Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico truly is one of the best destinations you can visit. It doesn't matter what type of vacation goer you are, Puerto Rico has something for everyone. Food, people, culture, adventure it really has it all! One thing that does seem to draw in more tourists every year though, are Puerto Rico's two smaller islands. The island of Vieques and the island of Culebra. These smaller islands are just a short ferry ride or plane ride away and they offer some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. In this blog post I am going to give you a brief overview of what to expect from each of the islands and then I am going to dive into the most important question: How do you get there? With multiple options, how do you know which is best for you? We will tackle that in this post! I will discuss cost, time, level of difficulty and all of the details to help you decide how you would want to travel to experience the beauty that these islands have to offer.
Puerto Rico's Smaller Islands
Puerto Rico has two smaller islands, the island of Vieques and the island of Culebra. Let's discuss Vieques first.
Vieques
Vieques is the bigger of the two islands. It offers a wide variety of beaches from white sand beaches perfect for relaxing, to rocky beaches that are perfect for photographing. To get around this island you will need either a car or a golf cart, as it is bigger. There are hotels and airbnb options for your stay on this island as well as some restaurants and bars. To see more details on this beautiful island and what our time there looked like check out the post A Perfect Day on the Island of Vieques.
Culebra
Culebra is the smaller of the two islands. It also has beautiful beaches, although I would argue that culebras beaches are more for snorkeling than relaxing, unless you go to Flamenco beach. Did you know that beach is rated among the top ten in the world! Culebra is much smaller, so there is very limited lodging and nightlife options here. This is the island you would go to just for beaches and wildlife. To see more about this island and to hear about our time there check out the post Tackling Culebra in a Day.
Transportation: Your Options
There are two methods of transportation that can get you from the main land to the smaller islands. Ferry boat and small airplane. Now we will cover the pros and cons of each method so that you can determine which option is best for you when you are visiting.
Ferry Boat
One good thing about travelling by ferry boat is that it is very cheap. The average price for a ferry boat ticket is around $2.00 USD. One not so good thing about the ferry boat, is that we were told it is not always reliable with the times. Sometimes they show up much earlier, or much later than they were scheduled. Also, they do not necessarily run on the hour. So if you miss your ferry you may be stuck at the ferry terminal for quite some time.
The ferry port in Ceiba can take you to both Vieques and Culebra. Ferry ride time to Vieques is 30 minutes. Ferry ride time to Culebra is 45 minutes.
This option is cost effective, moderately quick, and semi reliable. Unfortunately, when we visited the islands the ferry was not open to tourists do to the pandemic. So we had to take the alternate method of travel , flying!
To find out more about the ferry and to see availability and scheduling, check out their website: https://www.puertoricoferry.com/
Airplane
I want to begin by addressing the price difference between these two options, because I know that that will be a determining factor for many people. If you choose to fly to Vieques or Culebra, it is a much more expensive option than the ferry boat.
While the ferry boat would cost you around 5 dollars round trip, the flight to the island cost us about 110 dollars round trip. However, when I tell you I think it was worth it, please believe me.
While you will be coughing up more cash, there are a ton of benefits to flying. For starters, it is much faster. Flight time to Vieques is 10 minutes...that's right 10 minutes! And flight time to Culebra was about 20-25 minutes. It is one of those flights were as soon as you are in the air you are back down again.
I should mention that you are not flying on a large commercial jet for this flight. You are on a tiny 6 passenger plane for these flights. As someone who has a fear of flying, I thought that this would bother me a lot; but surprisingly it didn't! The views were amazing and it actually didn't feel so scary being in a little plane.
In addition to faster travel time, the flight option is also a little more reliable. Unless there is some crazy weather, you can expect your flight to depart and arrive when they are scheduled to. For us, it allowed us to maximize our time on each island. We only spent one night on Vieques and we just did one day trip to Culebra, so we didn't want to waste hours of hour day getting there.
That's it for today folks! I hope this helps you narrow down your options. If you have a tight budget but a lot of time, I'd opt for the ferry option. If you are short on time and can afford it I would go for the flight! Maybe take a ferry to one island and a plane to another just to give both a try!
Until next time,
Steph
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