Six beaches for a swim this weekend, one for each stretch of the island, from Vega Alta to Guánica, and each came back clean on its latest water test. Here is what you will find when you get there.
Six beaches for this weekend
| # | Beach | Town | What's there | Last reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Balneario Cerro Gordo | Vega Alta | restrooms, parking, food and drink and camping | 10 on September 9 |
| 2 | Playa Rosada | Lajas | restrooms, showers and parking | 51 on September 9 |
| 3 | Balneario de Patillas | Patillas | food and drink and playground | 31 on September 9 |
| 4 | Balneario Condado | San Juan | parking and food and drink | 9 on September 9 |
| 5 | Playa Santa | Guánica | parking | 20 on September 9 |
| 6 | Isla Verde Beach | San Juan | restrooms, parking, food and drink and playground | 20 on September 9 |
A balneario is a public beach with an operator — usually the Departamento de Recreación y Deportes or the municipio — which is where the restrooms, the gate and the parking come from. Five of the six here are.
What each coast offers
The north coast has Balneario Cerro Gordo in Vega Alta, an Atlantic-facing balneario run by the municipality, and it’s the best-equipped stretch in this week’s group: restrooms, parking, food and drink, and a camping area for anyone who wants to turn a beach day into an overnight. Expect the north coast’s open-ocean character here, a livelier sea than you’ll find on the island’s calmer side. Closer to the capital, San Juan offers two easy, urban beach days. Balneario Condado puts you steps from parking and places to eat, while Isla Verde Beach adds restrooms and a playground, which makes it the natural choice for families with small kids who need a break from the sand.
Head south and west and the character changes. Balneario de Patillas in Patillas is a relaxed, community-style balneario with food and drink and a playground, a good fit for a slow family afternoon. Playa Rosada in Lajas, on the sheltered west side, comes with restrooms, showers and parking, and the quieter Mona-side water makes it an easy choice for splashing around with little ones. Playa Santa in Guánica is the more stripped-down option, with parking and not much else, suited to people who like their sand simple and their day unhurried.
The weekend forecast
Saturday’s forecast is drizzle, with highs of 85 to 89°F. Rain is likely at six of them.
| Beach | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| Balneario Cerro GordoVega Alta | Drizzle88°F 48% rain | Thunderstorm88°F 47% rain |
| Playa RosadaLajas | Thunderstorm89°F 88% rain | Thunderstorm89°F 94% rain |
| Balneario de PatillasPatillas | Drizzle87°F 60% rain | Drizzle87°F 53% rain |
| Balneario CondadoSan Juan | Drizzle85°F 65% rain | Drizzle86°F 70% rain |
| Playa SantaGuánica | Thunderstorm89°F 88% rain | Drizzle89°F 94% rain |
| Isla Verde BeachSan Juan | Drizzle85°F 65% rain | Drizzle86°F 70% rain |
Forecasts are Open-Meteo’s for each beach’s coordinates, read the morning this was published.
Before you go
Across the island, 34 of the 49 beaches Puerto Rico monitors came back clean on their last test. One beach is under a DRNA advisory this week and best skipped until the next notice lifts it: Pico de Piedra (Aguada).
What a reading does and does not tell you
“Came back clean” means one water sample, taken at one station in the sampling run of September 9, came in under the 70-colony federal action value — what DRNA calls within limits. It is the strongest thing the monitoring programme can say, and it is a description of that morning, not a forecast for Saturday. Rain is the variable that moves these numbers fastest: runoff after a heavy shower can put a beach over the action value hours after a clean sample was taken, and the next notice is a week away.
14 of the 49 stations carry no sample from the last 21 days. A beach that appears on no list at all has not passed anything; it has not been measured. An advisory is lifted by the next notice, not by the weather.
Every monitoring station, with its own number and its own date, is on the beach water quality page; DRNA’s current notice is here.
This is the 2nd Where to Swim (the previous one is here).
Source: DRNA’s beach-monitoring stations as of October 1, from samples taken September 9; beach detail from OpenStreetMap and the Blue Flag list published by OPAS.