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IF you’re looking for booty-shaking sex appeal, Puerto Rico’s most famous export, Jennifer Lopez, has it by the bucket load. But don’t think her former home is all about latino lovelies and piña colada; there’s plenty more to this sophisticated island.
A melting pot of Spanish and African culture with a US veneer, it also has more varied music, food and festivals than its Caribbean neighbours, and a wide variety of activities thanks to its diverse landscape, fringed with 250 beaches.
“Puerto Rico is a combination of Caribbean geography, Hispanic culture, and US infrastructure, facilities, products and services,” said Puerto Rico Tourism Company regional business development manager Jaime Castaner. “For those holding British pounds, it is a shopping paradise offering great value for money.”
Despite this, in the UK Puerto Rico remains one of the least-known, most unsung Caribbean islands. Due to cruise traffic the UK is, however, Puerto Rico’s third-largest market. UK visitors, accounted for 4,500 bednights in 2004/05 – mainly pre or post cruise. According to Castaner, the island suffers from being dismissed as a cruise port and an Americanised island lacking in character. It is also hindered by a lack of direct UK airlift.
However, Puerto Rico continues to increase its share of the cruise and meeting, incentives, conferences and exhibitions markets, which account for the largely four and five-star hotel inventory. The Puerto Rico Convention Centre on the waterfront in capital San Juan can host 10,000 people. Golf is also big here, with 17 championship courses.
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San Juan lies to the east of the island and is one of the world’s great cruise ports. Touted as a ‘grown-up Havana’, the romantic old town is just steps from the port and has fine examples of 19th century Spanish colonial architecture. These beautifully restored buildings, painted butterscotch, mulberry and lemon, house museums, art galleries, hotels, restaurants, bars and boutiques.
Think of San Juan as a manicured Garden of Eden dripping with bougainvillea and mangoes, presided over by towering 500-year-old walls leading to the fort of El Morro and the city’s gastronomic and shopping mecca. The modern centre, Isla Verde, is filled with huge, glitzy resorts and casinos, with a few modern and boutique hotels scattered along the city’s beach.
Increasingly, cruise passengers take the hour-and-a-half drive east from San Juan to the lush foliage of El Yunque – a rainforest where the Taino Indians worshipped their gods. It’s the place to hear Puerto Rico’s endearing singing frog, the coqui. The 500-suite all-inclusive Sol Melia Paradisas opened nearby in 2004.
Other treasures waiting to be discovered include the nearby Spanish Virgin Islands, a short flight from Fajardo. Here at the pristine wildlife refuge Culebra is the dazzling white Flamenco Beach – voted one of the best in the world. It is said to have great snorkelling and diving, and a sleepy feel.
The larger island of Vieques is the place to mountain bike your way to isolated beaches, or kayak at night among glittering bioluminescence in Mosquito Bay.
Most UK visitors extending their holiday head west on a flydrive across the Ruta Panoramica – the dramatic mountainous backbone of the island – to the coast. Known for its world-class surfing, it also offers diving, windsurfing, sailing and whale-watching.
Here, it’s easier to get a taste of island life staying in paradores and visiting inexpensive restaurants serving local cuisine.
For its 35th anniversary in 2006, the Puerto Rico Tourism Company has just launched its initiative Explore Beyond the Shore, encouraging visitors to extend their stay and sample Puerto Rico’s ecotourism, such as rappelling in the Camuy Caves, hiking in the many forests and horse-riding.
A new flight with Caribbean Sun makes going via Antigua a possible route from the UK, although Puerto Rico can be reached easily from Miami, too.
Although it has a big dollop of American dream, Puerto Rico beats with a Latin heart. The UK market just needs to be convinced it’s more than a cruise jumping-off point.
