Hitting The Beach
Luquillo Beach, Puerto Rico's finest beach, is palm-dotted and crescent-shaped, opening onto a lagoon with calm waters and a wide, sandy bank. It's very crowded on weekends but much better during the week. There are lockers, tent sites, showers, picnic tables, and food stands that sell a sampling of the island's frituras (fried fare), especially cod fritters and tacos. The beach is open from 8:30am to 5pm, Wednesday through Sunday, plus holidays.
You can also snorkel and skin-dive among the living reefs with lots of tropical fish. Offshore are coral formations and spectacular sea life -- eels, octopuses, stingrays, tarpon, big puffer fish, turtles, nurse sharks, and squid, among other sea creatures.
Great Golf
One of Puerto Rico's newest golf courses is also among the very best. Tom Kite and Bruce Besse designed two 18-hole courses for the Trump International Golf Club Puerto Rico, 100 Clubhouse Dr., Río Grande 00745 (tel. 787/657-2000), adjacent to the well-recommended Gran Melia Puerto Rico. You face a spectacular vista of fairways, lakes, and the Atlantic beyond. Four 9-hole loops fan out from the Caribbean's largest clubhouse. Each paspalum-grass course is imbued with its own character, including elevation changes. In the backdrop El Yunque's peaks stare at you. The Palms is a sprawling layout skirting wetlands, with the most difficult par 3 and the longest (571 yards/522m) par 5. Winter fees are $160 per 18 holes or $140 after noon. Fees include golf carts. The Paradise Bay Grill overlooks the ocean and serves up serves freshly caught lobster and succulent steaks, and the locker rooms feature massages and Jacuzzis. Donald Trump announced a $600-million investment with a local partner to construct luxury vacation villas and make other improvements when he bought it in 2008.
The Wyndham Río Mar Beach Resort has two world-class courses located at this resort, stretching out in the shadow of El Yunque rain forest along a dazzling stretch of coast. The entire 6,782 yards (6,201m) of Tom and George Fazio's Ocean Course has seaside panoramas and breezes, and fat iguanas scampering through the lush grounds. The other course, a 6,945-yard (6,351m) design by golf pro Greg Norman, follows the flow of the Mameyes River through mountain and coastal vistas. Greens fees are $165 for guests, $200 for non-resident walk-ons. Another nice option in town is the Bahia Beach Plantation Resort and Golf Club (Rte. 187 Km 4.2; tel. 787/857-5800), with greens fees weekdays at $225 and weekends at $275. For years it was a favorite of local golfers, but Robert Trent Jones, Jr., renovated the course with a breathtaking new design that was inaugurated in April 2008. He spent 3 years working on the 7,014-yard (6,414m) course, sprawling across some 480 acres (194 hectares) of lush beachfront, running from the tip of Loiza River to the mouth of the Espíritu Santo River. Much of the course overlooks a verdant green valley of El Yunque rainforest. The new course is part of the new luxury Saint Regis resort being developed on the beautiful site with a planned opening in winter 2009. Clusters of beachfront luxury villas, with the aim of less environmental impact on the coastal area, are planned. The new course completes a Puerto Rico trifecta for the Jones family. Dad Trent Jones, Sr., built the legendary Dorado Beach East golf course and brother Rees Jones completed Palmas del Mar's Flamboyán course in 1999.
Scuba Diving & Snorkeling
The best people to take you diving are at the Dive Center at the Wyndham Rio Mar Beach Resort (tel. 787/888-6000). This is one of the largest dive centers in Puerto Rico, a PADI five-star facility with two custom-designed boats that usually take no more than six to ten divers. Snorkeling and skin diving costs $75 for a half-day. The center also offers a full-day snorkeling trip, including lunch and drinks, for $95 per person. Boat tours are available daily from 9am to 4pm. For scuba divers, a two-tank dive costs $135 to $185.
