I would appreciate input from those of you who know Puerto Rico. I have reviewed the posts and based upon that and other research am proposing the following itinerary. Fly to PR from MN arriving late pm. Take rental car to Fajardo and stay at El Conquistador for 3 nights. Explore this area, hit beach. Sunday fly to Vienques, I'm not sure on a hotel here as we would only stay one night. Rent a car for the day do Bio Bay Sunday night. Fly back to Fajardo. Drive to SJ. Spend 4 nights in SJ at Intercontinental. There are 3 of us. Two adults and our 18 year old daughter. We like beaches, excursions, great places to eat and explore. I'm also wondering if we can go up to the coffee area while in Fajardo. I'd appreciate your input into the intinerary and any suggestions for a hotel that we can stay one night at on Vienques. Thanks!

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Your itinerary sounds ok to me. It's really not that necessary to rent a car to Fajardo. El Conquistador has a shuttle from the airport to the hotel and they also make arrangements for excursions to El Yunque and other places. The parking can be pretty expensive, so you might reconsider that. I'm not sure if the shuttle is free. Call the hotel and compare what you'd spend not renting a car vs. renting it. I personally never leave El Conquistador while I'm there because they have great restaurants (expensive though) and they have an amazing beach on Palomino Island. It's really up to you.

As for accommodation in Vieques, it really depends on what you like. Your safest bet would be the Starwood Martineau Bay. It's a big hotel and it's really beautiful. It has tennis courts, spa treatments and horseback riding, I believe. I think you'd make good use of your time in Vieques in this hotel because they can also arrange any excursions that you might be interested in. There are other options in Vieques, but I think this is the easiest one.

You can go to the mountains to see the coffee plantations, but most of them are far from Fajardo and San Juan because of their location at the western mountains at Cordillera Central, in Yauco and Adjuntas. San Juan would be the nearest, but it would still be at least a 2 hour drive. You will definetely need a car in San Juan to see most of it and also go to other places, such as the Caves (Cavernas de Camuy) and the nearby beaches. For the coffee plantations, there is easy freeway access from San Juan to Arecibo but then the roads might be less accessible from Arecibo to your final destination.

Visit www.travelandsports.com. You'll find tons of information in that site.

Hope this helps. Happy travels.

Hi Dancingqueen:
Greetings. I agree with pinkfloyd about your itinerary. But what is so cool is that i spend 2 days of my honeymoon at the Intercontinental and 3 days at the El Conquistador. Great choices! I cant speak about Vieques but checked the Martineau Bay and i think thats a Wyndham property, but it could have change recently. And another property in Vieques is Bravo! and i knew about it on tripadvisor, so you may want to check it out. Looks nice to me. once again, i never been in Vieques, so checked the sites and decide where to stay. Is a wonderful place to go and make sure to go to Sun Bay Beach ( locals calls this beach Sombe). Is according to friends and the travel channel one the nicest beaches in the caribbean.About El Conquistador, if you decide to rent a car, is expensive to park, but you have the choice of going out of the hotel for dining, which is good but too expensive to eat there everyday, plus it was nice to go out to Las Croabas( just behind the hotel) and have ceviche or all kinds of seafood salads for a decent price( along with a decent priced beer if you folks drink).Let me know if you have any questions about the hotels. Im glad to help you with your vacation. We had a great time in PR and i love for you to have a great experience.

Thank you so much for the input. Will post trip report upon our return.