San Juan to El Yunque Rainforest

Magical_Suitcase

aka: kid-at-heart
Joined
Oct 9, 2018
Has anyone made this trek? We are planning on flying into San Juan a few days before our cruise next February and would like to visit the rainforest. We do not want to go with a "guided" tour but cannot figure out how to get from San Juan to the rainforest without a rental car. We do not want to rent a car. Any suggestions? Are there shuttles that can be shared that will take you to the forest, drop you off and then pick you up at a designated time?

Thanks!
Kate
 
Has anyone made this trek? We are planning on flying into San Juan a few days before our cruise next February and would like to visit the rainforest. We do not want to go with a "guided" tour but cannot figure out how to get from San Juan to the rainforest without a rental car. We do not want to rent a car. Any suggestions? Are there shuttles that can be shared that will take you to the forest, drop you off and then pick you up at a designated time?

Thanks!
Kate

It’s been several years since I have been to El Yunque, and things may have changed it because of the damage from the hurricane. But, I think a car will be essential. You might find a way to be driven and picked up at the visitor center but there isn’t any way to explore the forest area without having a car. Unless things have changed, there was no internal transportation provided by the forest service itself. To get from one area to another you had to drive.

I would guess that guided tour operations are available from San Juan, and a search for guided tours of El Yunque would probably bring up several options.
 
We did it in a car rental. We couldn't figure out any other way. Unless you want to go with an organized tour, you really don't have any other choice. The way the forest is set up, you pretty much drive through it. It isn't like you can take a taxi to the edge of the forest and then trek through it. There is a main road that runs through the forest and then you stop at various points along the way (they have little parking lots) and then you can take various paths to various points of interest (or some are right at the parking lot like a waterfall or the observation tower).

Is there a reason you don't want to rent a car? It really wasn't a big deal (for us) and we enjoyed also being able to stop at a lovely beach nearby where they have kiosks for lunch. Here's the posting from our trip log about that day: Wonder 7-day January 20, 2019 - Southern Caribbean Fun!
 
Thank you both very much for the information. I guess I assumed it would be like other Rainforests we have visited where you started at a visitor's center and hiked various trails at your leisure. Oh well, I will look into tours.

Neither of us like to drive and yet much of our day is spent behind the wheel. When on vacation, if we can, we avoid having to drive.

Off now to read anricat's report.

:)

Kate
 


You might want to seriously consider looking into Jerry's Adventure Tours, the Hidden Waterfall Hike. He will pick you up anywhere, drive you to private property in the rainforest, and you hike to 2 amazing waterfalls. We stopped at the first one as our children were 5 and just loved it! We then dined at an amazing local restaurant.

We hate driving on vacation, so letting Jerry do it was such a relief....yet we had our own family "tour" at our own pace. Magical experience!
 

Attachments

  • FC6023B8-171B-4F59-91B5-B5EC1CF1E958.jpeg
    FC6023B8-171B-4F59-91B5-B5EC1CF1E958.jpeg
    180.1 KB · Views: 9
You might want to seriously consider looking into Jerry's Adventure Tours, the Hidden Waterfall Hike. He will pick you up anywhere, drive you to private property in the rainforest, and you hike to 2 amazing waterfalls. We stopped at the first one as our children were 5 and just loved it! We then dined at an amazing local restaurant.

We hate driving on vacation, so letting Jerry do it was such a relief....yet we had our own family "tour" at our own pace. Magical experience!

Jerry's sounds perfect. I just googled his tour and it sounds like one we would enjoy even if we are not "tour" people. It looks like he does private tours also. Is this what your family did? Would you mind sharing a bit more information? How long was the tour, what did you do, etc.

Thank you!

Kate
 
The hidden waterfalls are amazing, we drove on our own a few years ago and hiked it. It is not an easy hike but beautiful. Make sure you have good hiking shoes, the trail is slippery and muddy. We often scaled up and down rocks along the way,
 


Yes! We did it in September and all of his tours are private, so just your group/family. Jerry picked us up at the port in a nice van. We drove to the rainforest, stopping once for a photo up on the mountain. Once there, we were joined by the dogs (the land owners have 4 dogs that LOVE to "guide" you up the trails) and began our hike. This hike is all private property, so you will likely be the only people in that area for miles! It's super rugged! It's literally through a trail he created with a friend, over trees, under trees, rock ledges, etc. My 5yo twins handled it like champs, so it's very doable! Jerry was also super helpful with them!

There's a small cascade that we hiked by. Then the waterfall pictured was the one we decided to stay in. There's a MUCH larger one another 15 minutes up the trail that's rather spectacular, but we didn't go to it as we thought it might be a bit much for our children and it was crazy hot/humid that day. We had all the time we wanted to swim, climb, and explore.

Once done, we hiked back down and went to a restaurant for locals where we had quite the local feast for about $60 (for the 4 of us including dessert). The day was truly magic! Jerry is an amazing host and we will always use him when we return to San Juan.

Of note is that we wore swimsuits under hiking clothes (Columbia zip off pants and shirts) and kid wore swimsuits with rash guards and shorts (for the girl). Husband hiked in old tennis shoes. I wore my Keens with socks (which is what Jerry wears). Kids wore Natives with socks. While in the water, we kept our socks on for "grips" in the algae. When we got back to the boat, we trashed them! I'd bring an old pair for the water and a dry pair for coming back down!

Hope this helps!
 
We did El Yunque by ourselves before our Wonder in February. DH drove, but I would never have driven those roads. I'm not a fan of driving in different places with a different car, but it doesn't bother him. We did a whole circle of the island, swimming in a biolumenescent bay in Paguera, driving up to Arecebo (large satellilte telescope), out to a Farjado for a boat we chartered for the day to take us out to the smaller islands (hands down, the best thing we did), and El Yunque with a zip line tour (second best). While I was waiting for my twins and dh to finish the zip line, I met one of the drivers from Jerry's tours. I knew about them because I had messaged lucyddr before leaving. I would highly recommend them. Let Jerry and his crew do the driving! No way would it be worth it for me to drive.

El Yunque has not recovered from Maria. There are still a lot of paths that are not open because of fallen trees. But it is still amazingly beautiful! Puerto Rico is such a wonderful place!
 
Yes! We did it in September and all of his tours are private, so just your group/family. Jerry picked us up at the port in a nice van. We drove to the rainforest, stopping once for a photo up on the mountain. Once there, we were joined by the dogs (the land owners have 4 dogs that LOVE to "guide" you up the trails) and began our hike. This hike is all private property, so you will likely be the only people in that area for miles! It's super rugged! It's literally through a trail he created with a friend, over trees, under trees, rock ledges, etc. My 5yo twins handled it like champs, so it's very doable! Jerry was also super helpful with them!

There's a small cascade that we hiked by. Then the waterfall pictured was the one we decided to stay in. There's a MUCH larger one another 15 minutes up the trail that's rather spectacular, but we didn't go to it as we thought it might be a bit much for our children and it was crazy hot/humid that day. We had all the time we wanted to swim, climb, and explore.

Once done, we hiked back down and went to a restaurant for locals where we had quite the local feast for about $60 (for the 4 of us including dessert). The day was truly magic! Jerry is an amazing host and we will always use him when we return to San Juan.

Of note is that we wore swimsuits under hiking clothes (Columbia zip off pants and shirts) and kid wore swimsuits with rash guards and shorts (for the girl). Husband hiked in old tennis shoes. I wore my Keens with socks (which is what Jerry wears). Kids wore Natives with socks. While in the water, we kept our socks on for "grips" in the algae. When we got back to the boat, we trashed them! I'd bring an old pair for the water and a dry pair for coming back down!

Hope this helps!

I hope you do not mind all my questions. I have Marfan's Syndrome and one of my issues is lack of muscle mass. I love to hike and I can walk ten miles on a flat trail and four/five miles on trail that has a slight incline but I cannot climb a full flight of stairs without rail to give myself a bit of a pull up with my arms. For this hike, does one have to "step up" using rocks over a height of eight inches or so. And if so, is it an occasional rock or many?
 
I hope you do not mind all my questions. I have Marfan's Syndrome and one of my issues is lack of muscle mass. I love to hike and I can walk ten miles on a flat trail and four/five miles on trail that has a slight incline but I cannot climb a full flight of stairs without rail to give myself a bit of a pull up with my arms. For this hike, does one have to "step up" using rocks over a height of eight inches or so. And if so, is it an occasional rock or many?

You will have to climb over fallen trees (maybe 30" or so) in a few areas and step up on quite a few taller rocks. That said, Jerry is VERY helpful and you are moving at the pace of your family only...so no need to rush! I'm sure he would be willing to give you a hand up! I'm obese with a terrible old ankle injury and did ok! We didn't go to the largest waterfall though as we were happy at the smaller one and didn't want to stress ourselves further.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!







Top