Six beaches for a swim this weekend, one for each stretch of the island, from Guánica to Manatí, and each came back clean on its latest water test, taken October 5 and 6. DRNA sampled again October 19 and 20, and its notice from that round does not list them.
Six beaches for this weekend
| # (Its number on the map above) | Beach (The beach as our guide holds it; the reading belongs to the DRNA station it sits on) | Town | What's there (Features mapped in OpenStreetMap within 350 m of the beach: presence, not a count) | Last reading (Clean: the latest published sample at the beach's DRNA station came in under the federal action value of 70 colonies of Enterococcus per 100 mL. The date is the day it was collected; each station's own number is on the beach water quality page) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Balneario Caña Gorda | Guánica | restrooms and parking | Clean · Oct 5 |
| 2 | Balneario Crash Boat | Aguadilla | parking | Clean · Oct 5 |
| 3 | Balneario Punta Guilarte | Arroyo | nothing mapped | Clean · Oct 6 |
| 4 | Playa Ocean Park | San Juan | parking, food and drink and playground | Clean · Oct 6 |
| 5 | Playa Azul | Luquillo | parking | Clean · Oct 6 |
| 6 | Playa Mar Chiquita | Manatí | parking | Clean · Oct 6 |
DRNA sampled again October 19 and 20. Its per-beach counts from that round are not published yet, and its notice from that round does not list any beach above.
A balneario is a public beach with an operator (usually the Departamento de Recreación y Deportes or the town), which is where the restrooms, the gate and the parking come from. Three of the six here are.
What each coast offers
If you want a day with facilities, the balnearios are the easy call. Balneario Caña Gorda in Guánica has restrooms and parking, and Balneario Punta Guilarte in Arroyo is run by the Departamento de Recreación y Deportes (Parques Nacionales), the same operator behind Caña Gorda. Balneario Crash Boat in Aguadilla rounds out the group, a gated public beach with parking nearby that makes a natural destination for a full day out on the West stretch. All three tested clean at their last sample.
For something more casual, the other three suit a looser kind of weekend. Playa Ocean Park in San Juan is the best fit for families, with parking, food and drink and a playground close by. Playa Azul in Luquillo and Playa Mar Chiquita in Manatí are simpler: parking and sand, with no gate and no operator behind them. Two balnearios, Pico de Piedra in Aguada and Cerro Gordo in Vega Alta, were on the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA) notice last time and are not on this one, so check back before planning around them.
Off the list since the last notice
| Beach (Named in the previous notice, not in this one) | Town | Now (Its state today: within limits, or not sampled recently) | Sampled (The day its last published sample was collected) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balneario Pico de Piedra | Aguada | Above the action value | October 13 |
| Balneario Cerro Gordo | Vega Alta | Above the action value | October 13 |
Coming off the list is not a certificate: it means this week’s notice does not name the beach, from samples taken October 19 and 20.
The weekend forecast
Saturday’s forecast is thunderstorms at three and drizzle at three, with highs of 84 to 88°F. Rain is likely at five of them. Sunday brings thunderstorms at three, drizzle at two and showers at one.
| Beach | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
| Balneario Caña GordaGuánica | Thunderstorm88°F 100% rain | Showers89°F 82% rain |
| Balneario Crash BoatAguadilla | Thunderstorm86°F 59% rain | Thunderstorm86°F 71% rain |
| Balneario Punta GuilarteArroyo | Drizzle88°F 57% rain | Thunderstorm89°F 73% rain |
| Playa Ocean ParkSan Juan | Drizzle84°F 69% rain | Drizzle86°F 74% rain |
| Playa AzulLuquillo | Drizzle87°F 70% rain | Thunderstorm86°F 79% rain |
| Playa Mar ChiquitaManatí | Thunderstorm88°F 39% rain | Drizzle88°F 61% rain |
Forecasts are Open-Meteo’s for each beach’s coordinates, read the morning this was published.
Before you go
Nine beaches are under a DRNA advisory this week and best skipped until the next notice lifts it: Balneario Manuel Nolo Morales or Sardinera (Dorado), Balneario Punta Salinas (Toa baja), Balneario de Patillas (Patillas), Playa Guayanés (Yabucoa), Balneario Punta Santiago (Humacao), Balneario La Monserrate (Luquillo), Playa Buyé (Cabo Rojo), Muelle de Arecibo (Arecibo) and Balneario Puerto Nuevo (Vega Baja). Pico de Piedra (Aguada) is not on the notice, but its own last number is above the action value: 402.
Balneario Cerro Gordo (Vega Alta) is not on the notice, but its own last number is above the action value: 231.
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 October 5 and 6, came in under the 70-colony federal action value, what DRNA calls within limits. It is the strongest thing the monitoring program 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.
A beach the notice does not name was either within limits that round or was not sampled, and the per-beach counts that would say which are not published yet. An advisory is lifted by the next notice, not by the weather; DRNA’s notice is the only thing that puts a beach under one.
Every monitoring station, with its own number and its own date, is on the beach water quality page, and the official list is DRNA’s current beach notice (also a scanned PDF).
This is the 6th Where to Swim. Read the previous Where to Swim.