We spent five days in Puerto Rico in October 2018 – three days around Rincon and two days around Luquillo. Our trip started off a bit frustrating. We flew Spirit, the no frills airline, from Fort Lauderdale to Aguadilla. As soon as we left our hotel to go to the airport we received a notification that our flight was delayed for 8 hrs…ugh!
Disclaimer: This site contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you purchase an item using one of our links we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
At first we thought, no big deal, we can find something fun to do in Fort Lauderdale before heading to the airport. We were wrong, while the flight was noted as delayed for 8 hrs, airline staff reported it was due to some mechanical issue that was being worked on, so if the mechanics fixed it early, the plane would leave early. That meant we had to wait ALL day at the airport. We did at least receive food vouchers, which somehow Skylar lost within the first 30 mins. The start to our trip called for an over priced martini. Of course the mechanical issue did not get fixed early, so we got to know the Fort Lauderdale Airport more than we would have liked.
Once on our way we arrived in Aguadilla without issue. Rafael Hernandez International Airport was the smallest airport I’ve ever flown into so far and quite easy to navigate. We walked off the plane onto the tarmac to walk to the airport building. Here there was one luggage carousel, but it didn’t work. I think they were over compensating with the air conditioning – it was freezing! Staff brought our luggage out one by one, surprisingly this didn’t take near as long as we thought it would.
While waiting for our luggage Skylar was able to secure our rental car on site, and fairly quickly we were on our way to our Airbnb. We were staying in Rincon and our drive there was easy along Hwy 107/2/115. The roads were just fine in our 4 door sedan.
Flying in to Aguadilla allowed us to explore the west side of Puerto Rico. Aguadilla is close to so many activities including surfing in Rincon, hiking to Survival Beach and visiting Gozalandia Waterfalls. We also made it down to La Parguera to swim in the Bioluminescent Bay. There are even more activities in the area we did not have time for like Cabo Rojo and Cueva Ventana.
Overall we were happy with our decision to fly into the lesser known Rafael Hernandez International Airport in Aguadilla. If we had flown into San Juan we likely would not have been able to visit so many attractions on the west side of the island. For more about visiting Puerto Rico check out these posts about our time staying in Rincon for three days, and our two days around Luquillo.
We did create a vacation video that includes our time on the west side around Rincon and Aguadilla. You can check it out below.
If you enjoy our content follow our blog and subscribe to our YouTube Channel Explorcation.
Thank you to Diane and Jerry for accompanying Skylar and I on this trip and helping us document the beauty of Puerto Rico.