A mile and a half of public beach with almost nobody on it. That is the whole pitch, and on Vieques it is not a hard one to make.
Sun Bay is a long protected crescent east of Esperanza — calm shallow water, sand the whole way, and the kind of emptiness that surprises people arriving from anywhere else in the Caribbean.
What is not here
No chairs. No bar. No watersports. Puerto Rico’s tourism board lists bathrooms, showers, changing rooms, grills, food kiosks and lifeguards at the balneario. The restrooms are basic and sometimes closed, and the kiosks are not something to plan lunch around.
This is worth stating plainly because it is the single most common disappointment on this island. Vieques is not built for beach service, and people arriving expecting a St. Thomas or Cancun beach day have a bad afternoon.
Bring water, bring shade, bring lunch. Then it is one of the best beaches in the Caribbean.
The horses
There are free-roaming horses all over Vieques, and the grass behind Sun Bay is one of the places you will reliably see them. The photograph at the end of this page is a few of them on Playa Negra, just west of Esperanza, which is also where horseback riding on Vieques starts, on a stable’s Paso Finos rather than these.
They are not feral, whatever the postcards say. Look closely and most of them carry a brand: they are claimed by island families, worked when they are needed and turned loose again to find their own grazing. How many there are is genuinely disputed; published estimates run as high as 3,000, and nobody counts them.
Two practical things: do not walk up to them, because they are livestock and they kick, and drive slowly after dark, because a dark horse on an unlit road is a genuine hazard and the most likely way to ruin a rental jeep here.
Heading east: the refuge, and what is closed
Most of the beaches people come to Vieques for are east of Esperanza, and the whole eastern end of the island is the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge — former Navy land, about 14,600 acres of it, transferred to the US Fish & Wildlife Service in 2001 and 2003.
A major portion of the eastern refuge is closed to the public because of unexploded ordnance, and the clean-up is still running. That is the Fish & Wildlife Service’s own wording, not a cautious paraphrase.
What that means on the ground:
- The open areas are genuinely open. No entrance fee, open year round, with marked roads and trails out to beaches including Caracas, Playuela and Corcho.
- The closed areas are not a formality. The refuge’s rule is that areas not open to the public “shall not be visited by land or sea at any time” — the sea half of that matters if you have a kayak or a boat.
- Driving off road is prohibited, as are camping, open fires and drones.
- If the road is gated or signed, that is the answer. Do not go around it, and do not pick anything up.
Check the refuge page at fws.gov/refuge/vieques before an east-end beach day, because which areas are open changes as the clean-up moves. The refuge office is on 787-851-7258.
The bio bay starts here
Sun Bay is the beach next door to Mosquito Bay. The DRNA’s management plan for the Vieques bioluminescent bay reserve lists the Sun Bay property as one of the four parcels of land that make up the reserve, and at least one operator, Isla Nena Bio Bay Boat Tours, meets guests in front of the Sun Bay entrance on PR-997 and drives them to the water.
So an afternoon here and an evening on the bay are one outing rather than two. The trips on this page leave from Vieques itself, and the new-moon dates that decide whether the glow is worth the night are on the Mosquito Bay page.
Getting there, and the jeep question
It is a short drive from Esperanza, the small south-coast town where most visitors stay and eat.
You will want a vehicle, and it has to be one you rent on Vieques. Puerto Rico Ferry will not sell you a vehicle ticket for a rental car, and vehicle passage is for residents of Vieques and Culebra, so driving your mainland rental onto the boat is not an option people talk you out of — it is one the ticket window refuses.
The island’s rental companies are local independents, and one of them, Coqui Car & Island Jeep Rental, is about 100 feet from the ferry. Reserve early — the island runs out of jeeps on holiday weekends. Who rents what, and where, is on the getting-around page.
When to come
Late afternoon into sunset. The beach faces south and west enough that the light goes long and orange across the water, the heat drops, and whatever small crowd there was has gone.
