Vieques
Vieques is the 2nd largest of the three inhabited Puerto Rican islands. There is more to do here than Culebra so a little extra planning and $ is required. This island is most known for Mosquito Bay, said to be the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world. To see it, you’ll need to spend the night on the island. Besides Mosquito Bay, Vieques has several beautiful beaches and the best snorkeling anywhere in Puerto Rico. This is a 2-day itinerary with two full days of exploring this beautiful Caribbean paradise.
You’ll need to buy the $4.00 round-trip ferry ticket in advance, tickets are released near the end of every month usually. They aren’t consistent with the release date, so best to check often in the month before your travel date. Buy a “passenger only” passage to arrive quicker. The “pax & cargo” passage is a bigger vessel that travels at half the speed. If there are no tickets available online, check online to see if there are tickets available from the ticket booth in Ceiba. The ferry should take about 30 minutes.
You’ll need a place to stay. There are a lot of Airbnbs to choose from. I have stayed here twice and can recommend it as comfortable and cheap at $157 for 4 people at the time of my last visit – April 2023 (It will be cheaper in the off-season).
The ferry terminal where you’ll arrive is on the north side of the island in the town of Isabel II. If you want to get around to seeing a lot of the island, rent your own vehicle. I always rent from Scooters for Rent by Vieques Inc. When you arrive in Vieques, walk 10-15min from the ferry terminal to their building. I recommend getting a UTV (4-6 seater) over a golf cart. The UTV is more expensive but can go much faster. That’s important for getting to all the places you want to see. The golf carts (and 2 seater UTV) move painfully slow at 20-25 mph top speed.
If you are hungry, there is a good panadería right next to the rental shop – Panadería La Viequense. I suggest you grab some food at the supermarket in town to make lunch to eat on the beach.
Drive from town to Parque de la Ceiba de Vieques Reserva Natural to walk around a 400-year-old Ceiba tree. There are some plaques with interesting information nearby and small stone benches set along the perimeter to appreciate a living thing four times older than you or I will ever be.
Continue west to the nearby Mosquito Pier for some snorkeling. I have seen sea turtles, pufferfish, barracuda, tarpon, spotted eagle rays, and a variety of other tropical fish. This is a popular scuba diving location for the marine wildlife that can be seen swimming between the pilings (yeah, apparently that’s the proper technical term for the underwater columns that hold up the dock). Visibility is often good, but I have never seen it crystal clear here so I imagine this varies depending on conditions. To enter into the water, you can find a good spot in the rocks that line the pier to scramble down, and then swim towards the dock. There are stairs somewhere, but I am not sure where. You’ll likely see starfish and Flamingo Tongue snails eating sea fans as you approach.
Alternatively, you can walk from where you parked on the side of the road over to the dock and hop off (around a 10ft jump), and start snorkeling. The depth is somewhere around 50ft for the length of the dock, if that freaks you out, you don’t have to swim too far, just stay close to the pier and you may still see a lot. If you brave it, I think you’ll find it’s worth the swim.
Continue to the northwestern tip of Vieques – Playa Punta Arenas (pictured to the right of the point, where boats are anchored). The drive to get here isn’t short or even particularly well-paved, but it’s worth it. Once you enter the nature reserve, the road is not paved and there are dirt speed bumps that are very difficult to see, so slow and steady. There are a couple of different places to park the UTV, if you drive to the end of the road you’ll find parking but there is at least one spot closer to the beach, you can use Google Maps to check that you are where you want to be. Both times I have gone here, I have seen boats moored at the beach, so that will be a good indicator that it’s the right one. The sand is like gravel and appears to be made at least partially from broken and sea-smoothed granite. For whatever reason, there are dozens of conch shells here. The water is calm and you’ll have a beautiful view of mainland Puerto Rico while floating in the clear water. There is apparently great snorkeling here as well.
Start the 45-minute drive to the southern town of Esperanza. If you have not eaten lunch yet, grab a late lunch at Casa Nativo in Isabel II. The best thing we tried here was an appetizer of piononos and a side of mashed yuca. In general, the food is good and the restaurant has air conditioning. It’s located within walking distance of the ferry. They were cool about us coming in with our own drinks since we had just picked up sodas from the gas station. The downside is that there were a lot of mosquitos in the restaurant that attacked us incessantly. Alternatively, pick up food at the supermarket.
At this point, it will likely be late afternoon. Head to the beautiful Sun Bay Beach for the remainder of the day. It’s a long crescent-shaped white sand beach with palm trees lined on one side and the blue Caribbean water lapping on the other. My friend Sam said upon seeing it, “This is straight out of a commercial.” This is also the location of the only campground on Vieques.
If you’re interested in hitting one more beach while the light lasts, drive the length of Sun Bay Beach until you enter a forested area. Go left at the fork, then right at the next fork. The road is unpaved and bumpy but a short drive will get you to Media Luna Beach (Half Moon Beach). It’s a small, hidden beach with off-white sand and very shallow waters. This is a great place to go with kids because of how calm and shallow it is for a long way.
Drive back to Esperanza for an excellent dinner at Duffy’s Esperanza. I can recommend the spicy boy chicken sandwich, ahi tuna, and fish tacos. The sunset from this location is incredible on a clear day.
It’s been a full day but we’ve saved the best for last, Puerto Mosquito Bioluminescent Bay, the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world. The most important thing you can do to make this a great experience is arrive on, or near the new moon. You can find a tour operator who will rent you kayaks and show you around. Getting a photo of the bioluminescence is impossible unless you have a serious camera for it. I bring my inflatable SUP and we go out by ourselves. I recommend a UTV because the road to get there is very rough. To get into the water you’ll have to slog through nasty mud. In good conditions, you will see perfect outlines of the sea life illuminated beneath you leaving trails of green, shimmering light as you paddle over the dark water. The Taíno people who settled Vieques believed the glowing waters of the bay were sacred, and that spirits lived in the water.
Mosquito Bay is pictured in the middle of the three inland bodies of water. The beach to the left is Sun Bay Beach, middle is Half Moon Beach. The channel on the far right feeds water into Mosquito Bay. I was told that when the Spanish colonized Puerto Rico in the late 15th century, they encountered the glowing waters of Mosquito Bay and thought the aquatic light at night was the work of the devil. They moved rocks to try and cut off the mouth of the bay, this constricted the already narrow inlet resulting in the bay becoming brighter.
Afterward, head to your lodging for some well-earned rest.
Grab breakfast in the morning at a bakery. D’frozz has some good breakfast options, that’s usually where we go. Again, grabbing lunch you can prepare and eat on the beach is a good idea because of how far from town these beaches are located.
The first beach of the day is my favorite on the island. Caracas Beach is located in the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge and has soft, white sand. I think it’s the best beach on the island. It is popular among locals and visitors alike. It has pavilions with picnic tables and BBQ’s which are often all claimed. Generally, the water is very calm and clear. Get there early to be the crowd. This picturesque Caribbean beach will only get more popular in the coming years.
Next is the picturesque La Chiva Beach stretching 1.5 miles along the southern coast of Vieques Island. The sand is almost white, a light grey like the color of dry cement. The water is shallow and crystal clear. To get there, you’ll need to drive down a bumpy dirt road through the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge. You’ll see roads to the right marked 1 – 23. The entrances to La Chiva are numbers 4 – 18. The sandy point in the middle of what looks to be a giant “W” (pictured above) is shallow a long way out, park at or near #9 to be close. You’re more likely to find seaweed and other debris at numbers 10 – 15.
Punta Galíndez is a small beach around the corner from La Chiva Beach that you might find empty. There is some good snorkeling offshore from the rocky point with the teardrop-shaped lagoon in the center. To get there, swim from the beach passing the area with waves on your left. It gets very shallow, you’ll have just enough room to swim over the coral at times. The further you go, the healthier the coral becomes until you are cruising over a beautiful, shallow reef. It will eventually get deeper and you’ll see tons of marine life and a variety of hard and soft corals. I saw a good variety of fish, sea turtles, and jellyfish. My wife saw multiple barracudas.
If you have time before your ferry departure time, there are many beautiful beaches in the Vieques Wildlife Refuge. Here are two beaches you might consider checking out:
Pata Prieta, also known as Secret Beach is one of the many beautiful beaches in the Vieques Nature Reserve. The sand is light grey, near-white which is typical of the area. The beach is set in a bay so the water is very calm. On the day we went, the water close to shore wasn’t as clear as the other nearby beaches so we didn’t stay long. That says a lot about how many amazing beaches there are on Vieques – you can afford to be choosy. You’ll need to drive down a rocky gravel road that’s rough enough that a sedan would be pushing your luck. You can find some shade underneath the trees near the entrance, but there’s not much.
Getting to the last beach in the Vieques Nature Reserve takes quite a long drive down a rough gravel road. It had more seaweed in the shallows than other nearby beaches, so I didn’t get in the water. It also has very little shade, so an umbrella is a must. Still, it’s a beautiful beach with shores sporting the area-typical light grey sand that’s nearly white. From above, you can see the nearby Culebra Island (pictured top left) and St. Thomas, USVI (pictured top right). A great beach to find yourself alone in a tropical paradise.
Alternatively, you can spend more time at Sun Bay Beach, Media Luna Beach, and drive a little further down the dirt road to make it to Navio Beach. Navio Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches in Puerto Rico. I have heard that there are rough waves there for much of the year which may make this beach not worth visiting. I cannot speak to that. I have only gone to this beach once and I had an amazing time. The water was extremely calm and crystal clear. We spent a day and a half on this beach because we liked it so much. Because these beaches are around 15 minutes away from the entrance to the nature reserve, hitting beaches deep in the nature reserve, and a remote beach like Navio, means that you’ll need to get an early start and no dilly-dallying allowed.
Fill up the tank and return your UTV to the rental company, this does not take more than 15 min. If you are leaving before they open, you can put the keys in a mailbox. Get to the ferry terminal with some time to spare. Boarding usually starts later than in Ceiba, but it still closes 10min before departure, if it’s on time. Although Vieques is much bigger than Culebra, it receives fewer visitors and the ferry terminal is smaller.
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