Semana Santa is Puerto Rico’s other ferry crush. In 2027 Holy Week runs from Palm Sunday, 21 March, to Easter Sunday, 28 March. Good Friday is a public holiday, and so this year is the Monday at the start of the week, 22 March, Emancipation Day. Schools and universities break for part of the week, and families from San Juan head for the islands: over Holy Week 2024 the ferries carried 30,226 passengers and 1,696 vehicles to Vieques and Culebra, by the count of the Integrated Transportation Authority (ATI).
As at Christmas, three things decide the trip: the boat, the bed and the moon.
The dates that matter
| Date | What it means for the islands |
|---|---|
| Sat 20 – Mon 22 Mar | A three-day weekend: 22 March is Emancipation Day, a public holiday |
| 21–23 Mar | No bio bay tours: full moon on the 22nd |
| Sun 21 Mar | Palm Sunday |
| Thu 25 Mar | Holy Thursday. Not a holiday; a recess day on the public school calendar |
| Fri 26 Mar | Good Friday, a public holiday. From tonight the moon is out of the evening sky |
| Sun 28 Mar | Easter Sunday |
Both holidays are in the law and on the 2027 list. Puerto Rico’s Political Code, Article 387, counts “el día veintidós de marzo, el Viernes Santo” among its holidays, and the government’s 2027 holiday memorandum for public employees, issued by its human resources office (OATRH) on 17 July 2026, puts them on Monday 22 March and Friday 26 March. Holy Thursday is on neither. The governor can move a holiday to the nearest Monday or Friday by proclamation, and the law has any such proclamation out by 15 January; 22 March is already a Monday. Good Friday is not a US federal holiday.
The ferry over Holy Week
No March timetable yet
Puerto Rico Ferry’s published itineraries for both islands run from 1 August to 30 November 2026, and nothing later is posted. Its FAQ is plain about what that means:
“Advance sales are limited. Agents can only sell tickets for schedules that have been published on Puertoricoferry.com and the APP.”
So no seat for March 2027 can be bought yet, and no Holy Week schedule for 2027 has been posted or announced. The sailing times are set by the Government of Puerto Rico, not the operator; every sailing to 30 November is on our ferry schedule.
The last four Holy Weeks
The government has run a special Holy Week schedule every year since at least 2023, and the operator posts it as a PDF on its route pages:
| Holy Week | Special schedule | Sailings a day from Ceiba | On the operator’s site | ATI’s announcement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 (Easter 9 Apr) | 5, 6, 7 and 10 Apr | Vieques 12, Culebra 11 | By 14 Mar | 4 Apr |
| 2024 (Easter 31 Mar) | Wed 27 Mar – Mon 1 Apr | Vieques 12, Culebra 10 | By 28 Feb | 22 Mar |
| 2025 (Easter 20 Apr) | Wed 16 – Mon 21 Apr | Vieques 12, Culebra 10 | By 25 Mar | 11 Apr |
| 2026 (Easter 5 Apr) | Wed 1 – Mon 6 Apr | Vieques 10, Culebra 9 | PDF dated 21 Mar | 30 Mar |
The schedules are the operator’s own PDFs. The dates they were online come from the Internet Archive’s copies of those PDFs and of the route pages, and the announcements are ATI’s, as Metro Puerto Rico reported them. In 2023 ATI said the Vieques route went “de ocho a 12 por día”, from eight sailings a day to 12.
Three things follow for 2027:
- The schedule is on the operator’s site weeks before the news has it. In 2023, 2024 and 2025 it was online three to four weeks ahead, and ATI’s announcement came one to five days before the first special sailing. Watch the route pages on puertoricoferry.com from the end of February.
- The extra sailings start on the Wednesday. In all four years the special schedule began on the Wednesday of Holy Week, and from 2024 to 2026 it ran to Easter Monday. In none of those years did Emancipation Day fall in Holy Week, so no past schedule shows what the long weekend at the start of 2027’s will get.
- More boats is not more seats for you. For Holy Week 2023 ATI kept online tickets limited, “de modo que la mayoría solo se puedan obtener en las boleterías”, so that most could only be had at the terminal windows, and held “un mínimo reservado de 35 boletos por viaje” for residents. It asked passengers to be at the terminal an hour and a half before the sailing, against the operator’s usual hour.
2026 began badly. On the morning of Wednesday 1 April 2026, the first day of that year’s special schedule, about a dozen trucks blocked the Vieques terminal in a protest over the fare increase, and HMS Ferries canceled its sailings to and from Vieques (Metro Puerto Rico, 1 April 2026). The fare is due to change again before Holy Week 2027 (below).
Who gets a seat
The operator boards in a fixed order:
“Priority order for passenger boarding: a. Pregnant women, senior citizens (60 years of age or older); persons with disabilities and veterans. b. Bona fide residents of the municipality’s islands. c. Passengers with tickets purchased at www.puertoricoferry.com d. Passengers with tickets purchased at the terminal counter.”
A visitor buys ahead only online, from “a limited number of tickets” held for advance sale, and “additional tickets are reserved and released for purchase on the day of scheduled departure.” What that means for Holy Week:
- Buy both directions the day March sailings go on sale, and again if a Holy Week schedule adds sailings. The return is the ticket that runs out.
- Avoid the edges of the long weekends, 20 to 22 March and 26 to 28 March. Midweek, between them, is the time to cross if you can.
- An empty website does not mean a full boat. More seats are released at the window on the day of the sailing, as capacity allows, so go to the window early on the day.
- Use the transfer rule. Sales are final, but a ticket can be moved to another departure twice, at least an hour before it sails.
- Five tickets per transaction. A family of six buys twice.
The Ceiba ferry page has the rest of the rules, and where to stay before the Ceiba ferry has the beds near the terminal for the first boats of the day.
The fare
Today an adult pays $2.00 to Vieques and $2.25 to Culebra each way, plus the $2 Culebra fee for non-residents. ATI postponed Regulation 9682, the new fare structure, to 31 December 2026, and its executive director has since spoken of the increases taking effect in January 2027, after ATI amends the regulation. As filed, a non-resident adult would pay $11.25 each way to either island, plus a $2 conservation fee. Either way Holy Week falls after the date, so budget for the new fare and check it the week before you sail. What the ferry costs has both columns.
Flying instead
When the boats are full, the planes are the other way across. Cape Air flies from SJU itself to both islands. Vieques Air Link flies from Isla Grande in San Juan and from Ceiba, with 25 pounds of baggage in total, carry-on included. Both fly small planes, and in a holiday week a handful of seats goes quickly, so book the flight when you book the bed. The flying page has the fares and the baggage rules.
The bio bay and the moon that week
Every tour on Mosquito Bay stops for three nights around each full moon, and in 2027 the March full moon falls at the start of Holy Week:
| Evenings | The moon from 6:30 to 10 PM |
|---|---|
| 12–20 Mar | Up all evening |
| 21–23 Mar | No tours. Full moon 22 Mar, 6:44 AM |
| 24–25 Mar | Dark until moonrise at 8:50 and 9:47 PM |
| 26 Mar – 6 Apr | Out of the sky all evening. New moon 6 Apr |
- Palm Sunday to Tuesday, no tours. 21, 22 and 23 March are closed.
- Holy Wednesday and Thursday, go early. The evening is dark until the moon rises, at 8:50 and 9:47 PM, so the first tours of the night are dark.
- Good Friday to Easter is the stretch to aim for. From the 26th the moon is below the horizon for the whole evening, and it stays that way to 6 April. These are also the nights the islands are fullest, so book the tour when you book the bed.
Alikei Adventures lists itself as closed on “some major holidays”, so check that Good Friday or Easter Sunday is on sale on its listing before you build the night around one. Every night of the year is on the Mosquito Bay moon calendar for 2027.
Which boat. The electric boat is the one for anyone who would rather not paddle; the clear canoes, run for all ages and experience levels, are the one for children and first-time paddlers. All three trips on this page leave from Vieques itself.
Who else is off
The Department of Education’s 2026–27 calendar gives public schools Monday 22 March and Good Friday as holidays, and Thursday 25 March as an academic recess. The calendar’s web page puts that recess on Tuesday 23 March instead; the academic calendar itself, the PDF, says the 25th. The University of Puerto Rico breaks from 25 to 27 March at Río Piedras, and from 23 to 27 March at Mayagüez.
On the islands
The natural resources department (DRNA) sends extra rangers for Holy Week: in 2025 it put three on Vieques and six on Culebra. Flamenco is the beach the day crowds go to, and late March is still inside the winter swell season, November to April by the National Weather Service in San Juan. Flamenco faces north; read the rip current statement the morning you go, as the holiday page sets out. A trip either side of Holy Week, from February to the end of April, is on Vieques and Culebra in February, March and April 2027, with how often the swells reached Culebra in those months of 2026.
Book in this order
- The bed, Culebra first, because it has the fewest. Where to stay sorts the towns. Puerto Rico’s room tax is 9 percent at hotels and 7 percent at guesthouses and rentals, and a headline rate can leave it out.
- The bio bay night, from Good Friday on.
- The crossing: the ferry the day March sailings go on sale, both directions, or a flight now.
- The jeep or golf cart. The fleets are small, and a holiday week empties them: who rents what, and where.
If the choice of island is still open, Vieques or Culebra sets them side by side. There is no ferry between them.
