steak dinners came with a side of fries or rice.
hope this can be of help to someone.

does hacienda tamarindo serve dinner or just tapas? i'm a little confused. how far is inn of the blue horizon from there?
i understand the food is good there.

When we stayed at HacTam in May the only meal they served was breakfast, but you could arrange a picnic lunch with advance notice. Nothing at all served in the evenings.

Inn on Blue Horizon is an easy walk down a grassy lane (so no cars to worry about), not more than a few minutes downhill from HacTam. It is *very* dark at night, however, so you will need a small light to see by. I can't remember if the driveways for either place were lighted, so I don't know if it would be better to walk the HacTam driveway to the road, turn right and walk a few yards and then turn down the driveway to IOBH.

Food at IOBH was solid and good for the one meal we ate there. We had nothing to rave about and nothing to complain about and we felt it offered a decent value, but this was the lunch menu at the slightly funky open air bar. The formal restaurant may very well have a completely different menu.

Sorry, the tapas I was refering to are at the Inn on the Blue Horizon. Yes, they also serve dinner there.

do you think we need to make reservations for dinner at the inn on the blue horizon since we will be there during president's week in february? is there any "decent" place to eat in san juan airport while we spend some time before cape air takes us to vieques? it could be an hour or two, depending on how on time the flight is from jfk.

I would make reservations for that week, personally. You don't want to be stuck on your first night with no options for dinner, or wait an hour while HacTam locates a taxi for you.

The Cape Air terminal is a flight downstairs from the terminal where Continental and a few others fly. There is at least one gelato place and I remember seeing other fast food places in that area. Since we were walking as quickly as we could 'cause we were running late (or so we thought) we didn't pay a lot of attention. For me, the worst part about flying through SJU is the awful food options.

I am also going to be visiting vieques president week putch! we are staying at the inn on the blue horizon so i'm glad to hear the food there is decent. any other suggestions for day trips we just can't miss... or restaurants to eat at night (we will be renting a car so we can drive). thanks in advance!

Although it seems relativley quiet down here right now, I would make reservations for the nicer restaurants. The restaurants recommend reservations.
We wernt to Chez Shack last night for monday night bbq and live band, the big chalkboard stated "reservations a must", once inside there were a lot of empty tables and plenty of servers.

We ate at the bar, you do not need reservations to do that. The BBQ is great and so is the music...Monday nights only.
I looked at the menu for other nights and it was plentiful with fish dishes. They all were $26 and up.

I would not waste too much time in SJU looking for a place to eat, my husband and I both traveled (separately)the week between Christmas and New Years and the lines through security to get to the hopper flights were very busy. So I would check in and go down stairs and then maybe find a snack or something downstairs.

I read on another vieques post something about the boat for Biobay got damaged and rides have been cancelled til Feb... do you know anything about this?? is it island adventures?? (i hope its just heresay!) also do you think we can rent snorkels on the island or we should think about bringing some down to vieques. thanks again!

also, i'm having trouble getting phone numbers to make any dinner reservations... suggestions?

luluk-
if you go to the www.enchanted-isle.com website, then click on "info" you get a listing for almost every business on the island, you should find your restaurant numbers there. Also, some have links to restaurant websites.

We talked to Island Adventures guys the other day, there was a small fire on the boat so he is overhauling it. They are taking people out in kayaks. There are also other tours that take you out in the kayaks, I am just not comfortable with the idea of trying to get back into the kayak!!
They expect to have the electric boat running in Feb., hope that is actual time and not "island time"! My family is coming inMarch!!
Have a great trip, don't forget to give the local food a try.

thanks, i am all about the local food! we love eating so i just wanted to have all my options open! i guess i will call island adventures and get a kayak for my trip in feb instead of the pontoon... maybe when i get down there i will be able to switch if its up and running.

has anybody eaten dinner at Inn on the Blue Horizon? is there any kind of "dress code"? what are the prices like for dinner? i just made reservations for the night we arrive so i know that we will not go hungry on our first night.

Shaunaa's and Mucho Gusto, both in Isabel, have great "local" food. Yum - I miss Vieques beans and rice and meatballs!

eaf2007-are either of those places located(if you are in Isabelle heading on the road to esperanza) after the fruit stand, on the left?? Most of these places, I do not know the names of, but that one is the cleanest on the island, I have to try some more of the selections!!

putch, we were dressed *very* casually for their open-air bar/grill place. I think when we were there they mentioned that they were also open during the evenings with a fancier menu, but that was before the other kitchen had re-opened from the fire from a year or more ago. So, I don't know if it would be open now in the evenings since the old kitchen/restaurant has reopened.

We walked through the other area, which was also open air but enclosed on at least two sides, and it was very lovely. I doubt they have a dress code as the whole island is very casual, but I would probably want to wear more than just sports shorts and a t-shirt. I think nice shorts or capris for women, nice shorts and a shirt without logo for men would be fine there.

Hope you enjoy yourselves on this trip!

just three weeks to go and i'm thinking of revising my whole trip... i just realized the ferry from old san juan dosen't run during the week! i need the help of my lovely-advice-givers!
so either we:
a) rent a car when we land at sju, stay at westin rio mar and visit el yunque (long day!) then drive to farjado next morning, drop off car and take 9:30am ferry to vieques. (we are staying in old san juan again one last night after vieques so i will get to see some of the sights!)
or
b) land at sju, stay in old san juan and then go back to the airport the next morning to fly to vieques. this works out to be around the same cost as plan a and saves time but i will not get to see the rainforest of el yunque.
i know i sound crazy asking for help and advice on this... but i love your opinions and feel very much in a bind right now. thanks!

I would go with plan A. I have not been to the rainforest, but one day we will make it. Then you will have a car for the day and see some other parts of the island.
If you decide to go with plan b, can you make it to Fajardo for the evening ferry instead of staying in san juan...since you will see it on the way back. Or take 2 days at the end of your trip for PR, you may get to
vqs and decide you have seen it all in 3 days!!! Or like us, you may love it here and never want to go home!!
Whatever you decide, enjoy Vieques!!