Parque Estatal Bahía del Sol — Attraction in Isla de Vieques

The short: Stayed here for a fabulous 4 days of camping on beautiful sandy beach. Only downside was ants.

Getting there We were in San Juan trying to decide what to do when we came across the Sun Bay National Park in Vieques. Took the ferry over (wasn't a problem on a weekday but there is the potential to get bumped for locals who get priority) and managed to get a Publico (local bus/van transportation system) to drop us off at the campground. It was extremely empty and still suffering from Maria fixes, but with wild horses to greet us as we walked in the front gates, we were super excited.

Facilities I had spoken to Manuel at the campground earlier that morning (got his number from City Hall) to confirm they were open for business. I found him in a small manager's room right to the left after entering. He gave us a detailed tour of the showers (great pressure), bathrooms (clean and well-lit) and campground (big and open and empty with spots under trees or out in the open). He showed us the best spot and let us set up the only tent in the area. He also let us know there was a security guard on site all night but no fence.

Campsite The spot we chose was on the edge of the sand. The good was that we had an amazing view, the bad was that we had most of the wind from the wide open ocean. Luckily our tent is pretty fabulous but it did lose a couple tie downs in a 40+ mph blow one night.

Beach The beach was great but there are a bunch of small biting ants and they actually chewed through our tarp-bottomed tent looking for a fruit that had smashed. This was fun to find out at 4am. They ended up coming through multiple places and we should have moved the tent but it was the last night so we didn't. They were easy to take care of.

Waves The waves were strong, but you can walk around to the right up the beach and around the corner towards Esperanza and the water on the other side of the trees is calm and fun snorkeling. There are also spots to camp under the trees over there but I'm not so sure about the legality/safety of those spots. The Sun Bay campground felt super safe.

Snorkeling Walking in the other direction we found great snorkeling about 8 minutes walking down the beach at the very end next to the rocks. We found lots of fish, Octopus, sea grass and snorkeling. Apparently this is also near where the Mosquito Bay Bioluminescent Bay is but we had lots of moonlight so skipped that.

Food There was a good restaurant on site that was open Friday-Sunday during the low-season when we visited. They were delicious and made it so we did not have to walk back into town (15min walk to Esperanza). For most of our meals we made the walk to Esperanza where we ate really good food, although the prices were pretty high. We could have saved a couple hundred dollars by buying food at the mini-mart and using our camp stove. The small mini-mart was about a 10 minute walk down the road, so you probably don't need a car if you're happy just camping in one spot.

Hurricane Maria I talked with Manuel again before leaving and he told me that he and his 4 man crew were trying to bring back the campground to it's former pre-Maria state and with how wonderful it was I can't imagine how good it will be. The hurricane flooded the local quarters, ruined their vehicles and sent sand 300 feet inland, what they've done so far is amazing. Lifeguard stations haven't been rebuilt but the facilities were in great shape.

Overall we had a great experience other than the biting ants, and plan on...

So, all the facilities are in need of repair. But the bathrooms are usable, bring your own tp, soap, and no hot water. There are also cold showers outside. But the beaches are incredibly beautiful. If you keep driving past the first you will get to other equally beautiful beaches. There was previously camping available here, and now there is no real way to contact anyone about it, but we saw a couple other people with tents on the beach, so if you're adventurous it seemed OK to just camp there. The gate stays open all night because the biobay tours need to...

Very nice beach for walking, viewing, hanging out. Plus a restaurant if you want drinks ($9/frozen cocktail). you can walk from this beach to Esperanza in 5 minutes. lots of palm trees so you can get some shade. It's just barely wide enough to set up a volleyball net in a couple places. the sand is rougher than on Caracas Beach (larger particulate size) but easy to walk on. If you want to walk around to the island (Punta de Tierra), then you'll need some shoes/footwear that can handle...