We think this sounds great, but what do you all think?
 

Greetings!

I have come up with the following itinerary for our trip to Puerto Rico from all the wonderful info I have found here on these boards:

Friday AM: Arrive in SJ
Rent a car, drive to east PR
Stay @ Luquillo Sunrise 3 nights
While in the area, we are planning on checking out the rain forest, hanging out on Luquillo beach and doing the Canyoning tour (ever done that?) through Adventuras. Looks so fun and scary!!!

Monday: turn car in and take the ferry over to Culebra (hubby does NOT like small planes). Can we purchase tickets a couple days in advance? Staying on Culebra for 2 nights at Casa Ensenada...can't wait for those beautiful beaches.

Wed: This is where it gets a bit sketchy...trying to convince my hubby to take a plane from Culebra to SJ. This is the day of our 20th Anniversary (I'm only 37, soon to be 38, so to be married this long is pretty amazing!!!) Staying at the Intercontinental. Looking to whoop it up big time...not sure what to do yet!

Thurs: Our kids (19 & 15 @ time of travel) join us in PR this AM.
Other than the beach & Old San Juan we don't really have anything planned for the couple days here.

Sat-Sat: Royal Caribbean cruise to tour the Southern Caribbean.

Sat-Mon: Somehow get over to Vieques staying at Casa de Amistad...REALLY looking forward to the bio bay and the beaches.

Mon: Head back to SJ, considering the Best Western at the airport for our Tues morning flight back home.

We love to snorkel, swim, body surf, hike, explore, eat and PARTY! We are more than likely going to get certified for diving before we go.

So, what do you think? Any suggestions and/or recommendations...car rentals, day trip co's, restaurants? How about excursion advice while on the cruise? Your help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks...have a wonderful day!

When you go to Vieques...I highly recommend Island Adventures for your Biobay tour and the later the tour..the better.Have you checked the moon schedule? It is best to go on a night with a new moon.It is an awesome experience!!This biobay is said to be one of the brightest in the world!We really enjoyed it!

We never made it to Culebra..have a great time there!I have heard that the beaches are beautiful.

While in Vieques...have dinner one night at Tradewinds.They have wonderful food.It is located in Esperanza.A great place to hang out and have drinks at night Bananas and Duffy's in Esperanza.

If you can convince your hubby to take a plane..do it!The ferry can be unreliable..(it broke down when we were waiting for it to leave and go home :O ) We had to take a plane to Fajardo which costs only $29 a person and only takes about 10-15 minutes and it was not scary.We made it to the airport just in time to eat,shop and catch our flight home.

For a flight to San Juan it runs about $45 a person.

Have fun and Happy Anniversary!! Yes it is amazing to only be 37 and married 20 years!! (I'm 36 and have not been married that long)

Anymore questions on Vieques...I might be able to help.As for PR..we only stayed there one night so I would not be much help for PR.

Christie

Here is a link to the moon calendar for the Biobay: http://www.biobay.com/cd/webhtml/moonwatch.htm

Congratulations on your 20th!
We went to San Juan years ago and stayed at the InterContinental. We loved walking around Old San Juan and the El Morro fort.

We recently went to Vieques. We had good meals at Trade Winds and Cafe Media Luna. We did not do the Bio Bay tour because Island Adventures' boat was out of service. I have heard that they are a great company to use.

There have been recent Vieques trip reports posted here. Just type Vieques in the search box above and they should all come up. Do the same for Culebra and San Juan.

Have a great trip.

Sounds like you have everything sorted - looks like a good list of things to do.

This might help with El Yunque
http://www.visit-the-coqui.com/place...ue-rainforest/
get there early to avoid the crowds and get parking. The ranger service offer guided walks also (I believe that start around 10:30am)

Not been to Vieques or Culebra but have heard bothe are very nice

as for San Juan - try to get into Old San Juan and just wander around - plenty to see to keep you bust for hours. If its a Sunday head up to El Morro in the afternoon to see lots of kites being flown - a great sight.

If you want to really celebrate consider going to the restaurant Pikayo (http://www.wilobenet.com/restaurants/pikayo.htm) - it is in the Museum de Puerto Rico and is (allegedly) one of the best on the island - not cheap though

have a great time

http://www.visit-the-coqui.com

Thank you all so much for your guidance.

christiegr: I believe the moon will be less than half full. Do you think it will still be amazing? Those were the only days we were able to squeeze in...we wanted the kids to be able to experience the bio bay as well! I'm kind of bummed that we are not staying on the Esperanza side of Vieques, but Amistad was the nicest place I could find that allows only 2 night stay. Seems like most of the best spots are on that side. I'm working on my hubby about flying. Thanks for the Congrats for our anniversary!

caribtraveler: Thank you as well for the Congrats! Yeah, I've come across some great stuff on this site is so awesome...such a wealth of information!

coqui_07: That restaurant looks and sounds great! Thanks for the links and suggestions. Is visit the coqui your personal site? If so, props to you...if not, thanks for sharing!

Anyone else out there with info on the Adventuras and car rental. Would love to hear from you!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!

Hi

http://www.visit-the-coqui.com is my personal blog, thanks for the feedback. Hope you found it useful. It's a work in progress...

Congratulations on your 20th! We will celebrating ours in Feb. I highly recommend the flight from Culebra to San Juan. The plane circles around El Morro before it lands at Isla Verde and it is just really cool. (I don't like small planes either, in fact, my husband's business partner was killed in one 10 years ago, but the view is really spectacular.) We took our 4 kids last month and if you search my screen name, I think you can find the two-part review. Hope you get certified before you go, we were going to, with the 3 kids that could also, but ran out of time before we left. Enjoy your trip.

spicy,
The moon calendar should say if it's a good time to go or not..if it's less than half full..it should be great!On the calendar..the dates in Blue are the best times to go.I have never experienced anything like it..it was soo cool! We went with a group of about 10 people and we were the only ones (except for the guides) who got in the water.We all got under the pontoon boat and on a count of 3 started moving our hands and feet under water and it lit up soo bright that you could see everyone's face really good.:) It is really cool and Island Adventures is very informative and fun!

If they have a 9:00 trip,take that one..we were originally scheduled for 7:00 but they told me that if the 7:00 trip booked up,that they would do a 9:00 and that I could change my reservation to 9.

Martineau Bay Resort looks really nice but not sure if it allows only 2 nights..you could check.

We stayed at Amapola Inn, which was perfect for us.It was your basic room with a frig and microwave.

I would probably stay at Tradewinds on our next trip.

Have fun!
Christie