Looking for feedback - El Yunque Rain Forest in Puerto Rico please
We are going to be stopping in San Juan in November, and one of the possible excursions is to the rain forest in El Yunque. However it's a long drive and they don't give you much time there. Has anyone done one of these? Ship is only docked for 6 hours, 2pm to 6pm. Feedback? Ideas? Suggestions?
Am wondering if just puttering around San Juan - sort of a walking tour might be better? Has anyone done this?
In January we did excursions at all the ports we stopped in. Were thinking of going the opposite direction this time, and just striking out on our own, but wanted some opinions from those who have done this?
I'll give you my gut feeling. With not that much time, I would take a cab to Old San Juan, and walk around the streets. There will probably be a map in your paperwork for the day that shows where to go shop. Just use the map to find interesting things to see. Or find a guide book like Frommers or Fodors, and use their walking map. Or if you are history buffs, go to El Morro, the fort at the very tip of Old San Juan. Then get a cab back to the ship.
The big thing to see in the forest is the monkeys, but I'll bet they stay away from large groups. If you spent a few days on the island, it might be a good thing to go see, but not is you are spending just 6 hours.
We loved our time in Old San Juan. Check my journal for some of the things we did.
We looked at that excursion on our last vacation, however our stay in P.R. was very short...it certainly looked interesting, but we opted to stay in San Juan and walk around the old city, which is charming!!!
I loved the rain forest. We took one of the sponsored tours and had an excellent guide who gave us a lot of "local" and "personal" floavor to the tour. Yes, it is a long drive from the ship, but the drive did give us a (fleeting) impression of the non San Juan Puerto Rico. (So many baseball diamonds!)
The rain forest tour was primarily on paved roads although there was a short walking tour. Being a biologist by education and a amateur photographer, I loved the opportunity to take pictures of trees and flowers that I would not normally see in the states. (I have a few photographs on my Veendam web site). Personally, I like the tour and would love to go on a longer one next time a ship in in Puerto Rico for more than a few hours. And one must consider that with the global changes and increasing development of the world, we do not know how long it is until civilization totally changes the makeup of the forest. Best to see it as soon as you can because you may not get another opportunity.
We ended up going to El Yunque, and loved it. Great scenery, and the tour guide was very informative. He really went the extra mile to point things out. Great day!!!
Glad you liked it, Beth! Might I ask, who was your tour guide? One of the reasons I liked our tour so much was becasue the guide was very informative and gave us many personal anecdotes.
....let me think on that...Rod will know.... I'll post it later when he comes home. We booked that tour through RCI, it was not booked privately. But I do remember him saying he does private tours.
The tour was very beautiful. I think we snapped at least 200 pics. Some are in our gallery here. Have a peek.
We ended up going to El Yunque, and loved it. Great scenery, and the tour guide was very informative. He really went the extra mile to point things out. Great day!!!Beth
Beth .... So GREAT of you to take the time to post when you returned!
Please tell us more about what you actually saw ... lots of folks will be interested!
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Looking for feedback - El Yunque Rain Forest in Puerto Rico please
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Looking for feedback - El Yunque Rain Forest in Puerto Rico please
Rain Forest in San Juan
Best, LuLu
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