Culebra might possibly be one of my favorite islands yet!
It ranks right up there with Long Island in the Bahamas. It’s beautiful, quaint, easily accessible by dinghy, and has so so so much to offer! It’s really pretty amazing. We could’ve easily spent a few weeks on this adorable little island in the Spanish Virgins, but were there for just about a week before an amazing weather window popped up for our sail to St. Thomas that we just couldn’t pass up.
Culebra is seriously gorgeous! This 12-square-mile island in the corner of the Caribbean is one of the area’s hidden gems. In my humble opinion at least.
We rolled into the main inside harbor, Ensenada Honda, the Saturday after Thanksgiving and man oh man was that place bumping! The anchorage was pretty full, music blasting, and boaters and local weekenders from the main island of Puerto Rico everywhere! But by Sunday afternoon, it felt like the island cleared out and there we were with just a few other cruiser boats left in the harbor. I’m really glad we got the chance to see both sides of the coin, so to speak.
Later in the week, we decided to rent ourselves a fancy little golf cart from Carlos Jeep Rentals and explore all the island had to offer, including a half dozen or so of some of the most breathtakingly beautiful beaches. We literally cruised the entire island one sunny day, up and down the (sometimes scary) steep, unpaved roads.
^^crazy gorgeous vistas all the way to the US Virgin Islands from everywhere on the island.^^
We made sure to check out the world famous Flamenco Beach on the north coast of the island. It was easy to see why this curving mile of white sand beach is always in the top 10 list of the world’s most exotic beaches.
^^Sooooo gorgeous, right???^^
We also especially loved the much smaller and rock lined Tamarindo Beach on the west side of the island where we snorkeled with a dozen sea turtles!!! It was seriously unreal. And I have a crap load of GoPro photos and videos from the sea turtles just waiting to be posted. :)))
^^Tamarindo Beach where we had the most amazing sea turtle experience EVER!^^
^^oh and we met this little guy! He was SO close to coming home with us. I tried. ;)) Although I’m sure Oliver wouldn’t be thrilled. Lol.^^
Other than some fab beaches and pretty stellar snorkeling, we throughly enjoyed popping over to Zaco’s Tacos for some super authentic mexican food! We probably haven’t had real tasty tacos in what feels like forever! Don’t tell anyone, but I ate four. ;))
Jereme and I have also decided that every coastal town should be required to have a dinghy dock restaurant like the one here in Culebra. It’s totally open-air, right smack dab at the waters edge, and you can just pull on up and hop off the dinghy for some drinks and food. What’s not to love about that?
I’m so thrilled we stopped to check out Culebra for a few days and I’m quite certain we will be making a return stopover there on our way back to the U.S.
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We felt the same way about Culebra in 2006, Long Island remained our #1, so we ended up building a home there eventually, but Culebra was a close second. Y’all have to sail to Culebrita and check out the lighthouse ruins, that was personal fave! Fair winds!
[…] Talk about totally unreal and mind blowing. Or at least that’s the way I felt after we swam with a dozen or so turtles off Tamarindo Beach in Culebra. […]
Culebra is certainly on our list of “Must Visits” – can’t wait! And those tacos are just making me hungry.
[…] our awesome week-long stay in Culebra, it was a nice little change of pace to disconnect from everything and spend a few days off the […]