A review of El Yunque on our own

We arrived in port early but it was still very close to the scheduled time before we were able to debark. We seldom take ship excursions. However, I had trouble finding definitive information on taxi tours to El Yunque. So we booked a rental car and went to El Yunque Rainforest on our own. If I could have found some information on a taxi tour prior to the cruise we might have taken that. Hopefully it will help the next person though….. there were taxi tours holding signs for trips to the rainforest for about $50pp. There were also taxi tours advertising between 10-20pp to tour the Old San Juan area.

We waited for about 20 minutes for the shuttle to take us to Charlies Car rental. It took about 15 minutes to get to Charlie’s and about 10 minutes to complete the paperwork. This is significant because El Yunque closes at 6pm. So we knew that every minute counted in order to maximize time at the park.

It took about 40 minutes to drive there. We arrived about a quarter to 5. The gift shop/observatory closes at 5pm. We had just enough time to get a map and they were closing. We drove past La Coca falls. We made a quick stop for photos and continued on our way. We wanted to hike La Mina Falls. A short, 30 minute, relatively easy hike for a person without disability or young kids.  My husband and I hike frequently but this was the first time taking our children and we weren’t sure what their capabilities would be. We began the trail about 5:15. It was a little after 6 before we reached the waterfall. Again the kids slowed us down quite a bit. I think if it was just hubby and I we could have hiked there in about 20 minutes maybe faster if we jogged a portion of the way. I was hoping that the 6oclock closing wasn’t enforced. That turned out to be the case. No one kicked us off the trail at 6pm. As a matter of fact we didn’t see anyone else in the park period until around 7:30pm. We got back to the car about 7pm. By the time we reached the car there was very little daylight left. We had just enough light to see our way on the trail. For future cruisers who try this bring a few flashlights. It was DARK driving out of the rainforest. Didn’t see any street lights etc. Just the high beams on our rental and an occasional vehicle we passed on the way down.

Note to future drivers gas up after you leave the rainforest. There were plenty of gas stations then. We didn’t. There were no gas stations on the same street as the car rental return. We had to double back in order to get gas. We returned the car in Isla Verde because the closer location we picked the car up from closed at 4pm. We took a cab back about 15 minutes ($20). Another note: Charlies called an official cab for us. They warned that if we hailed a cab they might rip us off and try to increase the rate once we were inside the cab. We got back to the pier about 9:15 before a 10:00pm departure. Yeah we played it a little closer than we had hoped. We lost time doubling back for gasoline and we stopped for about an hour in Walgreens.

Just to clarify for anyone wishing to try this themselves, you may have been lucky. I was warned that there is a gate-closing at 6 PM and if they close it, you're stuck. Future visitors might want to double-check before testing their luck.

Just to clarify for anyone wishing to try this themselves, you may have been lucky. I was warned that there is a gate-closing at 6 PM and if they close it, you're stuck. Future visitors might want to double-check before testing their luck.

It's possible we were. We did see the gate closed but on the entry side, not on the exit side.

Yes, there is a gate and the 6pm closing time is basically for people entering the forest. They close the entry side first and do a round up and down the parking lots to see how many (if any) cars are still in the forest. If the drivers don't show up in a couple of hours they do go looking for you. You won't get in any real trouble but they will tell you sternly that it's time to go.