Things to Do in Vieques and Culebra

Vieques and Culebra are the antidote to overbuilt Caribbean tourism, and getting to them is half the adventure. The ferry from Ceiba takes about 30 minutes to Culebra and roughly an hour to Vieques, but schedules are famously unreliable - seasoned travelers book a morning Cape Air or Vieques Air Link puddle jumper from San Juan's Isla Grande airport instead.

On Vieques, the star attraction is Mosquito Bay, certified by Guinness as the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world. Book an electric-boat tour with Abe's Snorkeling & Bio Bay Tours or a kayak excursion with a licensed operator for a new-moon night, when the dinoflagellates glow most intensely - every paddle stroke ignites trails of blue-green light beneath the surface. During the day, rent a Jeep and head into the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge, which covers two-thirds of the island. The refuge roads are unpaved and sometimes brutal, but they lead to beaches that rival anything in the Caribbean. Playa La Chiva (Blue Beach) is a long crescent with calm, snorkel-friendly water and shaded picnic areas. Playa Caracas (Red Beach) has the best facilities and easiest access. For solitude, keep driving past the tank range to Playa La Plata or Playa Platita, where you may have the sand entirely to yourself.

In the refuge's western unit, Sun Bay is the only beach with a lifeguard and formal parking, and the adjacent Media Luna cove is ideal for small children with its shallow, protected water. On the cultural side, the hilltop Fortin Conde de Mirasol in Isabel Segunda is the last Spanish fort built in the Americas and now houses a small museum tracing the island's Taino, Spanish, and military history. The Esperanza waterfront malecon comes alive in the evening with open-air bars and the smell of mofongo drifting from restaurants.

Over on Culebra, Flamenco Beach is the headline act and deserves its reputation - a horseshoe bay with flour-white sand, clear turquoise water, and rusting military tanks on the beach that have become folk-art canvases. But do not stop at Flamenco. Rent a golf cart and drive to Zoni Beach on the island's east end for windswept beauty and sea turtle nesting habitat, or hire a water taxi from the town dock to Culebrita, an uninhabited islet with tide pools, nesting seabirds, and the ruins of a 19th-century lighthouse. The snorkeling off Tamarindo Beach is exceptional, with sea turtles regularly grazing in the seagrass beds just offshore.