By Staff

updated 4:44 p.m. ET Oct. 25, 2005

With its diverse array of cultural activities, natural sites and fully modern amenities, Puerto Rico excites the senses in many ways every day.

This destination devotes itself to vacation pleasures, offering virtually any type of getaway experience, from rain-forest hiking to casino gaming, from surfing to fourhanded eucalyptus-steam massages.

While Puerto Rico's Latino touches add intrigue and spice, traveling there offers comfort with American ease. A U.S. territory, this whatever-your-pleasure island flies the American flag and pampers with simplicities: It's a quick flight from several mainland gateways and offers many nonstop flights a day from the States. Puerto Rico uses the same dollars, quarters and nickels that we do. Hotels have familiar signs out front, rental cars from national firms offer an array of vehicles, and the telephone systems are tied to ours.

PLAYA Y MAR
Striking beaches and warm, clear sea are the Caribbean's core appeal. At 3,850 square miles, with hundreds of beaches ringing its 272 miles of coastline, Puerto Rico offers an astounding variety of experiences at the water's edge. Right in San Juan, the bustling capital, Condado Beach welcomes urban hotel guests with wide strands and an array of amenities. Step from your hotel to the water's edge, pull up a padded chaise longue, take in the view and do some people-watching. Here, you can sip a fruity cocktail, lunch on a hamburger and laze away hours on end without ever stepping back inside. A quick half-hour away, Luquillo Beach stuns with glass-clear blue water and coconut groves. For the ultimate escape-it-all experience, visit the Westin Rio Mar Beach Golf Resort and Spa, a 500-acre wonderland dominating an entire mile of beachfront property. With luxurious décor, two beachfront swimming pools and a full menu of tension-busting amenities, this Isle of Enchantment beckons relaxation-seekers. Two golf courses, a spa, a kids' club, a tennis center and 12 restaurants, lounges and entertainment venues make this a private world unto itself.

Offering stunning, inviting turquoise waters and surrounded by seaside Guánica's rich natural beauty, including a mystical dry forest, the 20-acre, exquisitely landscaped Copamarina Beach Resort enchants guests of its 100-plus guest rooms with personal service, a crescent-shaped white-sand beach and a warm, family-friendly attitude. The two pools (plus two kiddie pools) and two whirlpool tubs drag some sun-worshippers from the tranquil beach, although many ease away for the water sports, diving, snorkeling, tennis, volleyball and seaview meals at the Alexandra restaurant.

Slide show Cool Caribbean View photos of this easy, breezy, tropical paradise. more photos

In the Porta del Sol, chic Club Bon-Accord gives the term "beach vacation" an entirely new meaning. This fashionable boutique inn boasts only 10 rooms, each ultra-contemporary. A three-minute walk from Rincón Beach, Club Bon-Accord offers phenomenal service, including complimentary continental breakfast served in a pool garden, plus loads of extras such as free bicycle rentals and the use of tennis rackets, beach chairs, umbrellas and even coolers.

Be sure to visit Culebra and Vieques, two nearly undiscovered islands with quiet beaches and powdery white sand. Many resorts are tucked away into secluded locales, catering to visitors eager to melt tensions away beachside or poolside.

An island sanctuary, Martineau Bay Resort & Spa, on Vieques, welcomes to its plantation-style buildings those seeking tranquility. Watch the world from a rocking chair on the greathouse's wraparound terrace; wade into one of two infinity-edge pools, one with a swim-up bar; follow a 10-foot bluff to two intimate beaches; indulge in a massage in a 5,000-square-foot health and beauty spa; or play tennis on the resort's two courts.

EVENING ENDEAVORS

The setting sun signals the start of an entirely new set of diversions, from dining to dancing. Puerto Rico boasts a full spectrum of restaurant options. Visitors looking for the familiar can taxi over to any number of American chains. Fine dining options are diverse and delightful. Puerto Rican chefs take native ingredients and fuse them with international flavors and techniques, resulting in dramatic and delicious towering plates. Those seeking home-style Puerto Rican experiences will find an abundance of restaurants serving the soul-satisfying specialties of the land, cocina criolla, such as asopao, a hearty gumbo.

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