Traveling to Puerto Rico's Isla de Vieques

We wanted to see both "Spanish Virgin Islands" even though we only had six nights in Puerto Rico. We went to Culebra on a day trip and flew to and back from Culebra on the same day. For Vieques, however, we needed to stay a night so that we could participate in the late evening kayaking activity on the Mosquito Bay bioluminescent tour.

We flew from Ceiba (RVR) to Vieques with Vieques Air Link just as we had done on the previous day to fly to Culebra (CPX). Our flights to Vieques and back were $40 each way for the advertised 10 minute long flight (flights to Culebra and back were $45 each way for that 15 minute long flight).

I have described Ceiba's airport (José Aponte de la Torre Airport) in greater detail in my post on traveling to Culebra.

I loved flying out of and back to this small, calm, and uncrowded aiport.

The Ceiba airport was a bit busier today with about ten of us total (five in our party) waiting for upcoming flights. Google Maps told me this is about "as busy as it gets."

I also enjoyed flying so low again, this time to Vieques.

The airport on Vieques (Antonio Rivera Rodríguez Airport) is also small.

We were not allowed to go upstairs, presumably because of COVID-19.

There are no food or beverage options directly in the small terminal of the airport, but Isla Nena Cafe is situated just outside the main front door of the terminal on an elevated level accessed by a small set of stairs.

Signs at the Vieques airport made it clear why it was so important to follow COVID-19 prevention protocols.

There were no public transportation options immediately available, but there was a listing of telephone numbers of local porteadores publicos on the left side and inside of door that opened to the curved street.

When it was time to fly out of Vieques the next morning to return to the Puerto Rico mainland, we checked in at the Vieques Air Link desk which is in a more modern and well air conditioned separate building next to the main terminal. There is a nice shaded courtyard that passengers can sit in while waiting the 45 minutes for their flight.

The next photograph shows the airplane we rode back from Vieques to Ceiba on the runway.

This photograph shows us taking off from the Vieques airport.

We rode this small airplane a total of four times (to Culebra and back and then to Vieques and back) and being in a different seat on each flight changed the perspective.

You can see Vieques's Mosquito Pier in this photograph.

Flying to Culebra or Vieques is definitely a fun adventure.

Although flying to Vieques cost more than riding the ferry, the flights were very rewarding. Perhaps even more importantly, tourists were not allowed to ride the ferry to Vieques until just the week before we went to Puerto Rico and we didn't want to miss out on Vieques if the ferry was not available to us. Riding the airplane to and from Vieques also allowed us more time to enjoy that remarkable island despite the little amount of time we had budgeted for our Vieques visit.

Traveling to Puerto Rico's Isla Culebra

Although we had only six nights in Puerto Rico during our first trip there, we wanted to experience the "Spanish Virgin Islands" of Puerto Rico during that short time. This post is about how we traveled to and from Puerto Rico's Isla Culebra.

The two primary methods for getting from mainland Puerto Rico to Culebra are via ferry or small airplane. We made our arrangements during the height of COVID-19 and the status of the ferry for transporting tourists was frequently changing. Even in the best of times, the ferry has some well advertised dependability issues and residents get priority over tourists.

Because we had so little time in Puerto Rico and because we wanted to improve our chances of getting to and spending a minimally reasonable amount of time on Culebra, we opted for the more dependable (but also more expensive) airplane ride there.

This turned out to be a prudent decision because our scheduled kayakaying tour (Culebra Island Kayak and Snorkel with Turtles Adventure) was cancelled the day before when the tour operator was not able to get its tour guides on the ferry to the island in the morning of our day trip to Culebra.

Our flight to Culebra was out of the airport in Ceiba (José Aponte de la Torre Airport (RVR)).

The photograph above shows the entire "terminal" and the parking lot in front of it.

The parking was reasonably priced (especially as compared to parking in garage parking at Denver International Airport) and very close to the terminal.

After entering the building and having our temperatures scanned by members of the Puerto Rico National Guard, we were already in the main room of the terminal (shown in next photograph and the only other public room being a smaller room by the door to the tarmac).

The preceding and following photographs show how uncrowded this airport was (our group was the only group of passengers in the airport for about 20 minutes before a couple that would be on our flight with us showed up).

There are no restaurants or dining options in this small airport, but there are vending machines with reasonably priced (for vending machines) items.

When we were purchasing our airplane tickets online, the two main alternatives were Vieques Air Link and AirFlamenco. We had no particular reason to prefer one over the other and the prices were similar, but we ended up selecting Vieques Air Link (VAL) for both our flights to/from Culebra and to/from Vieques.

The flight from Ceiba to Culebra and back to Ceiba from Culebra were 15 minutes each and cost $45 each (included single bag up to thirty pounds) at the time of our reservation.

We only had to be at the airport 45 minutes before departure time and there was no TSA line to worry about.

The low-flying flight was beautiful and fun and was one of rare times I wished the flight was longer!

The airport on Culebra (Benjamín Rivera Noriega Airport (CPX)) was even smaller than Ceiba's airport.

Although the Culebra airport is even smaller than the Ceiba airport, the Culebra airport does have a vendor selling food items and beverages, but that vendor's hours are limited.

San Juan National Historical Site

There probably aren't many lists, if any, of "things to do in San Juan" that fail to mention San Juan National Historical Site. There are several components of San Juan National Historic Site that include "Castillo San Felipe del Morro, Castillo San Cristóbal, most of the city walls, the San Juan Gate and Fort San Juan de la Cruz just across the entrance to the bay."

A smaller, less known part of the San Juan National Historic Site allows for sweeping views of the harbor.

We unfortunately did not have enough time to tour both main components of San Juan National Historic Site (Castillo San Felipe del Morro and Castillo San Cristóbal), so we chose to tour Castillo San Cristobal.

We were surprised how few other people were present in the spacious Castillo San Cristóbal and suspect part of this was no cruise shops allowed at the time.

The main level of Castillo San Cristóbal is accessed by walking up a ramp from the street.

That level with the entrance contains photographs and displays providing historical details of Castillo San Cristóbal over the decades. These displays are in covered/shaded (but open air) areas in the outside walls.

All levels feature some outstanding views.

Although we did not have time to tour Castillo San Felipe del Morro, we did drive closer to it before heading to the airport. We drove through a narrow tunnel to park next to the Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery.

Leaving the cemetery was a bit stressful on narrow streets and through another narrow tunnel, but we finally got back to the larger streets. Although we did not have time to tour "El Morro," we had been able to see it from the outside from various perspectives including from San Juan Harbor.