I love home, but sometimes you gotta fly the (Coastal French) coop. Do you hear that tapping and clicking? It’s the sound of my Northeastern neighbors fending off cabin fever by booking flights outta here. They aren’t alone. Coast-to-coast the race to set up Spring Break is ON. We’re tethered to home for high school sports in this house, but a girl can dream of vacations past. In 2022, our family of five traveled to the enchanting and domestic island of Puerto Rico. No passports required!

I have three boys who are *still* talking about this trip nearly two years later. They want to go back. The surf was ripping, the sun was shining .. plus, there’s nature and culture for days.

Puerto Rico: Accommodations for 5

We’re a family of five. If you plan travel for a family of five, I’ve said it all. If you aren’t, suffice it to say, booking anything economically is a royal pain. Most hotel reservation systems are set up for max 4. The software can’t comprehend a family of five … in one room. We were fine with squeezing a rollaway in when the kids were small, and even now, when we don’t plan to spend much time there. Central booking will tell me that’s fine to do, and 100 times out of 100 the front desk attendant says it’s against fire code, policy, etc. Gahhh!

We aren’t interested in spending our budget on TWO hotel rooms, and sometimes we plan to do a lot of chilling at ‘home’, so we’ve had luck with private rentals (VRBO and the like) or hotel suites (especially on weekends when business travelers empty out). A Kitchen = No hangry humans come morning. The other great thing is, private hosts will often stock a few staples in the kitchen. In Puerto Rico, this is how we found the coffee we now drink daily. (Yaucono. As with many PR coffees, it’s mild and balanced … perfect for me. If you’re a Starbucks dark roast type, def not for you). It doesn’t cost a bazillion dollars, and you can find it at some local grocers (Big Y here in CT) … but we buy it in bulk on Amazon for around $13/lb. Woot! (I get a commission on that link if you use it to make a purchase. I only promote things I truly use and love … The java gods are smiling on this win-win.)

I was extra picky about my accommodation search in Puerto Rico because we have a beach/sand hater. I needed a pool, too. (You people who take family-wide beach loving for granted, please take a moment to count this as a blessing!) Square that with the fact my husband hadn’t ever been to the Caribbean, and wanted that soaking-up-the-sun-toes-in-sand moment (because you know with three kids, a moment is all you get!).

I combed through condo rentals that were connected to a hotel resort, and found one on the property of the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar in Rio Grande. It’s roughly 40 minutes from the airport in San Juan, and the property is massive. I thought we were renting from the only set of condos, but there are SEVERAL that line the golf course and gardens between the property entrance and the beach. So you have your pick of price points. An enduring lawsuit meant condo guest pool privileges were an ongoing custody battle at the hotel, but no matter. The beachside condo had its own beautiful pool. Plus a hot tub (though it didn’t work until our last day). All we would need the hotel for was an occasional ice cream or overpriced bottle of sunscreen.

Naturally, my beach hater decided this trip he wanted to be in the ocean the entire time. Parenting is really something.

Puerto Rico Travel: Itinerary

I had been to Puerto Rico once during my semester-at-sea in college. I loved it, even after comparing it to a dozen other Caribbean islands. I was excited to return, and to draw up an itinerary for my growing family. The kids were at the ages to seek a *little* adventure — 9, 11 and 13 — so I dialed that right up:

Night one: poolside dinner on property (rushed, forgettable, but convenient)

Day 1: Local bakery for breakfast, grocery shopping, pool time, boogie boarding, local lunch

Day 2: Early morning beach walk, El Yunque rainforest: learning center, tower hike, waterfall hike

Day 3: Old San Juan: Roman gate, el Morro, city streets and pina coladas

Day 4: Beach walk to river mouth, travel to La Parguera’s Bioluminescent Bay

Day 5: Minor league baseball game, Luquillo Beach

Final morning: Beach walk with sand dollars!

One of the things a semester-at-sea taught me was to try and get below the touristy surface of a place. Those things are fine and fun, but I don’t want to be confined to them. So much of what is on that surface doesn’t actually benefit the local economy either– instead, they line the pockets of corporations on the mainland.

Being young and dumb on that SEAmester ship (and pretty grungy .. not just because it was the ’90s — showers were an occasional, on-deck-in-your-swimsuit, hurried affair), granted a wide berth for exploring deep into what treasures the islands held. We got off that boat, and got all but lost (correction: sometimes actually lost) for a few hours. As a 40+ mother, I didn’t have the luxury of winging it on backroads with my *actual* treasures in tow. I read up as much as I could, with the goal being the kids come away from any outing feeling like they’d had more fun than fear.

Day 1: That all said, my heart was racing the first morning. We had no groceries yet, and I insisted we get breakfast from a local bakery, not whatever the hotel was hawking. I asked if there were any takers for riding along, kind of hoping there weren’t … because while I’d read up on the adventurous outings, and every mofongo joint within miles (more on mofongo later), I hadn’t read up on the area outside of the resort property. As on many Caribbean islands, life is a jumble of swanky and shady. I knew where this bakery was on a map, but had no idea what surrounded it. Or where to park.

My littlest one wanted to go. So out we went, and I of course passed the bakery before I saw the parking lot. I had to drive deeper down a one-way road before I could circle back around. Turned out, my mother hen worrying was for nothing. We came back around without issue, parked in the little lot and were immediately greeted by this:

And this:

No idea what that horse was doing there behind the mixed use buildings of the town’s streets, but what a pleasant and perfectly Caribbean moment. When the gecko ran off, I noticed a zillion spent coconuts behind what appeared to be a shack. Why? So much to process before we even got inside the bakery!

The bakery was, of course, awesome. So many guys on their way to work grabbing sandwiches — always a good sign! Aside from sweets, we picked up jamon y queso, and Mallorca bread. It’s under new ownership now, and underwent a facelift … it’s now called Amor + Harina (love + flour) — hopefully the food hasn’t changed!

Back at the pool that day, we may have been the only humans sunning ourselves, but we weren’t alone. This well-fed iguana was getting some R&R, too.

The Rio Grande beaches are clean, coarse, and have a ruddy quality to them, unlike any I’ve seen … and I’ve seen a lot.

The riptides warnings were in full effect, so we were in the water every time our kids were. Each beach is different, and it’s something to consider if you have young children. Be sure to check the surf report daily in PR — it’s just as important as your sunscreen. Boogie boarding was INSANE because of the conditions, and our crew was stoked.

Back inside the confines of the dunes and sea grapes, the infinity pool was well-kept and as I mentioned, basically empty. (Our dates were just outside the Easter holiday so maybe that’s why.)

For lunch, we went off the resort property and found all the authenticity we were hoping for at Don Pepe’s .. fried yucca, grouper bites, rice and mofongo — plantains fried, mashed and mixed with pork cracklings, garlic and more. Comfort food with indigenous, African and Spanish roots. Top it all off with some fresh-squeezed passion fruit juice … this trip would mark the beginning of a rekindled love affair with the fruit for me, and a new romance for my kids!

For more on this Puerto Rico family vacation for 5 (El Yunque rainforest, bioluminescent bay, Old San Juan, the beach we wish we’d found sooner), subscribe below so you don’t miss any posts!