Puerto Rico

Old San Juan — a 7-square-block walled colonial city on a rocky peninsula, with blue adoquin cobblestones (ballast stones from Spanish galleons, laid to pave the streets in the 16th century), El Morro (Castillo San Felipe del Morro — a 140m cliff-top fortress begun in 1539, the most impressive Spanish colonial fortification in the Americas) and the pastel facades of La Fortaleza (the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere).

💡 El Morro (Castillo San Felipe del Morro) was begun in 1539 and took 170 years to complete to its current 6-level form. Its function was to guard the entrance to San Juan Bay from pirate and naval attack; the fort repelled Francis Drake (1595) and George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland (1598). Only the Duke of Albemarle (1625) briefly occupied it. The fort was never taken by force by a sea-borne attack — it was only surrendered to US forces in 1898 after Spain’s military defeat on land.

Castillo San Cristóbal (begun 1634, the largest Spanish fort in the Americas at 11 hectares, guarding the eastern approach to the city overland) and the Condado Lagoon (the Art Deco hotel strip, the original beach resort of Puerto Rico, 1930s) and La Perla (the working-class barrio squeezed between the city wall and the Atlantic, the filming location of Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” video, with colourful houses and a rough, authentic charm).

💡 La Perla was built by enslaved and free Afro-Puerto Ricans outside the walls of the colonial city — they were not permitted inside the gates after dark. The neighbourhood, built on a narrow ledge between the wall and the sea, became home to the most influential Afro-Caribbean music scene in Puerto Rico. “Despacito” (2017, Luis Fonsi — the most-watched YouTube video in history at its peak) was filmed here.

1h30 from San Juan. El Yunque National Forest — the only tropical rainforest in the US National Forest system (28,000 acres of Caribbean rainforest on the mountains of the northeast, receiving 250cm of annual rainfall, with 240 tree species, 150 fern species and the Puerto Rican parrot — one of the 10 most endangered birds in the world, with wild population now 100+ after recovery from a nadir of 13 in the 1970s).

💡 The Puerto Rican parrot (Amazona vittata) was reduced to 13 individuals in 1975 by habitat loss, nest competition from pearly-eyed thrashers and hunting — the lowest wild population of any parrot species in history. A captive breeding and release programme, the most intensive for any bird species in the US, has raised the wild population to 100+ in El Yunque and 60+ in the Rio Abajo forest.

1h ferry from Ceiba. Vieques — a small island 8km east of the Puerto Rico mainland, with the finest beach in the Caribbean (Flamenco Beach — a perfect horseshoe of white sand, no development, calm water, consistently ranked in the world’s top 10 beaches) and Mosquito Bay (the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world — single-celled dinoflagellates glow blue-green when disturbed by movement, lighting up kayak paddles, swimmer’s hands and jumping fish).

💡 Mosquito Bay (Bahia Bioluminiscente) on Vieques contains the highest concentration of bioluminescent dinoflagellates (Pyrodinium bahamense) of any water body in the world — up to 720,000 per gallon. The effect is most intense on moonless nights when the glow can be seen from the air. The bay was threatened by the US Navy’s bombing range (Vieques was a Navy testing ground until 2003); it has recovered significantly since the Navy left.

A full day on Vieques — Flamenco Beach in the morning (the last undeveloped beach of this quality remaining anywhere in the Caribbean, 1km of white sand backed by wooded hills, no cars, no vendors), the wild horses of Vieques (a herd of semi-wild horses descended from Spanish colonial stock that roams the island roads and beaches freely) and a kayak tour of Mosquito Bay at dusk.

💡 The wild horses of Vieques are descended from horses left behind when the US Navy took over the island in 1941 and displaced the farming population. The horses have been feral for 80 years, roaming the forests and beaches of the eastern and western wildlife refuges. They are genetically closest to Paso Fino horses and are considered a cultural heritage of the island.

1h ferry from Vieques. Culebra — a tiny island (30km², population 2,000) with Flamenco Beach (consistently the finest beach in the Caribbean by multiple rankings — wait, that’s Vieques; Culebra has Playa Flamenco, also extraordinary) and Playa Flamenco (a perfect half-moon of white sand, sea grape shade, no development) and the finest snorkelling in the Puerto Rico region at Playa Tamarindo.

💡 Playa Flamenco on Culebra is one of two beaches in the region with the same name as Flamenco Beach on Vieques — both are extraordinary, both relatively undeveloped, and both rank in world top-10 beach lists. Culebra’s population of 2,000 maintains a tight control over development; the island has resisted the resort development that consumed other Caribbean islands.

2h30 from San Juan. Ponce — Puerto Rico’s second city, with the finest Creole architectural heritage on the island (the Ponce Museo de Arte, the finest art museum in the Caribbean, with 4,500 works including Rubens and a strong Latin American collection) and the Hacienda Buena Vista (a restored 19th-century coffee estate in the mountains above Ponce). Fly from Luis Muñoz Marín (SJU).

💡 Puerto Rico is the birthplace of piña colada — the drink was allegedly invented at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan in 1954 by barman Ramón Marrero (using Coco López cream of coconut, pineapple juice and Don Q rum). The claim is disputed by another barman, Ramón Por-tas Mingot, at the Barrachina bar in Old San Juan; both establishments display plaques.