A PEARL OF A BEACH: San Juan's Isla Verde boasts one of the island's best beaches, with numerous resorts, hotels, and restaurants all within walking distance. (C. W. ELLIS)

Head to white sand beaches, warm water, rain forests, spicy cuisine, and a vibrant culture that will have you dancing, as well as eating, salsa. And you don’t need a passport.

If you need a break from the cold, these are just a few of the many reasons to think Puerto Rico.

Here are a few more. Air carriers run many direct flights every day. You don’t have to change your money. Just about everyone is bilingual. Excellent roads and the island’s pocket size put its many natural treasures within easy reach. And the economic downturn has everyone offering deals on air fare, hotels, and car rentals. Puerto Rico is affordable, accessible, and flavorful.

Isla Verde

If you are looking for a beach vacation, you really need look no further than San Juan, the capital city. Five minutes from the international airport, you are on the powdery white sands of Isla Verde, San Juan’s premier beach, and among the finest on the island.

In addition to white sand and palms, Isla Verde has spas, restaurants, dancing, and casinos—all within walking distance.

Natural Treasures

NO NEED TO LEAVE THE WATER: Isla Verde's Intercontinental Hotel is classic mid-century design, with lush gardens and a swim-up bar in the pool. (C. W. ELLIS)

Of course, there is far more to Puerto Rico than the beach. Mountains, mangroves, rain forest, and a bay that glows in the dark are all about an hour’s drive from San Juan. (Car rentals are inexpensive and convenient.)

Heading east from Isla Verde or San Juan, the resort strip of Isla Verde Avenue becomes the coast road, Route 187. Just minutes from the palatial Ritz Carlton you cross a bridge and leave “Resortland” behind. Kiosks and ramshackle huts selling seafood, fried snacks, and fresh tropical drinks line the road. You are in Pinones, a unique community founded in the coastal mangrove forest by runaway African slaves who were brought to work the sugar plantations centuries ago.

The narrow two-lane road twists on, and you glimpse deserted beaches through breaks in the tangle of pine, sea grape, and mangrove. You would never imagine you are minutes from the largest city in the Caribbean.

It’s best to look soon. The area has enjoyed protected status as an ecological zone, a designation recently lifted by the new governor, and megadevelopers are eyeing the real estate.

As you are leaving the forest at Loiza Aldea, a small town where you are likely to see horses on the main street, you will see the great mountain of El Yunque as it looms over farm fields.

El Yunque is the only rain forest in the United States national park system. With good roads, well-maintained trails for every skill level, observation towers, swimming holes, and waterfalls, this is worth visiting. And bring your bathing suit to cool off with a quick dip after a hike.

On the northeast corner of the island, about 90 minutes from San Juan, you will find one of the four bio-luminescent bays in the entire world. Laguna Grande, an expanse of supersalinated water surrounded by mangroves, is home to a unique species of plankton that glows in the dark.

Akuadventures (www.biobaypr.com, 787-685-9522) will outfit you with a glass-bottom kayak for the nighttime trip of a lifetime. Like most of the people in my group, I had never kayaked before, but the licensed guides teach you everything you need to know and make it a fun experience.

As you paddle through the tangle of mangroves toward the bio-bay lagoon, sparks stream beneath the kayak. The water explodes in silvery effervescence as you touch it with the paddle or your hand. (No swimming is allowed, as the mosquito repellant many people wear kills the plankton.) A number of companies run kayak tours, but only Akuadventures offers glass-bottom kayaks, and I highly recommend them—it makes all the difference in the experience.

If kayaking through mangrove forest and visiting one of nature’s wonders isn’t excitement enough, you will be back on land with plenty of time to make it back to San Juan and go salsa dancing.

Where to Stay

ACCOMMODATE ALL: The Ritz Carlton's family-friendly hotel is considered the top resort in Isla Verde. (C. W. ELLIS)

Located at the eastern end of the Isla Verde beach, the Ritz Carlton San Juan is widely recognized as the top resort.

The Ritz chain built its reputation on first-class service and facilities worldwide, and that’s what it offers guests at Isla Verde.

I don’t know if it was because I was reading a history of the Roman Republic, or if it was the stately proportions of the Ritz architecture, the geometric layout of its gardens, the pool with signature lion fountains, and the vases of fresh cut flowers throughout the hotel, but I felt a distinct ambience of a Roman villa—albeit one with modern art hanging on the walls, high-speed Internet in the rooms, and a casino tucked into a corner. The overall effect, needless to say, is quite pleasant.

The elegant yet understated décor is matched with a casual atmosphere for guests. Families with young children are welcome and plentiful, even in the exclusive Club Lounge, where complimentary coffee, beverages, and a rotating menu of tasty hors d’oeuvres and salads are served throughout the day, and shorts and T-shirts are common.

The families tend to favor the lounge chairs clustered about the ample swimming pool (which has a volleyball net between those lions). The beach is just a few steps away and, while it is public (all beaches on the island are), the hotel provides chairs, towels, umbrellas, and security for guests.

A luxurious spa offers a full menu of services—from Swedish, Shiatsu, and couple massages to facials and other treatments—provided by a first-rate staff of masseurs, masseuses, and practitioners.

ROADSIDE HUMOR: The 'Pulpo Loco' or 'Crazy Octopus,' one of the roadside food stalls in Pinones. (C. W. ELLIS)

BLT Steak’s warm, stylish dining room is one of the Ritz’s fine dining choices. French chef Laurent Touroundel reinterprets the American steakhouse with succulent Kobe and Wagyu beef, a selection of fresh fish, creative sauces, side dishes, and salads such as a lobster Cobb.

Set on the beach to the west of the Ritz, the Intercontinental Hotel was designed by Morris Lapidus, the titan of postwar modern architecture famous for Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau and Eden Roc hotels. This landmark has been lovingly restored in a recent top-to-bottom renovation and is amazingly affordable.

The Intercontinental’s spacious lobby seems like a time capsule from the 1950s, with broad, golden columns, marble inlaid floors, and rattan design elements that carry over to the rooms. The carefully preserved image extends to the club lounge’s policy of no shorts or T-shirts, adults only, at cocktail hour.

Lush, tropical foliage surrounds a pool replete with rocky waterfalls and a swim-up bar. The landscaping, like the façade and the rest of the midcentury-classic hotel, is officially landmarked. The beach is just steps from the pool, and the hotel provides lounge chairs and towels.

The beachside restaurant Ciao Mediterranean serves lunch, dinner, and drinks all day. The hotel’s other restaurants include Japanese, Italian, and steakhouse fare.

The Intercontinental thinks of itself as something of a hidden treasure, an amusing conceit considering it has 402 rooms smack in the center of the resort strip.

What to Eat: Remarkable Cuisine

SNACK BREAK: Colorful roadside casitas ('little houses') sell seafood, fruit drinks, and other snacks in Pinones, a sleepy village founded long ago by runaway slaves. (C. W. ELLIS)

For Isla Verde’s, if not San Juan’s, most remarkable meal, proceed directly to Tangerine at the San Juan Water and Beach Club, just up the beach from the Intercontinental. Chef Israel Calderon, Puerto Rico’s leading food star, creates unforgettable, unsurpassed dishes best described as Puerto Rican fusion.

I wanted a pail of his coconut ceviche, a citrus-marinated seafood dish, to bring home with me. Carnitas (a sort of pulled pork dish) with a tangy tamarind glaze is required eating, and do not overlook his Madagascar beef or the mofongo, mashed plantain stuffed with goodness and smothered in salsa.

If you crave something Italian, La Piccola Fontana at El San Juan offers a traditional white-table-cloth-and-silver dining room with a full wine list. Following courses of tuna carpaccio and lobster risotto, Mario, the maitre d’ from San Remo, brought ravioli in truffle cream sauce, explaining, “It is the difference between dining and eating: Eating is a necessity, truffle is about dining.”

C.W. Ellis is a freelance journalist based in the United States. His travel journalism has covered eco-tourism in Latin America, pilgrimages with civil rights era icons in the American South, the roots of the Blues in Mississippi, and alternative medicine in Europe and Japan.