Spring Break in Puerto Rico
Last week we spent a wonderful week exploring Puerto Rico, specifically Rincon. Our summers are pretty busy between work conferences, camps, church activities, etc so we intentionally take the week of Spring Break to get away from it all and explore somewhere new. Last year we went skiing in Colorado with our family, which was so much fun, but this year the kids wanted to mix it up and go somewhere tropical.
Puerto Rico is a quick 2.5 hour flight and now that Lakeland Airport offers commercial flights to Puerto Rico via Avelo Air, it was an easy decision where to go. We hopped on a flight early Saturday morning and by noon we were exploring Old San Juan.
I did some research into Old San Juan and knew going into it we really weren’t interested in spending a whole lot of time there. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of interesting sites and beautiful old buildings, but we were anxious to get to Rincon, so we grabbed a bite to eat for brunch at Caficultura (which was delicious) and a Pina Colada at Barrachina (they claim to be the birthplace of the Pina colada) and walked the streets.
After a couple of hours walking around we were back in the car and headed 2 hours west to Rincon.
The drive to Rincon is fairly easy, but if you have never driven in Puerto Rico, be warned, you definitely have to pay attention. Some of the roads aren’t in the best shape and once you get off the highway the roads get very narrow, often only one car wide for two way traffic. Road sign distances are measured in kilometers (I was thankful that converting kilometers to miles was easy for me since most races are in kilometers) and speed limit is in miles per hour. While the roads are a bit crazy, everyone driving was surprisingly courteous. Nothing like we have here in Florida. People quickly pulled over so cars could pass, no one honked their horns to speed up and in general it seemed a little slower paced.
After quickly dropping our bags off at the rental house, we quickly walked down to the beach to check it out. Amazing! The water was clear, breeze blowing (as you can tell by my hair in the photo) and we were instantly relaxed. We loved where we stayed. I found a house on Airbnb or VRBO (can’t remember which one) but instead of booking through them, I was able to book through the property management company West Indies and was able to save a little bit of money, plus I like to have direct contact with the house management then have to go through a third party. Our house was a two bedroom, two bath with the most perfect porch overlooking the ocean. If I went back, I would definitely stay there again.
Over the week we checked out the waves daily, the guys were able to surf a couple of days, we hiked to the beautiful Table Top & Survival Beach in Aguadilla, snorkeled at Crash Boat Beach and swung on the rope at Cascada Gozalandia, went to the Rincon art market, ate at great restaurants and really enjoyed nature and our time together. I plan on writing posts for the individual highlights and must dos in Rincon, so be sure to check those out!
