El Portal de El Yunque Rainforest Center - El Yunque National Forest — Attraction in Río Grande

My friends and I had one day available to explore El Yunque and we were so lucky that the weather was absolutely perfect. We had two cars and because we failed to do any research beforehand we stopped at the visitors center first. It costs $4 per person to get into and park at the visitors center. Honestly, not worth it and if you're looking to save money that is the only place in the park they charge for admission or parking. Just download the map from the US Park Service website and you will be set.

Here are a few things to note: Food - There are a couple of stands available a couple kilometers into the park if you forgot to bring food. I recommend stopping and picking up a sandwich before arriving (we stopped at Lluvia and 18 degrees - recommend). The La Mina parking areas also sell water and lemonade.

Bathrooms - Available at La Mina and the Tower parking areas. Not available at the top of El Yunque.

Hiking - We did some of the main marked trails recommended by the visitors center. I suggest doing La Mina trail towards the end of the day to avoid most of the crowds. All of the trails were very well maintained and marked and probably a moderate level due to the amount of stairs and elevation. We were all in our late twenties in varying degrees of fit and we only need a couple of breaks. Views from the top are completely worth it. La Mina waterfall is easy to get to therefore extremely packed. I wish we would've done some more research to find a more secluded place.

Weather - make sure that you assess the weather before and during your trip. We were there in March and extremely lucky to avoid rain. Even still there was some rain on the trails so I can only imagine how easily it must flood.

Parking - The black dots on the park map are parking areas. We were there on a gorgeous Saturday and had no trouble parking. The visitors center closes at 5 so if you park there just keep that in mind.

Overall I highly recommend this as a day trip if you are in Puerto Rico! The drive from San Juan is easy using Google Maps as the roads are very well maintained. just watch out for...

First I have to say the hiking and beauty of El Yunque Rain Forest is amazing! This poor review is only for the visitor center.

Very disappointed in the quality of education provided by this center. I was surprised they didn't have any type of program geared to helping children learn about the rain forest like a scout or Jr Ranger program. All of the displays looked to be from the 80s with many of the interactive ones that children would take notice, were broken.

They also completely missed the note on some common sense items. First being the looping information video that has no schedule just continusouly plays switching from the Spanish to the English versions. Since there is no schedule you are likely to walk into the middle of one therefore it would help immensely if the Spanish version had English subtitles instead of Spanish subtitles and vise versa. That way you could watch the part of the one that you walk in on and catch up on the next movie no matter which language you prefer. Also they have recycle bins but they are no where near the food court where you need to recycle.

For a research facility they missed the mark on a great opportunity to educate the public and the next...

Recently visited while on a family trip. Some of you might wonder how is the visitor experience after Maria. First of all, the beautiful visitor center is no longer. In its place the National Park Service set up a storefront in town at the entrance with the few instructional objects they were able to salvage. Their budget is so minimal that they don’t even have copies of the hand-drawn map they show visitors. Your GPS will work but take your phone so you can take a photo of this map. I spent a morning visiting El Yunque’s main attractions and can speak to what a middle-aged person might see. Be prepared to stop and wait at several points. Because part of the mountain-hugging road has sustained some damage, it turns into a one lane deal in some places. The cascades are still very beautiful. There are some structures left where you can take shelter from the surprisingly hot sun. My niece took a guided hiking tour offered by her Airbnb, which she characterized as a “muddy, hot, slippery trek.” She learned there are flash floods in El Yunque when it started raining. If you hike there, please...