Puerto Rico had been on my bucket list for a while. It’s a unique destination being in the Caribbean, but part of the United States, and with Spanish as the main language. The only other Caribbean destination I’d been to before was the Bahamas, which isn’t known to be very gay-friendly – so much so that I secretly took a photo while kissing my boyfriend and posted it on social media only to have some of my followers legitimately worry about our safety in doing so.
Whether the Bahamas actually deserves that reputation is another post for another day, but what I kept hearing about Puerto Rico was that it was the most LGBTQ-friendly Caribbean destination and that San Juan in particular was a great place for gay travellers to visit. So I was thrilled to finally check it off my list and head over with my best friend Mary to check it out for ourselves!
The photos in this article were shared on my Instagram account and as you can see we got up to a lot in our short time there. We happened to visit just after Pride in San Juan, and while another Pride festival was happening on the other side of the island, but that didn’t stop us from finding some gay bars to go to and finding rainbow flags on buildings and in shops.
The video below summarizes everything we got up to in just 4 minutes so be sure to check that out for an overview of our trip. It’s also airing on OUTtv, Canada’s national LGBTQ TV station, in between their regular programming, so if you have that station you might also see it on there! From where we stayed to the places where we ate and the attractions we visited there was a lot to pack into that episode.
I felt comfortable being myself in Puerto Rico and found there was a lot to see and do as a gay traveller. Being there during Pride would probably be even more fun so I hope I can go back again one day during that to see what it’s like. Beyond the typical things like gay bars and rainbow flags though was of course a beautiful island full of things to see and do that any traveller can enjoy and appreciation, regardless of their sexual orientation. I look forward to returning!
Disclaimer: This experience was provided to us by Discover Puerto Rico, but they had no input on my writing and all thoughts are my own.