The Ultimate Ponce Travel Guide
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Ponce is located on the south side of Puerto Rico about an hour and thirty minutes away from San Juan. If you’re driving from San Juan to Ponce, you’ll need to take the beautiful Route 52. This highway crosses through the middle of the island through various municipalities and offers breathtaking views of the surrounding mountain ranges and even the coastline. When driving on this route you’ll likely notice the difference in the natural landscape that varies from luscious mountain ranges to arid coastal plains, where you’ll even see cactuses. You’ll know you’ve arrived in Ponce once you see the huge letters that span across the highway spelling the municipality’s name.
You could check out Ponce as a stop to the west side of the island, BUT Ponce has so many attractions and such a rich history, that I would suggest spending one or two days if you really want to take the time to appreciate the beautiful details of its buildings, streets and parks.
During our trip to Ponce we stayed at The Fox Hotel, a trendy hotel conveniently located in the main plaza which inhabits an old theater from the 1930s. The exterior of the building is a fascinating mix of architectural styles such as art deco, neo-classical and Moorish, but its colorful interior is unique because of use of Pop Art and Modern Art decor. The Fox Hotel is the perfect place for those who want to take instagram worthy photos and party all night in its spacious lobby where you will usually find live music or DJs playing during the weekends.
THE FOX HOTEL
However, if you’re planning to stay here during the weekend and go to sleep early, I would highly suggest looking into other options, since you WILL hear music playing in your room till 12 or even 1 in the morning. However, what’s also great about The Fox Hotel is the varied dining options right in the lobby. On our first morning in Ponce, we ate a hearty breakfast at CoffeeHouse which included some delicious pancakes, scrambled eggs, and of course, local artisan coffee.
To start off our adventure, we headed over to one of Ponce’s most iconic and popular tourist attractions, el Catillo Serrallés. El Castillo Serrallés is a breathtaking mansion museum located on the top of a hill overlooking the city center of Ponce. El Castillo Serrallés sits on 2.5 acres of land and was built during the 1930 for the Serrallés family, one of Ponce’s most powerful and influential families that founded and owned a sugar cane plantation and created a rum distillery which manufactures the popular Don Q rum.
CASTILLO SERRALLÉS
During your tour of the property you will be guided through various extravagant rooms inside of the mansion where you will see some of the family’s luxurious personal belongings and other fascinating objects that will make you feel like you’re traveling back in time. Even though video recording is prohibited throughout most of the tour, we were allowed to record the beautiful interior courtyard of the mansion and the breathtaking view from one of the upper levels.
VIEW FROM UPPER LEVEL
After learning about Don Q rum’s name origin and visiting the courtyard, you will be guided to a room all about the influence of rum in Puerto Rico where you will see a collection of old rums, including some of the first ones produced by the Destilería Serrallés. Here, you will also sit down in the theater to watch a short movie all about the history of the Serrallés family, their sugar cane plantation called Hacienda Mercedita, and how it influenced the economic development of its surrounding area and of the municipality of Ponce as a whole.
And last, but not least, you will then go outside where you’ll have a chance to stroll around the beautifully landscaped garden. Here, you’ll not only appreciate the diversity in plants and trees, but also get a chance to see up close some of the objects used to distill, produce and transport rum. But, the core and stand out feature of this garden is without a doubt the majestic fountain, that is so grandiose that it could be confused for a swimming pool overlooking the city center of Ponce. After spending all this time here, you’ll be feeling as if you were part of the upper class of Puerto Rico in the early 1900, but your next stop is going to once again make you travel back in time and take you across the globe to Japan.
CASTILLO SERRALLÉS FOUNTAIN
That’s right, just behind el Castillo Serrallés you’ll find El Jardín Japones, a recreational garden inspired by traditional Japanese art and architecture. This peaceful and zen garden features an artificial river full of koi fish, traditional Japanese gates, bridges and a specific area displaying peculiar bonsai trees. The tranquility of this garden is the perfect environment for meditation, contemplation and even for participating in the occasional yoga classes offered here.
JARDÍN JAPONES
Now, after visiting the Jardin Japones, its time to head across the parking lot to La Cruceta del Vigía, a colossal 100 feet tall cross tower that houses a sky bridge that has a panoramic view of the city and nearby coastline. This cross is located in the same area where early settlers would lookout for incoming merchant ships from around the world, potential invaders and for pirates.
CRUCETA
DEL VIJÍA
If you want to visit all of these attractions, you’ll just need to head over to the website museocastilloserralles.com and click on Buy Ticket. Your $15 per person entrance fee includes the guided tour of El Castillo Serrallés and access to both El Jardín Japones and La Cruceta del Vigia. Getting all of this for $15 makes visiting this historical and recreational complex a complete must if you’re planning to visit Ponce.
AERIAL VIEW OF CASTILLO SERRALLÉS
Now, after visiting one of Ponce’s most iconic tourist attractions, we headed over to one of Ponce’s most obscure, yet interesting historical structures, the Acueducto Alfonso XII, specifically the section near the Barrio Mameyes. This gravity-based aqueduct system spans around 2.5 miles and was built in 1876, making it Puerto Rico’s first modern water distribution system. Although the aqueduct ceased to operate 1928 in favor for more advanced systems, its historical significance granted it the title of National Historic Monument of Puerto Rico in 2015 and in 2019 it was listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
ACUEDUCTO ALFONSO XII
And now, we hopped back into our car to go explore the city center, but before we did this, we decided to eat some delicious handmade pizza from Pizzería Libre Episodio 1. This pizza place is conveniently located a few blocks away from the center plaza, but, they do offer delivery to the surrounding areas. What makes Pizzería Libre stand out is their use and combination of fresh ingredients to create mouth watering flavors.
PIZZERIA LIBRE EPISODIO 1
Feeling re-energized we began exploring Ponce’s center plaza, the Plaza las Delicias. This square is absolutely overflowing with historical structures, monuments and landmarks such as the Fuente de los Leones, the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Cathedral, statues dedicated to puertorrican poets, politicians and musician, and other historic buildings with cultural and architectural significance. The Plaza de Las Delicias actually consists of two different plazas and its allure captures the attention of around a quarter of a million visitors and locals per year.
FUENTE DE LOS LEONES AT THE PLAZA LAS DELICIAS
But, in my opinion the standout attraction at the Plaza Las Delicias is the iconic Parque de Bombas. This emblematic red and black building which was originally built in 1882 to serve as the main pavilion for a trade fair, was subsequently turned into Puerto Rico’s first ever fire station. This building with arabic, gothic and victorian influenced architecture consists of an ample first floor where you’ll find firefighting equipment such as its beautifully preserved firetruck, and two lateral lateral towers where you’ll find historical documents, firefighting tools, and paintings of the brave firefighters that protected the city for more than 100 years from several fires that almost completely destroyed Ponce.
PARQUE DE BOMBAS
Now, after visiting the Parque de Bombas you should definitely head over to Ponce’s famous ice cream shop called King’s Cream. This spot is popular with both locals and visitors because of its unique and delicious ice cream flavors such as corn, tamarind, soursop, and passionfruit. If you don’t have a sweet tooth like me, you could also go to Vistas, a rooftop restaurant and bar that has a breathtaking view of Ponce’s city center, the Castillo Serrallés, and the surrounding mountain range. During our visit, we were able to have some drinks and see the sunset while we waited for the main reason we came to Ponce, to see the Carnaval Ponceño.
VIEW FROM VISTAS RESTAURANT
The Carnaval Ponceño, similar to other carnivals around the world, is an annual celebration held on the days prior to the beginning of Lent. The Carnaval Ponceño was first celebrated in 1858, and it is characterized by its colorful parades, traditional music and dances, but most of all for its notorious vejigantes. The vejigantes are colorful and extravagant demon-like characters that wear paper mache masks, adorned with frightening sharp teeth and horns. During the celebration, these vejigantes dance to traditional music and interact with the crowd, causing subtle acts of mischief such as playfully swatting visitors with balloons and rattles.
VEJIGANTE AT THE CARNAVAL PONCEÑO
To start off our second day at Ponce we headed over to the Panaderia La Nueva Victoria, a unique bakery that gave a new life to an abandoned art deco style cinema from the 1940s. Here you’ll not only eat traditional puertorrican breakfast sandwiches and pastries, but also see the theater’s original movie projector from 1941.
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PANADERÍA
LA NUEVA VICTORIA
Before heading back to the main plaza, we drove by Calle 25 de Enero to see las Casas de los Bomberos, a street with houses painted with the emblematic red and black color scheme that were raffled and donated to some of the heroic firefighters that extinguished a fire known as El Polvorín, that threatened to destroy the city in 1899.
CALLE 25 DE ENERO & CASA DE LOS BOMBEROS
Then, we headed to the Plaza las Delicias and dropped by Utopia and El Coquí, two gift shops that carry all sorts of souvenirs and items and designs all about Ponce, Puerto Rico and the puertorrican culture such as t-shirts, stickers, coffee, and even the traditional vejigante masks.
UTOPÍA GIFT SHOP
While we were shopping here, we were even lucky enough to see the rolling Carnaval Ponceño and all of its colorful carriages, traditional music and clothing and even the lively vejigantes for a second time when they passed through the Plaza las Delicias.
VEJIGANTE
If you’re in Ponce and you want to see and shop in a more authentic environment, you should check out both the Plaza del Mercado Reina Isabel II and the Plaza Juan Ponce de Leon.
PLAZA DEL MERCADO REINA ISABEL II
These two plazas, which are close to each other, have different kiosks and vendors that sell all sorts of traditional items and foods.
PLAZA JUAN PONCE DE LEÓN
At the Plaza del Mercado Reina Isabel II we loved having a cup of coffee at La Nata while eating their specialty, the nata, a delicious traditional Portuguese egg custard tart pastry.
LA NATA
IN PONCE
And at the Plaza Juan Ponce de Leon we loved visiting Salon Boricua where they design and create art pieces such as stickers and pins inspired in Puerto Rico’s history and culture.
SALÓN BORICUA
I do want to point out that if you want to visit either of these places, you should go on a weekday from 8AM to 1PM because on Saturday and Sunday most of the kiosks will probably be closed.
Now, our final stop on this day, before heading back home, was La Guancha, a recreational complex located in the coastal community of Ponce called Barrio Playa.
LA GUANCHA
During the weekends here, you will see families enjoying the nearby park and eating from the many food vendors selling traditional puertorrican fried street food such as alcapurrias and bacalaitos. La Guancha is unique because you’ll also be able to feed the friendly pelicans and the humongous and famous sábalo fish that have become synonymous with La Guancha.
SÁBALO FISH
Unfortunately, La Guancha, as well as Ponce and other municipalities on the south side of Puerto Rico were heavily affected by earthquakes that struck the island during late 2019 and early 2020, causing heavy damage to the boardwalk structure which housed most of the businesses in La Guancha. For this reason, if you visit Ponce, please consider supporting the local economy by shopping at small and medium businesses, which were the most affected by these earthquakes.
And finally, as the sun started to set and we began heading back home, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to carefully stop by, climb onto and take some vacation photos at the famous Letras de Ponce to help us remember this trip forever.
LETRAS DE PONCE
And that’s it! I hope you found this travel guide helpful. Make sure to check out my YouTube channel, Brik’s Travel Guides, to see the full video of this and other Puerto Rico travel guides.
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