Your Puerto Rico recommendations please!

November 18, 2018 9:57 AM

I'll be in Puerto Rico just after Thanksgiving and have slacked on planning. I'm looking for activity and food recommendations. Can you help?

I have the bare bones of a plan (Barcardi tour, walking tour of San Juan, whatever is open in El Yunque, lots of reading time), but would like some recommendations for other things to do and places to eat. I'll be in Old San Juan for 4 days, and then near Luquillo in Rio Mar for another week. I'll have a car after I leave San Juan. Relaxation and recharging are my main goals, but it would be good to hear about more active options. I'll be traveling alone and my Spanish is limited. Thanks for any ideas you can offer!

posted by thatquietgirl to Travel & Transportation around Puerto Rico (6 answers total)

Best answer: There will be many holiday festivals and activities going on while you're here. There is a local guide that used to be a standalone website (calendariopr.com) but since the hurricane I believe they only update on their Facebook page. If you have access it's calendario de puerto rico I live here and this is what I use to find what's going on across the island. Here you will find lots of festivals and parties if you are interested in more local activities. And don't worry, almost everyone you might encounter will speak English or enough to understand you, or point you to someone nearby who does. Enjoy your visit!
posted by lunachic at 10:49 AM on November 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: My recommendations from my trip to PR a couple of years ago.

Also, in San Juan, everybody you meet will speak better English than you speak Spanish. You'll be fine.
posted by COD at 3:32 PM on November 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Go to the ice cream shop in Lares! They have all sorts of fun flavors from traditional chocolate, vanilla, etc to off-the-wall carrot, bean, and garlic flavors. I would highly recommend the avocado ice cream.

Speaking of avocados, definitely eat the big green avocados. They’re sweeter than the small almost-black haas avocados you usually see in mainland US. I usually end up eating one a day when I’m there.

If you eat meat, I would also recommend trying to find some pinchos (meat skewers). You can find pincho vendors on beaches usually.

Plantains in PR are also great; tostones (smashed unripe plantains) are a good savory snack, and amarillos (deep fried ripe plantains) are one of my favorite desserts.

I’ve never really been a tourist in PR, so I don’t know exactly the names of many of the following places or where exactly they are, but the Arecibo Observatory is famous and significant in the science world, there’s a phosphorescent bay or something somewhere that you can kayak through, and there are a bunch of caves if you like spelunking. The castle in Old San Juan is pretty cool too if you like castles. There’s also a giant flea market (I think in Arecibo?) that has all the bootleg dvds you could ask for (as well as all sorts of food, trinkets, baby bunnies, etc). Culebra (a small island off the coast of PR) is also nice, but I’ve only been there once so I don’t have any specific recommendations there.
posted by =^.^= at 6:09 PM on November 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. All of these answers lead me to something useful for my vacation. I'm following the calendar on Facebook and hope to find a few events. The driving and food advice will serve me well too as I explore PR. Can't wait!
posted by thatquietgirl at 1:52 PM on November 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Here is another page you will find useful, I think, Puerto Rico Day Trips Event Calendar
posted by lunachic at 2:15 PM on November 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Eat a Crab Mofongo if you can. I've only ever had it in beach shacks in PR and I've never tried anything like it anywhere else in the world.
posted by egeanin at 11:10 PM on November 20, 2018 [1 favorite]