Tour or driver

Am looking for a reasonably priced tour for our time in San Juan. We dock 8-4. We would like to see the rain forest, waterfall, and a few sites around town. Any recommendations for a tour or driver? First time to San Juan.

If you can rent a car then do that. It's supper easy. Just one highway to get there and it is super fast. Everything is in English. Driving is easy also. But the lonely planet PR book and follow the directions.

You should be able to visit El Yunque and do an easy hike, stop for some road food and take it to El Baniario de Luquillo and then head back to cruise.

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We have used Ellis twice in PR and love him. He will customize your tour and make sure you have a good time. You can email him at fleisherellis@aol.com

He is also on Craigslist Puerto Rico

http://puertorico.craigslist.org/trv/5715775393.html?lang=en&cc=us

If you can rent a car then do that. It's supper easy. Just one highway to get there and it is super fast. Everything is in English. Driving is easy also. But the lonely planet PR book and follow the directions.

 

You should be able to visit El Yunque and do an easy hike, stop for some road food and take it to El Baniario de Luquillo and then head back to cruise.

 

 

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I would like to respectfully disagree with most of this. I live here Puerto Rico and obviously drive here often. I have been to El Yunque numerous times and driven there myself once. While you can certainly rent a car here and drive yourself around, and there are definite advantages to doing so, I don't think this post is setting realistic expectations.

It is sort of just one highway (although I am pretty sure it changes numbers at least) most of the way and doesn't take too long. However, you do have to get off the highway onto a divided highway with businesses and traffic lights, and then through a small town and then to get into and around the rain forest itself on what I consider narrow, curvy roads.

The signs are not in English. While the road signs are mostly easy to translate even without a working knowledge of Spanish (este, oeste, proxima, etc.), all the road signs are most definitely in Spanish, not English.

Lastly and most important is that driving here in Puerto Rico is not what I would call easy at all. While speed limit signs are posted, and some go that speed, going significantly faster or slower in any lane is considered acceptable. Cutting across lanes of traffic because you missed your exit (we were driving on route 20 and someone went almost perpendicular to the direction of traffic to get to their exit). Backing up down the highway because you missed your exit is also not uncommon. When I am driving here, I am always in high alert defensive driving mode. I have driven in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Washington DC and never experienced anything like driving here. Again it is definitely doable, but you should be prepared for it and not assume it will be a walk in the park.

I am not suggesting renting a car is a bad idea. It would give you the freedom to go where you want, when you want. El Yunque is beautiful and it would be a great way to spend the day going to the rain forest then grabbing lunch from the kiosks in Luquillo and going to the balenario (pubic beach) there. I would just do it with caution and be prepared for some challenges.

I am from Puerto Rico living in Boston. I visit for weeks at a time every year and always have a car. My mom lives in Rio Grande. My husband is white and does not know Spanish. He has no problem turning on google and getting everywhere even without me in the car. Driving there besides people driving like they do in every city is no different. I have driven in Rome, DC, NY and those are no worse than PR. The roads in PR are safer than those in Hawaii. From the port to El Yunque on 66 is less than 40 minutes. The rental cars all come with what we cal EasyPass so no need to stop and pay. Driving up to the rainforest is safer than driving up any of the mountain roads in the US.

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Oh and Let's just agree to disagree. I rather let others speak up. Have a good evening.[emoji12]

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