Must-see attractions in Puerto Rico

  • El Yunque National Forest

    El Yunque

    El Yunque National Forest is one of Puerto Rico’s crown jewels with nearly 29,000 acres of lush, mountainous terrain scattered with waterfalls, rushing…

  • Military tank left behind on Culebra Beach.
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    Playa Flamenco

    Culebra

    Stretching for a mile around a sheltered, horseshoe-shaped bay, Playa Flamenco (Flamenco Beach) is not only one of Culebra’s best beaches, it also makes a…

  • palm trees at Playa Tortuga (Turtle Beach) on Isla Culebrita, Puerto Rico

    Isla Culebrita

    Culebra

    If you need a reason to hire a water taxi, Isla Culebrita (Culebrita Island) is it. This small island, just east of Playa Zoni, is part of the national…

  • B366R1 The sun setting over the Puerto Mosquito mangrove bay in Vieques, Puerto Rico. The bay is bioluminescent.. Image shot 2007. Exact date unknown.
Bahía Mosquito

    Bahía Mosquito

    Vieques

    Locals claim that the magnificent Bahía Mosquito (Mosquito Bay), a designated wildlife preserve located on the island of Vieques, about 2 miles east of…

  • The lighthouse at Cabezas de San Juan National Park in Fajardo, Puerto Rico; Shutterstock ID 2094186490; purchase_order: 65050; job: ; client: ; other:
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    Cabezas de San Juan Reserva Natural

    El Yunque & East Coast

    A nodule of land on Puerto Rico’s northeast tip, this Para La Naturaleza–run reserve protects the Laguna Grande bioluminescent bay, rare flora and fauna,…

  • Puerto Rico, Old San Juan, section of El Morro Fortress

    Castillo San Felipe del Morro

    San Juan

    A star of Old San Juan, brooding El Morro sits atop a headland, deterring would-be attackers. The 140ft walls (some up to 15ft thick) date to 1539 and it…

  • Worlds largest single-dish radio telescope, the Arecibo Observatory, Arecibo, Puerto Rico. (Photo by: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

    Observatorio de Arecibo

    North Coast

    Puerto Ricans reverently refer to it as ‘El Radar’; to everyone else it is simply the largest radio telescope in the world. Resembling a spaceship…

  • Castillo de San Cristobal, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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    Castillo San Cristóbal

    San Juan

    The city's second major fort is one of the largest Spanish-built military installations in the Americas. In its prime, it covered 27 acres with a maze of…

  • Plaza del Cuartel, in front of Museo de las Americas, near Galeria Nacional/National Gallery, and Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena

    Museo de las Américas

    San Juan

    This museum presents an impressive overview of cultural development in the Americas, including indigenous, African and European influences. Four permanent…

  • SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO - JUNE 04: The entrance of the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rican Museum of Art) on June 4, 2012 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Photo by Alfredo Sosa/The Christian Science Monitort

    Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico

    San Juan

    San Juan boasts one of the largest and most celebrated art museums in the Caribbean. Housed in a splendid neoclassical building that was once the city’s…

  • Playa Zoni beach on a sunny day in Culebra, Puerto Rico.

    Playa Zoni

    Culebra

    Head to the eastern end of the island and you’ll eventually run out of road at Playa Zoni. Many locals think this is a better beach than Flamenco and it's…

  • Isla Verde Beach, San Juan, Puerto Rico

    Playa Isla Verde

    San Juan

    With countless tanned bodies lounging or flexing their biceps around the volleyball net, this urban beach basks in its reputation as the Copacabana of…

  • Palm trees on the beach, Luquillo Beach, Puerto Rico

    Playa Luquillo

    El Yunque & East Coast

    Along with its must-visit kioskos, Luquillo is synonymous with its fabulous – and hugely popular – beach. Set on a calm, northwest-facing bay and…

  • Museo de Arte de Ponce

    Ponce

    Brush Strokes in Flight, a bold primary-colored totem by American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, announces the smartly remodeled MAP, where an expertly…

  • Birth of the New World Statue

    North Coast

    Undeniably Puerto Rico's biggest, most bizarre attraction, the 362ft likeness of Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón) navigating toward the Americas is…

  • Casa Bacardí Rum Factory

    San Juan

    The ‘Cathedral of Rum’ sits in vast grounds near the mouth of San Juan Bay. Three signature tours (45 minutes to 1½ hours) are offered throughout the week…

  • Playa Ocean Park

    San Juan

    Protected by offshore reefs and caressed by cooling seasonal trade winds, this wide sweep of diamond-dust sand is a favorite of locals. But this…

  • Playa Mar Chiquita

    North Coast

    An anomaly among Puerto Rican beaches, Playa Mar Chiquita isn’t alongside a main thoroughfare, has no long strand and isn’t good for swimming or surfing…

  • Playa Carlos Rosario

    Culebra

    This remote thin, white-sand beach has one of the best snorkeling areas in Puerto Rico thanks to a barrier reef that almost encloses the beach's waters;…

  • Iglesia de Porta Coeli

    Puerto Rico

    This small, squat building might not look like much from the outside, but it is actually one of the oldest surviving ecclesial buildings in the Americas…

  • Sun Bay

    Vieques

    Part of Puerto Rico's national park system, this half-moon-shaped bay, less than a half-mile east of Esperanza, is the island’s balneario (public beach),…

  • Reserva Natural Humedal Punta Tuna

    El Yunque & East Coast

    This lush wetland reserve spans 1.4 miles of coastline, just north of the Faro Punta Tuna. Interpretive trails through the mangroves and along the beach…

  • Balneario El Escambrón

    San Juan

    This sheltered arc's raked sand, decent surf breaks, local action and a 17th-century Spanish fort shimmering in the distance are the hallmarks of what's…

  • Playa Santa

    Puerto Rico

    From the same parking space as that of Los Morrillos Lighthouse, or from another further on down the track bending left from the lighthouse-approach track…

  • Museo de Arte MUSA

    Puerto Rico

    This brilliant, bold art space is the best museum west of Ponce. Opened in 2016, it focuses on work by Puerto Rican and Latin American artists from the…

  • Culebra National Wildlife Refuge

    Culebra

    More than 20% of Culebra is part of a spectacular national wildlife refuge, which was signed into law more than 100 years ago. Most of it lies along the…

  • Playa Caracas

    Vieques

    Calm and clear, this beach is reached on a paved road and has gazebos with picnic tables to shade bathers from the sun; there's excellent snorkeling –…

  • Playa Survival

    North Coast

    Even the surfers rarely make it to remote Playa Survival, best reached by a 45-minute walk west from Playa Shacks. The narrow strip of sand found…

  • Playa La Plata

    Vieques

    This secluded beach is as far east as you can go at present, spread across a mushroom-shaped bay with icing-sugar sand and a calm sea that shimmers with a…

  • Playa La Chiva

    Vieques

    A favorite with locals, this gorgeous playa at the eastern end of the main road is long and open with occasionally rough surf. It's easy to find your own…

  • Espacio Emergente

    San Juan

    Close to the Museo de Arte Francisco Oller, this modern museum features thought-provoking work from emerging artists in Puerto Rico and beyond, including,…

  • Centro Ceremonial Indígena de Tibes

    Ponce

    The ancient ceremonial center of Tibes is one of the Caribbean's most important archaeological sites, due largely to evidence found here of pre-Taíno…

  • Lion Fountain in Plaza Las Delicias, the main square in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

    Plaza Las Delicias

    Ponce

    Within this elegant square you’ll discover Ponce's heart as well as two of the city’s landmark buildings, Parque de Bombas and Catedral Nuestra Señora…

  • Lifeguard hut, Balneario Boqueron beach, Boqueron, West Coast, Puerto Rico

    Balneario Boquerón

    Puerto Rico

    Fanning out immediately south of Boquerón town, the Balneario Boquerón arguably ranks among the best public beach facilities in Puerto Rico. The mile-long…

  • PUERTO RICO , Cordillera - view over Lago Caonillas from near Casa Grande

    Lagos Dos Bocas & Caonillas

    North Coast

    These two lakes – each more than 2 miles long – fill a deeply cleft valley at a point where karst country gives way to the jagged spine of the central…

  • Bosque Estatal de Río Abajo

    North Coast

    This 5000-acre forest just off Hwy 621, halfway between Arecibo and Utuado, sits amid some of the island's most rugged terrain. In the bosom of karst…

  • Front view of Capilla del Cristo.

    Capilla del Cristo

    San Juan

    Since 1780, tens of thousands of penitents have come to pray for miracles at the Capilla del Cristo, the tiny sanctuary at the end of a pedestrian street…

  • Casa Blanca Museum and Garden (Juan Ponce de Leon's family residence).

    Casa Blanca

    San Juan

    First constructed in 1521 as a residence for Puerto Rico’s pioneering governor, Juan Ponce de León (who died before he could move in), Casa Blanca is the…

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