Getting There

Puerto Rico is by far the most accessible of the Caribbean islands, with frequent airline service. It's also the major airline hub of the Caribbean Basin.

The Airlines

With San Juan as its hub for the entire Caribbean, American Airlines (tel. 800/433-7300; www.aa.com) offers nonstop daily flights to San Juan from Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Hartford, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York (JFK), Orlando, Philadelphia, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, and Washington (Dulles), plus flights to San Juan from both Montréal and Toronto with changes in Chicago or Miami. There are also at least two daily flights from Los Angeles to San Juan that touch down in Dallas or Miami.

American, because of its wholly owned subsidiary, American Eagle, is also the undisputed leader among the short-haul local commuter flights of the Caribbean. It usually flies in propeller planes carrying between 34 and 64 passengers. Collectively, American Eagle, along with its larger associate, American Airlines, offers service to 37 destinations on 31 islands of the Caribbean and The Bahamas, more than any other carrier.

Delta (tel. 800/221-1212; www.delta.com) has four daily nonstop flights from Atlanta Monday to Friday, six nonstop on Saturday, and four nonstop on Sunday. Flights into Atlanta from around the world are frequent, with excellent connections from points throughout Delta's network in the South and Southwest. There is also one daily nonstop flight from Cincinnati. The airline's subsidiary, Song (tel. 800/FLY-SONG; www.flysong.com), flies daily from Orlando, Florida, to San Juan.

United Airlines (tel. 800/241-6522; www.united.com) offers daily nonstop flights from Chicago to San Juan. Northwest/KLM (tel. 800/225-2525; www.nwa.com) has one daily nonstop flight to San Juan from Detroit, as well as at least one (and sometimes more) connecting flights to San Juan from Detroit. United also offers flights to San Juan, some of them nonstop, from both Memphis and Minneapolis, with a schedule that varies according to the season and the day of the week.

US Airways (tel. 800/428-4322; www.usairways.com) has daily direct flights between Charlotte, N.C., and San Juan. The airline also offers three daily nonstop flights to San Juan from Philadelphia, and one daily nonstop Saturday and Sunday flight to San Juan from Pittsburgh.

Continental Airlines (tel. 787/890-2990) flies nonstop daily from Newark, Houston, and Cleveland. The airline also flies five times a week direct to the northwestern airport outside Aguadilla should you wish to begin your tour of Puerto Rico in the west. In winter, service is increased to daily flights. JetBlue (tel. 800/538-2583) flies two times a day from New York's JFK airport to San Juan. Spirit Air (tel. 787/772-7117) offers two daily nonstop flights from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan.

Canadians can fly Air Canada (tel. 800/426-7000) from either Montréal or Toronto to San Juan.

Puerto Rico is the major transportation hub of the Caribbean, with the best connections for getting anywhere in the island. In addition to American Eagle , Cape Air (tel. 787/253-1121) links the two major islands in the U.S. Virgins, both St. Croix and St. Thomas, with San Juan.

Seaborne Airlines (tel. 888/FLY-TOUR) offers daily links between St. Croix and St. Thomas with San Juan. The one-way cost from the U.S. Virgin Islands to Puerto Rico is a reasonable $65 per person. The planes are small and frequent, carrying 15 to 19 passengers. Often there are more than 50 flights a day.

ALM (tel. 800/327-7230) flies from San Juan to Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao-the so-called ABC islands-in the southern Caribbean, and to Jamaica. LIAT (tel. 787/791-0800) provides an air link to the Lesser Antilles islands.

British travelers can take a British Airways (tel. 0870/850-9850 in the U.K., or 800/247-9297 in the U.S.) weekly flight direct from London to San Juan on Sunday. Lufthansa (tel. 01/803-803-803 in Germany, or 800/399-LUFT in the U.S.) passengers can fly on Saturday (one weekly flight) from Frankfurt to San Juan via Condor (a subsidiary operating the flight). And Iberia (tel. 902-400-500 in Spain, or 800/772-4642 in the U.S.; www.iberia.com) has two weekly flights from Madrid to San Juan, leaving on Thursday and Saturday.