Best Beaches in Puerto Rico: Flamenco Beach, Culebra and Bioluminescent Bays
- The Anonymous Hungry Hippopotamus
- May 23, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 28
After Old San Juan's history and Santurce's art scene, Puerto Rico offered a different kind of education: the water. The island is surrounded by two bodies of water — the Atlantic to the north, the Caribbean to the south — and each produces a slightly different ocean, different conditions, different light. I spent time in both, and then, on the final night, in a mangrove bay that glows in the dark. Puerto Rico revealed itself to me, in the end, through water.
Condado
Condado is the beachfront counterpart to Old San Juan's history — less fortress, more shoreline, the kind of neighborhood where the ocean is never more than a few minutes' walk in any direction.
Condado Ocean Club
I stayed at the Condado Ocean Club, where the design keeps the water constantly in view — from the bars, the restaurant, the lounges, and the room itself, where I fell asleep to the sound of waves and woke to the same rhythm.
View From Hotel Room
There are worse ways to spend a night.
Or a rainy day.
Culebra Island
Culebra sits seven miles off Puerto Rico's eastern coast — a small island of roughly ten square miles, sparsely populated, largely undeveloped, and in possession of some of the clearest water in the Caribbean.
Reaching it requires a ninety-minute drive to the ferry terminal in Ceiba, followed by an hour crossing.
The effort is entirely proportionate to what awaits on the other side.
Culebra Port
The main port for Culebra is located in Dewey (also known as Culebra Pueblo), the island's only town.
Tamarindo Beach
From the port, we drove to Tamarindo Beach to snorkel. Tamarindo Beach is known for its clear, calm waters that make for great snorkeling visibility.
Tamarind Tree
As the name conveys, it is also known for its plentiful tamarind trees.
Tamarind Pod
Tamarind fruit comes from a tree that is native to Africa and Asia, but also grows in tropical climates worldwide. If your experience with tamarind is through Thai or Indian food, you might describe it as sour, which is the flavor of the fruit when it is dried or unripe.
Tamarind Fruit
When the fruit is fully ripe however, it is mostly sweet with a hint of sour, and is perfect for snacking on straight out of the pod, as we did right before our snorkel adventure. Then it was time to jump in and enjoy the underwater scenery while our tour guide photographed the wildlife we encountered. The pictures she took are below.
Green Sea Turtle
It didn't take long to see a green sea turtle because this area is teeming with them, an additional reason why Tamarindo Beach is a very popular snorkeling site.
Another reason is the vibrant, coral reef located a reasonable swimming distance from the shore.
Black and White Clown Fish
Once we got to the reef, there was plenty of underwater activity. We saw many black and white clown fish, ...
Jellyfish
... too many jellyfish, which we tried to avoid, ...
Sea Fan
... beautiful coral like this purple sea fan, ...
Fire Coral
... dangerous coral like this fire coral that will burn you if touched, ...
Brain Coral
... and brain coral, known for its dome shape and distinctive surface that looks like the grooves and folds of a brain.
Sea Anemone
We also saw several sea anemones, and ...
Stingray
... this seemingly sleeping stingray, hiding under the sand that ...
... woke up and swam away as soon as we approached. After nearly 90 minutes of snorkeling, we left Tamarindo Beach to head to an even more famous beach a few miles away.
Flamenco Beach
Flamenco Beach is named after nearby Flamenco Lagoon, named as such because it once attracted flamingos.
This beach is considered one of the top 50 beaches in the world, according to many lists, and was once deemed the second best beach in the world by the Discovery Channel.
One look at the soft, white sand, swaying palm trees ...
... and crystal-clear, aquamarine waters, and I understood why. As I stepped onto the sand, it felt almost unreal. The water was so clear and intensely turquoise that it looked edited, as though someone had increased the saturation of the entire coastline.
Amidst all of the natural beauty is an incongruous sight: this tank left on the shore by the U.S. Navy.
Following Spain's cedeing of Puerto Rico to the United States (more on that in my first Puerto Rico post), the U.S. Navy took over the island and shores of Culebra, regularly conducting test landings, ground maneuvers, and practice bombings there.
In 1970, the residents of Culebra — a small population on a small island, with no particular power except their persistence — began seven months of non-violent protest. They succeeded. The Navy withdrew its testing operations from the island in 1975. The tanks they left behind have been painted over, generation after generation, by locals reclaiming them as surfaces rather than weapons. They sit in the parking lot of Flamenco Beach as monuments to what ordinary people, sufficiently determined, can accomplish.
Carne Frita
Post snorkeling at Tamarindo Beach and swimming at Flamenco Beach, it was time for some sustenance. In the Flamenco Beach parking lot, you will find several kiosks selling various types of food. I opted for the carne frita, or fried pork chunks, which were both crispy and tender.
Arroz con Frijoles
They came with arroz con frijoles or rice and beans. The beans were flavored with sazon, a Puerto Rican spice and sofrito, a blend of garlic, onion, green bell pepper, cilantro and tomato sauce.
After a very full day in the water and with full bellies, we boarded the boat to return to San Juan.
As if the day hadn't been perfect enough, we were fortunate to catch the sun setting over the water as a bonus.
Fajardo
The last water experience in Puerto Rico was also the most extraordinary.
Fajardo sits an hour east of San Juan on the island's northeastern coast, and its main claim on a traveler's attention is Laguna Grande — one of three bioluminescent bays in Puerto Rico, and one of the brightest in the world.
View from Hotel
I drove out the night before, stayed in a hotel, and waited for dark.
My Fajardo hotel stay gave me an opportunity to explore another Puerto Rican city, as well as to meet this usually vociferous, tropical bird that decided to pipe down and start preening as soon as I turned my camera on.
Bioluminescent Bay
The most important reason I was keen on visiting Fajardo is because it is home to Laguna Grande, a bioluminescent bay. In fact, Puerto Rico has three bioluminescent bays, including the world's brightest. In bays such as these, the water glows due to microscopic organisms called dinoflagellates.
There are two catches, however. First, the dinoflagellates must be disturbed in order to emit light, and second, it should ideally be pitch dark to see the glow cast by these organisms. For that reason, we waited for a near moonless night and then set out into the bay on our kayaks after about 9:30 pm.
Once on our way, we had to paddle against the current through a mangrove, with only a sliver of moonlight to guide us. After about 40 minutes, we reached an area where dinoflagellates were known to amass.
Laguna Grande Bioluminescent Bay
Because we were no longer under the cover of the mangroves, there was still some visible light in the sky, making it more difficult to see the bioluminescence. As a result, our tour guide covered us and our kayak with a tarp to create absolute darkness.
Every movement produced light. A hand pushed through the surface left a trail of blue-green luminescence that lingered for a moment before fading. A foot kicked forward became a brief comet. The kayak paddle left two lines of light with every stroke. The water was not merely reflecting something — it was generating light, from within itself, in response to being disturbed. I kept moving my hands just to watch what happened. I was not the only one.
I also won't forget the downpour that began as soon as we started paddling back to shore and continued until we arrived, or the mangrove branch that slammed into my forehead as we tried to navigate our kayak through the darkness, under a constant cascade of rain. (I don't have great pictures of the experience or any of the bioluminescence because I don't have a sophisticated enough camera or skills to capture photos in low light. Sorry.)
Drenched and amazed, I returned to my hotel safely. Exhausted, but still too exhilarated from my adventure to sleep, I took a midnight stroll on the beach.
Puerto Rico revealed itself to me through water. Whether glowing beneath a tarp in the darkness, crashing against the shores of Condado, or shimmering turquoise around Culebra's reefs, the ocean seemed to shape every unforgettable moment of the journey.
Practical notes to add:
Culebra ferry departs from Ceiba (not Fajardo — the terminal moved). Book in advance, especially on weekends and holidays. The crossing takes about an hour.
Flamenco Beach: No shade trees on the beach itself. Bring your own umbrella, sunscreen, and water. Food kiosks in the parking lot are open most days.
Bioluminescent Bay tours: Book through a licensed kayak operator. Tours typically depart around 9:30-10pm.
Laguna Grande in Fajardo is one of three bioluminescent bays in Puerto Rico (the others are Mosquito Bay on Vieques and La Parguera). Mosquito Bay is considered the brightest in the world.
Comments