Cayo Icacos by Catamaran: An Island With Nothing On It

Cayo Icacos is a cay about a mile and a half off Puerto Rico’s north-eastern tip, and it is the largest of the string of islets that make up the Reserva Natural La Cordillera. It has white sand, a shallow turquoise shelf, reef on its sheltered side and absolutely nothing else.

That is the appeal, and it is also the thing to plan around. There is no kiosk, no bar, no vendor, no shade structure and no toilet on the island. Whatever the day contains, the boat brought it.

Why it is the default day out from Fajardo

San Juan’s own coast is city coast. Escambrón is good for an hour’s snorkel, Condado is a hotel beach, Isla Verde is by the airport. If you want the Caribbean postcard, you leave, and Icacos is the nearest place where the water turns that colour.

It is also forty minutes by boat rather than ninety by ferry, which is why the 22 boat tours on this site — from €65.84, median €133.89 — lean so heavily on this one cay. Our 16 island day trips from €50.04 include the longer runs to Culebra; Icacos is the version that fits in a half day.

The two tours people actually book

The full-day Icacos catamaran trip from Fajardo is €136.08 for six hours, and it holds 4.8 stars from 1,006 reviews — more reviews than any other boat tour on this site. That is a sailing catamaran: slower out, more time on the water itself, more of a day at sea with an island in the middle of it.

The Cayo Icacos snorkelling cruise with slide and lunch is €102.72 for five hours, 4.7 stars from 937 reviews. Power catamaran, faster crossing, water slide off the back, more beach time and less sailing. There is also a smaller all-inclusive boat trip to Icacos if you would rather not be one of sixty.

The honest way to choose between the first two: do you want to be on a boat, or do you want to be on a beach? The six-hour sail is the better day if the sailing is the point. The five-hour power cat gets you more time standing in the shallows. Both put you on the same sand.

What “no facilities” means in practice

There is no shade. The cay is low scrub and sand. Whatever cover exists is a few sea grape bushes, and sixty people off two boats will have found them. The exposure here is the most common way a good day turns into a bad evening — this is seven degrees closer to the equator than Miami.

The only toilet is the one on the boat. Ask which boat before you book if that matters to anyone in your group; a sailing catamaran’s head and a power cat’s are not the same thing.

Everything you drink came in a cooler. Open bar on these tours means what is on board. Bring more water than you think, independently of what is included.

Nothing is sold there, so nothing is bought there. Take small cash for the marina, not for the island.

The crossing, and the days it is rough

This is the Atlantic side of Puerto Rico, not the sheltered Caribbean coast. The trade winds run through here and the channel between Fajardo and the cays can be choppy even when the sky is perfect.

Most days it is a pleasant forty minutes. On windy days it is a wet, bumpy forty minutes, and boats reposition to the lee of the cay for the snorkel stop. If anyone in the group is prone to seasickness, that is worth preparing for before departure rather than during it — and anything beyond ginger and a seat amidships is a question for a pharmacist at home, not for a tour guide. Facing the horizon and staying on deck helps more than most people expect.

In some months drifting sargassum reaches the exposed side of the cays and the crews move round to the sheltered beach. It is untidy rather than dangerous, and it is worth asking the operator what the water has been doing that week.

Snorkelling here, and the reserve rules

The 24 snorkelling tours from €34.63 cover reefs all round the island; the Icacos stop is a shallow, easy one, which is why these trips suit people who have never snorkelled before.

La Cordillera is a protected nature reserve, and the rules are the ordinary ones, meant seriously: reef-safe sunscreen, applied well before you get in. Do not stand on coral. Do not take anything off the cay, shells included. Take every scrap of your rubbish back onto the boat — nobody collects it, because nobody lives there.

Getting to the marina

Tours leave from Fajardo, about an hour east of San Juan. Many include hotel pickup, and for an early departure that is usually worth paying for; the ones that do not expect you at the marina, and the marinas around Fajardo are not all the same place. Check which one is on your voucher the night before, not the morning of.

If the boat is booked out or the wind is up, the closest substitute is not another island — it is snorkelling with turtles at Escambrón, which is twenty minutes from Old San Juan and does not depend on a crossing at all.