We spent a weekend in Vieques in January '07... a lovely birthday present from my husband. :-)
HOTEL: The Martineau Bay Resort & Spa is your typical resort. It's a big property spread over well groomed grounds. The rooms are located in several low-lying buildings (3 floors only).
ROOM: We stayed in room #514 (top floor) with a view of the ocean and the pool. The room is spacious as well as the bathroom (huge tub, walk-in shower, 2 sinks). There's an empty mini-fridge and a big safe (portable dvd player and several other items fit just fine).
BEACH: It is very picturesque with rocky cliffs flanking its sides and brown sand. It is, however, not a good swimming beach. It is windy, the waves are strong and there are rocks in the water. On our first afternoon there, our son enjoyed getting tossed around by the waves until we realized he had scraped his legs on the rocks. Needless to say, we didn't go to that beach the rest of our stay.
POOLS: There are 2 nice ones. Depth is 3'6'' all around. One has a swim-up bar and the other has a net to play volleyball.
RESTAURANTS/FOOD: There's the poolside restaurant/bar where you can order food till 6pm. There's the Paso Fino restaurant where you can eat breakfast and dinner. There, you can eat inside or on the covered terrace outside. It appeared to us that most people would eat outside where it can be VERY WINDY. The food was okay, nothing to write home about. They do have a kids menu.
A RESTAURANT NOTE: While having dinner there on our first night, the power went out for maybe 30 minutes. The waiter brought pen lights at first. My husband and I commented to each other that a candle would work best. They did end up putting candles on all the tables but it took them awhile. The waiter told us then that dinner was on them because of the blackout. We certainly weren't expecting that, so we thought that was really nice of them to do that.
STAFF: Everyone we dealt with was lovely. When my son scraped his legs, the front desk quickly sent someone to our room with band-aids and a topical cream. So absolutely no complaints there.
THOUGHTS: The resort is nice but is dated/tired-looking. I think they're going to close it soon for full renovations. There was some work being done while we were there like the painting of our building stairwell.
BEACHES: We managed to see all the ones we wanted to see. We stayed a few hours at some, but just took a picture of the others. We did NOT snorkel on this trip. Here's another web site I found very helpful. It has info on all the beaches and directions:
PATA PRIETO BEACH (also known as SECRET BEACH): This was by far our FAVORITE beach. It cannot be found on a map. I got the directions to it from another forum. We met a family from Baltimore there who told us they've been vacationing in Vieques for the last 3 years and that the sign to the beach was recently put up. The sand is soft, the water is calm, clear and blue. Be aware that there is NO shade on that beach. We LOVED it and spent an entire afternoon there.
Directions to Pata Prieto Beach:
-Take the main Camp Garcia road.
-Pass the turn for Garcia Beach and Playa Caracas (aka Red Beach).
-A mile or so after Playa Caracas, you'll see a sign that says "Pata Prieto Beach" with an arrow pointing right. There are 2 garbage cans (1 blue and 1 gray) underneath the sign. Make that right turn.
-You'll drive on some "lovely" potholes.
-You'll come to a fork with NO sign. The left fork is a dead end (yep, that's where we went first). The right fork takes you to the loveliest stretch of beach on the island.
BAHIA DE LA CHIVA (also known as BLUE BEACH): There are actually 3 beaches. We checked all of them out and ended up spending a morning on the Center Beach. There are some covered pavilions with picnic benches. Not many though so it's probably best to get there in the morning to get one if you absolutely need shade. There's not a lot of beach/sand, but the water is clear and calm. A very nice beach. We really liked it.
PLAYA PUNTA ARENAS (also known as GREEN BEACH): We didn't realize there were several small sections and then the main beach. You just have to drive around (felt like no-man's land) to find the best spot for you. We picked a cove that had a covered pavilion and a picnic bench. The sand is grainy/coarse and light brown. The water is calm and clear. It was okay to us. I think Green Beach is best for people who want to snorkel.
There's a $2 fee to enter the area where all the following beaches are. We took pictures of the first two before spending the rest of an afternoon at Media Luna.
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| Sun Bay |
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| Navio Beach |
MEDIA LUNA: It comes highly recommended if you have kids because the water is calm and it's shallow for quite a while. Well, there was a lot of sea grass (in the water and on the beach) when we went, and it was raining on and off. So my husband and I didn't really enjoy it. But our son didn't seem to mind. He thought it was fun tossing the sea grass back in the water. They do have covered pavilions with picnic benches at this beach as well.
RESTAURANTS: Here's a good web site to see what's available on the island:
LA VIEQUENSE DELI: This is located in Isabel II. It's a good place to buy sandwiches for lunch before heading out to the beaches. Some prices:
-Ham and cheese sandwich: $2
-Roast beef and swiss cheese sandwich: $4.50
BANANAS: This is an open-air beach and bar in Esperanza (across the street from the beach). We had lunch there. I had a cheeseburger with fries and my husband had a chicken club with fries. With 2 cokes and 1 juice, lunch came to $27.52. I'm glad I had made sandwiches for our son because the food was mediocre. And our waitress was just so lovely. Not.
CAFE MEDIA LUNA: Located in Isabel II. Funky/hip looking place with great latin music. (they could turn the volume down a bit though). There are 2 floors. We ate on the 2nd floor. The kitchen is right there for everyone to see, in a corner of the restaurant. Really cool. Our dinner was good but pricey for the small portions. Our son had the pizza ($7). It was good (we tasted it). My husband had the seared veal chop. It was very good but it was just one small chop ($24). I had the filet mignon. It was very good and small too ($24). For dessert, my husband had the chocolate mousse cake. It was really good but look at the TINY serving and it was $8!! You heard that thump?! It was our jaws hitting the table when we saw the portion. I did the math. It was worth $2/bite :-)). I had the bread pudding. It didn't think it was good at all and I didn't finish it. $8. Total for dinner came to $98 before tip.
TRADE WINDS: Located in Esperanza. This was our favorite restaurant for dinner. We liked the atmosphere. We sat on a covered terrace with view of the street and sound of the waves. The food was good and it was reasonably priced. Our son had pasta with red sauce which he devoured. My husband had the pork loin served with pineapple salsa, mashed potatoes and broccoli ($16.50). I had the petit filet mignon in a port wine sauce, with mashed potatoes and broccoli ($23). We both had a couple of ice cream desserts. With a glass of wine and 2 juices, total came to $65.35 before tip. My favorite moment that night was when several guys rode by on horses. One of them was on a cell phone. Priceless.
~~ AROUND VIEQUES ~~
~~ OTHER STUFF ~~
CROWDS: Crowds? What crowds?! :-)
RENTAL CAR: We reserved a 2005 Grand Cherokee Laredo with Martineau Car Rental for $80/day. They ended up giving us a brand new Dodge Nitro for the same price. I'm not big on SUVs but I enjoyed this one. It's spacious and drives well. The rental experience went smoothly. They kindly drove us to the airport even though we had already returned the car. Martineau Car Rental is located across the street from the Martineau Bay resort. We'd recommend them.
ROADS: The main roads are in asphalt but narrow. The dirt roads to the beaches are awful (rocks, potholes). A 4x4 is best.
ADVICE: Before the trip, I printed a map of the island and of the 2 towns from the following site: http://www.vieques-island.com/vqsmap.shtml
I highly recommend doing that. It makes navigating around the island much easier.
WEATHER/WATER TEMP: The weather was warm but not super hot. The sun would come in and out of the clouds. We had some rain but it was usually in short bursts. I thought the water was on the cold side. My husband who's much tougher than me when it comes to water temps thought so too. Our son couldn't have cared less.
MOSQUITOES: Both my son and I got a couple of bites. I could see those darn things flying around us. I used for the very time Cutter Advanced Insect Repellent (unscented) which came in the form of sheets. It worked really well for us. I think I just missed the spots where we got bitten.
BIO-BAY TOUR: The tour that didn't happen. 2 days before our trip, we got a call from Island Adventures. We had booked our bio-bay tour with them. Their pontoon boat is out of service. They're hoping to get it back up and running in February. They did offer us the kayak tour but with our 4.5 year-old, that just wasn't feasible.
FINAL THOUGHTS: I was really worried that 2 full days on Vieques would not be enough, but it was. We got in everything we wanted to do, and all at a relaxed pace. Alas, we're not part of the group of people who've fallen in love with the island. We simply didn't connect. Despite Vieques not being a return island for us, it was still a good weekend getaway.
