Did you know that Puerto Rico has a rainforest? The rainforest in Puerto Rico is called El Yunque. I was lucky enough to grow up with family members who frequently traveled to Puerto Rico. I have been able to visit now 4 times throughout my life and I know this is a place I will keep going back to.
Although my family visited the rainforest and took me there, I noticed on my last trip to Puerto Rico that many visitors didn’t even know about the rainforest. They came for the culture and the beautiful beaches and were blissfully unaware of the beautiful forest so close by!
This post is meant to introduce you a bit to the rainforest and suggest a really nice tour that I did recently with the most incredible tour guide.
Visiting El Yunque
You can visit the rainforest on your own with a rental car. When my parents took me to visit Puerto Rico we visited this way. We had no trouble doing hikes, seeing waterfalls, and enjoying the beauty of the rainforest without a guide.
HOWEVER, even though you CAN do it on your own, a guide truly does enhance the experience, if you have the right one. It’s nice to have someone who knows exactly where you can walk, can teach you about the plants & history, can show you where it’s safe to swim and jump, and can take you around with ease!
Marlon was the most effortlessly wonderful guide. We could tell right away that he was going to be so much fun, and that he was full of passion for Puerto Rico and the rainforest. He grew up enjoying the area and was so well versed in absolutely everything. It seemed that he knew every single human we encountered throughout our day and everyone greeted him with such big smiles and enthusiasm. It was easy to tell he was well liked and after spending the day with him it’s easy to see why. The rest of this post will detail the tour we did!
I am sure you could also reach out to Marlon for a more personalized experience if you want something slightly different, I know I will be doing that the next time I return to Puerto Rico.
The Tour Itinerary
I found the itinerary for this tour to be excellent and a good amount of time for everything. I was never bored on this tour. Note that these times are all approximate and just from memory.
7:30 am picked up from a Central location. We were staying in Old San Juan and the pick up spot was about 10 minutes away. This tour was small, only 5 of us total. We saw many MUCH larger groups in the rainforest and I really appreciated the small group and personal experience. I also appreciated the early pick up. We got to do a lot of the rain forest activities before bigger tour groups arrived.
8:00 Stopped at a shop for some fruit & smoothies. Marlon made a truly epic smoothie that we got to try, he should probably add it into the tour (wink wink)!
8:30 By this time we were in the rainforest walking the trail. Personally I found the trail to be super easy and honestly not that thrilling in terms of actual hiking. If I were to go back I would hire Marlon again to take me on some much deeper hikes. However, it was beautiful, we learned a lot, and I loved where we ended up. I loved that Marlon knew so much about all the plants around us, we actually tasted some of the different plants and learned some REALLY interesting things about the nature in the rainforest.
9:00-11:00 We spent time enjoying the rainforest. We slid down natural waterfalls, swam in the river, did the rope swing and some casual cliff jumping! It was fun to watch everyone take their turns with different activities, everyone was encouraging one another and cheering one another on. Marlon put on a show for all of the groups in the area doing flips and epic cliff jumps. Then, Marlon cut up all the fruit we’d picked up that morning and we had a little fruit picnic. It was absolutely fantastic, if you are in Puerto Rico you must eat all the mango you can!
11:00 after hanging around for a while we hiked back to the car to head to the Luquillo Kiosks which are right along Luquillo beach. This is SUCH an incredibly beautiful area to spend time. We first stopped at a little drink hut and we got some frozen mixed drinks. I tried a passion fruit coconut mixed with a Pina colada and it was delightful! I am sure that the guide would alter this stop based on the needs of the group, we were all into the idea of having a cocktail at this point. There are so many kiosks with so much to offer, you could get a virgin version of these drinks, or get something else entirely.
12:00 then we had lunch at one of the Kiosks, it was called “Edelweiss” and it was fantastic. Despite the name it was very authentic Puerto Rican food and it was DELICIOUS! I had trifongo with lobster and garlic cream sauce, my cousin had shrimp with risotto and garlic cream sauce. We were both thrilled with our meals and would have gone back if we had more time on our trip!
After lunch we were taken back to our meeting point near Old San Juan. Marlon was so energetic and kind, he chatted with us the whole day and felt like hanging with a friend. He taught us so much about the rainforest and Puerto Rico and I couldn’t recommend him more highly as your guide to enjoy this beautiful place.
Pro Tip: If I could do this tour again, I would have had Marlon leave us on the beach at Luquillo. We could have arranged another type of transport home and stayed on the beach for a few hours, Luquillo is a STUNNING beach.
If this all sounds great to you the easiest way to book this exact tour with Marlon is to click here. You can thank me later!