The weather
There’s no such thing as the winter blues in Puerto Rico, where a tropical marine climate and average temperature of 26C make for an endless summer. While there is a wet season – between April and November – rather than the sludge-grey skies and sideways drizzle we Brits are so familiar with, it’s generally characterised by short, dramatic downpours scattered throughout the afternoon. Don’t be alarmed if you see ten days of rain on your weather app: tropical showers rarely hang around for long enough to get in the way.
Sublime stays
Puerto Rico is home to a range of characterful accommodation, spanning traditional paradores (small country inns) to brutalist concrete pleasure palaces that would look perfectly at home in NYC. Along the way, you’ll find glamping sites, coffee haciendas, farm stays, design-savvy urban crash pads and luxurious beachside five-stars. The only downside? Choosing which to book.
Beach beauties
Looking for a beach that could star in a Bounty ad? You’ve come to the right place. Puerto Rico’s north is best for urban beaches – Isla Verde, Ocean Park Beach, Condado – while the west (we’re looking at you, Rincón) offers world-class surfing and myriad water sports options. Or take a 15-minute seaplane ride from mainland Ceiba to the beguiling Vieques island, where you’ll have your choice of sands in shades of red, black and icing sugar-white, with only wild horses for company.
Fusion food
From a cooking pot that simmers with Spanish, African and indigenous TaÃno ingredients, Puerto Rico serves up its distinctive cuisine. For a true flavour of the island, make as many pits stops as your appetite will allow. You’ll find mom-and-pop-style roadside stalls selling warm empanadas (pastry turnovers) and corn frituras (fritters) and neighbourhood joints cooking up traditional-style – known as cocina criolla – dishes. They include mofongo (meat- or seafood-filled plantain) and lechón (roast pig). An ever-evolving farm-to-fork movement is also to be celebrated.
Historic Old San Juan
For that trip in a time-machine feeling, visit Old San Juan’s magnificent 16th-century fort. Its luxurious lawn now just perfect for lounging on, and the ice-cream carts a welcome modern-day addition. Stroll along atmospheric cobbled streets flanked by traditional houses in candy colours, explore sun-dappled plazas packed with cafés, cocktail bars and destination restaurants, before checking out Catedral Basilica Metropolitana de San Juan Bautista, home to the tomb of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. Ignore Google Maps and allow yourself to get lost within the old city walls.
Tuning in
Hands up who knows Spotify’s most-streamed artist globally in a single day? It’s Puerto Rican rapper and singer Benito Antonio MartÃnez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, whose latest album, Un Verano Sin Ti (A Summer Without You) is currently filling dance-floors everywhere from Puerto Rico to Paris. But this is a country that sways to the beat of all kinds of music, as traditional salsa, merengue and bomba sounds are carried on ocean breezes night and day. Head to San Juan’s La Placita de Santurce on a Thursday or Friday night to hear it for yourself at the neighbourhood’s joy-filled, salsa street party.
Coffee central
Puerto Ricans love their coffee. Whether you start your day with an icy frappe or a punchy cortado (espresso with a little steamed milk), at a roadside stand or a chi-chi café, you’ll find a spot to hit that caffeine craving. While coffee is woven into the history of this island (with the first arabica trees arriving with the Spanish in the 1800s), island café culture is relatively new having, ironically, been ushered in by the arrival of the country’s first Starbucks, in 2022. Seeing the demand for good beans served in a social setting, the island’s coffee farmers diversified their offering, and are continuing to develop artisanal coffee brands that are so good you’ll wish you had a separate carry-on in which to bring several kilos home. Take a tour of Jayuya’s fourth-generation owned Hacienda San Pedro to see where the magic happens.
