The best time to visit Puerto Rico for festivals, beaches, pernil and more

26.01.2024 - 19:23 / lonelyplanet.com

There’s never a bad time to visit Puerto Rico.

The average temperature in any given season is 80°F (26°C), which can go up drastically in the summer months, or dip to 60°F (15°C) in the winter. While you can go to the beach at any time of the year, there’s a busy festival calendar and an equally busy hurricane season to be aware of before planning your trip. 

Depending on your vibe, you can hit the carnivals in December and January, a period that comes with a hefty price hike in accommodations. Looking for a quieter getaway? April and May are optimal months for milder temperatures and emptier tourist spots. 

Read on to find out what the best time to visit Puerto Rico is for you. 

The changing of the seasons in Puerto Rico is like nowhere else in the United States. Hurricane season begins to wind down around November 1, all but eliminating the threat of storms and ushering in a cool breeze that tempers the high fall temperatures. 

This time of year isn’t a good time for beach trips, as winter usually brings heavy rainfalls that, while intermittent, affect the water quality and cause undercurrents, high tides and big waves in the Atlantic Ocean. 

But don’t despair: visitors traveling to the island during this slow season can enjoy the traditional music, culture, decorations and food that is Puerto Rican Christmas. 

Referred to as “the longest Christmas in the world,” the holidays on the island are the time when towns decorate their plazas, criollo restaurants serve up their best arroz con gandules (rice and pigeon peas), pernil (slow-roasted, marinated pork leg) and pasteles (mashed plantain and pork), and municipalities hold carnivals for their patron saints and feature trova (traditional poetic singing) competitions, plena groups showcasing this traditional genre of music and dance, and local pop acts. 

During the first two weeks of December is the Festival del Macabeo in Trujillo Alto. The show’s star is the town’s signature dish, the macabeo – a croquette-like fritter made with green plantain prepared two ways: boiled and mashed, and raw and grated. Filled with ground meat and seasoned with spices, this hard-to-find delicacy generates lines around the block. 

In the northern part of the island, the town of Hatillo has celebrated Festival de las Máscaras since 1823, when settlers from the Canary Islands began the tradition of dressing up as old ladies and demons to prank their neighbors on December 28 – the Day of the Holy Innocents.

It’s a raucous party that townspeople take seriously, with floats, traditional vejigante masks (colorful papier-mâché masks depicting characters from African and European mythology) and tricks beginning around 6am and lasting throughout the day.

The mountain town of San Sebastián