NCL El Yunque drive excursion

[Raynebaby]

Has anyone done this excursion, it says it's 4 hrs, so how long is that of a drive in the actual rainforest, I know it's a long drive from the port to the rainforest.

 

We've already done the city tour and the forts on a previous cruise so it's either we do this excursion or we just walk around OSJ.

 

What are your thoughts, we've visited the rainforest in St Lucia, is it just the same thing?

[nikki908]

We did this excursion last October. It's about a 45 minute drive, first stop is the visitor center. Some of the exhibits and plants there were interesting. There is a trail you can walk, probably takes about 20 min to go around the trail. Then we stopped at a waterfall, had enough time to look around and take pictures. A big disappointment was that the observation tower was listed as a stop, but we did not go there, we went to a river instead which I thought was not very impressive. I'd been looking forward to the observation tower. I think this tour gives you kind of a nice overview of the rainforest, but you don't really get to spend a lot of time walking through the rainforest. I think for the price it wasn't bad, and we did have a fun guide, so I'd say it was interesting but I didn't feel we really experienced the rainforest in any depth.

[Lard Greystoke]

Agree with above post. My first visit was through a 1/2 day tour. Only a partial immersion, but it inspired me to subsequently spend a few days there. The best way to do it is to take a cruise out of San Juan and spend a couple days pre- or post-cruise in Puerto Rico.

 

Haven't been to the rainforest in St Lucia, but I assume it's similar to the rainforest in Dominica. El Yunque will be different in being 1) higher elevation, therefore 2) somewhat cooler. Also the way the massif stands out from an essentially flat plain is unique. I've never seen anything quite like it.

 

Whether for an introductory experience or something larger I consider it worth it.