Vieques Trip Report
 

Trip Report?Vieques?26 Oct?3 Nov



Getting there?Flew into San Juan arriving at 2:30 PM. After getting our baggage we proceeded to the Air Sunshine ticket counter in the B concourse for a 5 PM flight to Vieques. At the counter they said the flight would leave at 4 PM which was fine with us. Actually left at 4:20 with a full plane of 9 passengers. Flight to Vieques was 20 minutes. We were the only ones getting off as the other passengers were going to Tortola and Virgin Gorda. There are a lot of small airlines serving Vieques from San Juan International Airport is the Isla Grande Airport. Everyone on the island has their favorite. M&N and Vieques Air Link seem to be the favorites. The rumor is that American and Cape Air are going to start flying in, American in late Nov. They have already done some practice landings. However I did not see any activity at the airport that American was building a ticket counter or anything. It would be great as you could check your baggage thru. You can also get to Vieques by talking a taxi to Fajardo (about $60 and an hour ride) and take the ferry which is about another hour. The flight on Air Sunshine was $124 / person round trip. Of course with flying in small planes you are always subject to the whims of the weather.

Wyndham Martineau Bay?Got to the resort at 5 PM. As a Wyndham By Request member we were upgraded to an ocean front suite rather than ocean view. A chilled bottle of white wine and cheese and crackers awaited us in our room. The rooms were really lovely with large king sized bed, sitting area, large bath and nice balcony from which you could see Puerto Rico and Culebra.
The resort is on about 43 acres and has about 150 suites. Very nice spa with a weight room with state of the art exercise equipment and a jacuzzi. The pool although shallow is very nice. There are two tennis courts. The main building contains the restaurant and bar where you can eat inside in air conditioned comfort or on a large veranda. Understand that after the first of the year they will offer horse back riding. There is a pool restaurant/bar for lunch and an on site water sports facility.

Restaurants?The restaurant at Wyndham was good but nothing special. Also tended to be a little pricey. We ate there three times. Understand they are working on a new menu so it might improve. Luckily when we went there were some restaurants reopening for the season. A lot close in Sept/Oct. By far the best restaurant on the island is the Blue Macaw at the Inn on the Blue Horizon in Esperanza on the south side of the island. Fantastic setting and food. The lobster stuffed grilled portabella mushroom was awesome. A new restaurant Bayaonda was also excellent as was Café Media Luna both in Isabel Segundo. Bayahonda isn't fancy?Card Tables and plastic chairs but the food is great. Never had lamb tartare before but tried it and thought I'd gone to heaven. Wife had a whole hog fish and I had half a crispy duck. Outstanding. They even have rack of venison and quail on the menu. The poached pear dessert was awesome. Media Luna is in an old house on the main street in Isabel II. Nice bar downstairs and restaurant with an open kitchen on the second floor. The food is more tapa sized portions and excellent. We split a pear, walnut, brie salad and had duck breast with crepes and orange sauce and a Thai snapper dish. With dessert it was enough to eat. Quite a few designed thin crust pizzas on the menu that looked good. For steak try the Island Steak house at the Crow's nest on the way to Esperanza. They serve Black Angus beef which is excellent. Also ate at La Serina in Esperanza which was very good. They have live music after 9:30 PM. Next to La Serina is Bananas where we ate lunch a couple of times. Very good food and great fries. If you want to take a picnic to the beach there is a good deli across from Media Luna,

Beaches?Visited the majority of beaches. Sun Bay beach and Red beach are probably our favorites. Media Luna beach was very nice but at high tide there isn't much beach. Sun and Red beach have shelters and picnic tables. Media only shelters. Blue beach, past Red beach is nice all the way down at the end. Green beach is at the far east and of the island. Again at high tide not much beach?does have shelters and picnic tables. Didn't get to Navio where they filmed Lord of the Flies because the road was really muddy due to rain and didn't want to get stuck. Went snorkeling off Mosquito Pier. It was okay. Went out about half way on the pier and it was hard getting in the water because of the rocks. Better idea is to park at a small beach on the left of the pier and snorkel out. Never saw so many starfish. On the right side of the beach off the beach bar/restaurant at Wyndham about 100 yards out from the rock cliff there is a good reef. Probably the best snorkeling I did. Beaches at Wyndham are not large but perfectly adequate. The sand is more tan colored and more coarse. than the powdery white sand you find on coral islands.

Bio Bay Tour?Did the Bioluminescent Bay Tour with Island Adventures. You go by bus to Mosquito Bay and then a pontoon boat. It was very interesting to see the fish darting in the water leaving a luminous trail. The most impressive thing was swimming in the water. Your body just glows. If you swim under the pontoons where it is darker you get the full effect. We drove ourselves to Island Adventures and the tour was $23 each. It takes about 2 hours,

General?Can't say enough about the staff at Wyndham. They went out of their way to ensure you were enjoying your vacation. From Louis and the staff at the front desk to Esther and Maria in the dining room everyone was so nice and friendly. Randy, Erik and Hector were not only good bartenders but fun to talk to as well. Hilda Collazo the concierge was a gem. She helped with car rental, restaurant recommendations and reservations, bio bay reservations, directions to beaches etc. etc. Even served cut up fruit at the pool in the afternoon. Re Car rental?Closest is Martineau Bay Car Rental. Suggest making reservations before you arrive because there aren't many rental cars on the island. Cars run about $50-$60/day?no weekly rate. The doorman will take you to the Wyndham gate in a golf cart and it's about a 50 yd walk to the rental agency. Speed limits are 25 and 35 MPH. Not hard to drive around but the roads are narrow. Watch out for stray horses. They are everywhere and roam into the road. Really neat to see a couple of Caballeros (sp) galloping down the main street on Isabel II at night.

Comment?If you are looking for an island with lots of activity and cultural things to see and do Vieques is probably not for you. But if you want to get laid back, relax and escape it is really nice Would we go back?Well when I got home I was looking at auctions on Luxury Link and there was a 5 day stay at Wyndham Martineau Bay. They package was valued at $2400. Just for kicks I bid $1240 and won so we will be going back between 1 Jan and 30 April. Sorry this is so long but maybe it will help someone considering going to Vieques. The Wyndham web site is www.wyndhammartineaubay.com A good web site for Vieques info is www.vieques-island.com

Thanks HowardC - great trip report! I've been waiting for this one! Exactly 1 month from today we will be there!

HowardC,Great trip report.I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your visit to Vieques Island.We too went to Vieques and enjoyed the island.It was a beautiful island with lots of nice beaches.The Wyndham was closed when we were there.
It had a nice location though and we went to the small beach right next door.
We flew into San Juan and took Vieques Air link to Vieques.We rented a jeep for a few days and were very happy with the 3 Bed/2 Bath home we rented.It had a private pool and gated yard.Very nice.
It definitly is a very quiet island but if r&r is what your after it's perfect.

Deborah--Couple of things I forgot--Bayaonda does not have a liquor license yet but you can bring your own bottle, beer, wine. We brought botle of wine (Should have brought two. There is a $5 corkage fee. There is a $2 fee to get into Sun Bay, Media Luna and Navio beachs. You have to be at Island Adventures at 6:15 for a 6:30 departure to bio bay. We brought a change of clothes and went to dinner at Blue Macaw afterwards. It is about 1/4 mile away from Island Adventures. You could also eat at La Serina and stay for the music. Believe there is also a bio bay tour at 7:30. When you get your car check the gas gauge to make sure it's full. I didn't and realized it was less than 3/4 so I returned it that way. They said the tank wasn't full when I returned it. Bottom line they didn't charge me but good idea to check. Mask and Snorkel are $20/day at Blue Dolphin water sports at Wyndham so if you have equipment good idea to bring it. On Nov 3rd. we had an 8:30 Am flight out. Air Sunshine was flying in from Tortola. They landed at 8:20 and we took off at 8:25. We were the only people on the plane. Was in the San Juan airport at 9AM and made a 10:05 connection with 5 minutes to spare. Had to recheck bags and go thru security which was a hassle. Have a great trip. Lookinf forward to a report when you return

Thanks for the infor HowardC. We have our own snorkeling gear so thats not a problem. On any of your snorkeling ventures did you see anything especially neat? Like turtles, rays, reef sharks etc?

We're renting jeep from Martineau as well and also booked biobay with Island Adventures already.

Still debating about whether or not to fly over from San Juan or ferry. Since there is 3 of us the cost is high for roundtrip. I'm thinking about flying over and taking the ferry back. We're staying in Fajardo 2 days before we head back to the states. Exactly 1 month from today we'll be there. Can't wait!

Deborah--Only snorkeled twice off the beach. Didn't see any turtles, rays or sharks but expect to do that the best thing is to take a snorkel trip to an outer reef. There are several water sports shops in Esperanza that do trips. As I said did see lots of starfish by Mosquito Pier. Normally you're lucky if you see one or two but there were hundreds. Some lobsters too.

Our flight to Vieques was $124 round trip. If I were you I'd fly over from the SanJuan airport and then ferry to Fajardo since you are staying there for two days. Where are you staying ??? El Conquistador ?? By the way not a lot of shopping on Vieques. Most of the locals go to Fajardo to shop so save your shopping for there.
Sorry about the question marks after the subject in my report--just noticed them. There were dashes but somehow when I cut and pasted to Fodors they became ??. didn't happen on the other two sites I posted on.

Thanks for the report, Howard!

Yes, we're staying at El Conquistador in Fajardo. I think we will fly over to Vieques and take the ferry back. Otherwise it will be dark when we get there. We're not big shoppers - may do some in Old San Juan.

We thought about a snorkeling trip but one of us doesn't swim so we'll probably skip it this time and just enjoy what we can from the beach.

I think the ?'s happen when you copy and paste from Word. I had read that Vieuqes had a good sized population of southern stingrays - even in the biobay. Maybe it depends on the time of year.

A couple staying at Wyndham went on the biobay trip two nights before we did and saw stingrays and said it was awesome the way they lit up the water. Unfortunately we didn't see any. Deborah--please E-mail me. I have something I want to send you off [email protected]

Hey, HowardC - I emailed you.