I’m really excited to interview Kelly Cronin of Cronin’s Castles about Vieques, Puerto Rico. Kelly’s tips for the best things to do in Vieques are awesome because she runs a short-term rental property here and visits several times a year. Kelly and her kids met a family on a trip to Puerto Rico years ago. Her kids wanted to hang out more, so they followed them to Vieques. Kelly was instantly sold on the island when a herd of wild horses trotted past her on the street.
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Bastimento Beach Vieques. Photo by Dorian Sanders.
Vieques, Puerto Rico
We share a lot of resources and local suggestions in today’s podcast, but you should also check out Explore Vieques, the local visitor’s bureau. They are a wealth of information and can help you plan an itinerary based on your time, budget, and interests.
And please check out Kelly’s favorite local vendors to support the Vieques community – PR Paradise Tours & Taxi, Crystal Clear Vieques, Colón Horse Riding, Rising Roost, Dexter’s Backyard BBQ, Lazy Jack’s, Saint Voodoo’s Mar Azul, Gonzo’s Garden, Tin Box, Manny’s Sushi, and Puerto Rico Ferry.
If you’d like to learn how to travel for free using airline miles and hotel points, check out my free 7-day email course.
Nurse Shark in Vieques photo by CrystalClearVieques
Getting around Vieques
The local airport is Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU). You can then take a connecting flight to Vieques or a ferry to the island. Kelly says the ferry costs about $2, while flights are around $120 to $140 per person. Check out this resource here on how to get to the island.
Use our Expedia tool below to find flight, hotel, and rental car options.
Kelly says that renting a car is a good idea to get around the island. There are 116 beaches on the island. And while there are publicos available (aka buses), they are not reliable. While you may be tempted to rent a golf cart, Kelly recommends getting a car instead. Visit Avis, Budget, or Hertz for the best rental car offers.
A horse on the malecon (aka boardwalk) in Vieques.
Places we talked about on the podcast
Here is a map of all of the places we talked about on the podcast episode with Kelly Cronin about Vieques, Puerto Rico. You can zoom into the map and click on each dot to explore the city.
- Red dots = best places to eat in Vieques, Puerto Rico
- Green dots = best things to do in Vieques, Puerto Rico
- Yellow dots = best places to stay in Vieques, Puerto Rico
Who is Kelly Cronin?
Kelly Lynn Cronin, MBA, PHR, VTS ECC, CVT, runs a multi-site veterinary clinic by day. And she side-hustles with short-term rentals around the country at night with her significant other and her 11- year old marketing director. They have tiny homes with extra large experiences in Kasilof, Alaska, Ladysmith, Wisconsin, and Vieques, Puerto Rico. She’s always loved travel and loves the idea of having reasons to travel to the places she loves the most.
She endeavors to design homes that she can’t wait to stay at. She tears up a little writing about these incredible places. If you were talking about watching the sunset while riding a horse down the bay, meeting a baby octopus while snorkeling in perfectly clear blue waters, watching the northern lights dance in 360-degree windows from a cozy bed, glass-bottom kayaking through the brightest bio bay in the world, or hitching a ride to your rental with a local dog sled, wouldn’t you be emotional too?
Their journey from no rentals to 3 in the space of two years has been a whirlwind as they endeavor to live by their motto #plan less, live more.
Check out a few podcast episodes she has been featured in:
- Short-Term Rentals on the Path to FI | Kelly Cronin | Ep 410
- How to Buy and Build Airbnbs Thousands of Miles Away from Where You Live
You can connect with Kelly on her website and on Facebook and Instagram.
Click here to download our 1-page guide of Kelly’s tips for Vieques.
Big thanks to today’s affiliate partner – AwardWallet
This episode is brought to you, in part, by AwardWallet. Using airline miles and hotel points makes travel affordable, but keeping track of all of those loyalty programs can be a challenge. That’s why I use AwardWallet to track my miles and points balances, reservations, and special goodies like free hotel night certifications and airline companion passes.
Having everything in one easy-to-use dashboard helps ensure I don’t let any rewards expire and makes logging into my accounts super easy. Go to WeTravelThere.com/awardwallet to start your free account.
Breakfast burrito at Rising Roost
Stay tuned for our next episode
Esteban Gutierrez at Le Mans.
Listen to the next episode when Esteban Gutiérrez of EDASI shares the best things to do in Monterrey, Mexico. In this episode, Esteban and I talk about rock climbing at Potrero Chico, seeing the caves at Grutas de Garcia, and taking a walk along Paseo Santa Lucia. We hope you’ll join us when We Travel There.
What’s your favorite part of Vieques? Send us a Tweet, let us know in the comment section below, or continue the discussion in our Facebook group!
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Related episodes
To learn more about Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands, check out the episodes below:
Brooks Peel
Hi Lee, enjoy the podcast! Your episodes are must listens when I’m in trip planning mode. I just wanted to drop a little note about hurricane season in Vieques (and the Caribbean in general). It’s inaccurate that your guest only labeled October as hurricane season. At best this will lead to disappointed and inconvenienced vacationers, at worst it’s reminiscent of my work during the recovery mission following Hurricane Maria in 2017. Atlantic Hurricane season runs from May 1 to November 1, with the Caribbean basin being more active early in the season and the Atlantic being more active later in the season. PR is unfortunately in a favorable location to be hit by hurricanes originating in both basins. In fact, October is fairly low on the list of months with the most hurricanes landfalling in Puerto Rico, all the way down at #4. July-September is the peak with August slightly ahead of September in terms of peak activity. If you ever mention corrections this would be one. Otherwise, good episode, just be cognizant of the relatively low prices in the Caribbean during hurricane season and make sure to be flexible!
Lee
Hey Brooks, thank you for the compliments and insights into Puerto Rico’s hurricane season. As you mention, when the prices are really low, there’s typically a reason. In this case, hurricanes! These notes will help listeners when they’re planning a trip to PR or other destinations in the Caribbean.