Horseback riding on Vieques starts at Playa Negra, the black sand beach a short drive west of Esperanza. Isla Nena Trail Rides takes its Paso Fino horses out there, on the beachside trails and coastal paths, with a shared group or with your own party alone.
The choice comes down to how long, who with, and when. The group rides are $75 a rider for an hour and $90 for 90 minutes, plus a 6% fee at checkout, and Viator sells the 90-minute ride at 8:00 AM for $105. Private rides are $120 a rider for an hour and $140 for 90 minutes, plus the same fee, and the three-hour El Comandante ride is for adults. Whichever you pick, every rider has to weigh 190 lb (86 kg) or less, and Isla Nena enforces it strictly.
Isla Nena Trail Rides is a different business from Isla Nena Bio Bay Boat Tours, the electric boat on Mosquito Bay.
The five rides
| Ride | Length | Who rides | Price | Leaves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group ride | 1 hour | Shared, from age 3 | $75 a rider, plus a 6% fee | 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM |
| Group ride | 90 minutes | Up to five, shared, from age 3 | $90 a rider, plus a 6% fee; $105 on Viator | 8:00 AM and 4:45 PM; on Viator, 8:00 AM |
| Private Fun Ride | 1 hour | Your group alone, up to four per booking online | $120 a rider, plus a 6% fee | 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM |
| El Criollo private ride | 90 minutes | Your group alone, up to four per booking online, from age 3 | $140 a rider, plus a 6% fee | 8:00 AM and 4:45 PM |
| El Comandante | 3 hours | Up to four adults, 18 and over | $250 a rider, plus a 6% fee | 7:00 AM, on sale online from 1 December |
“Private” means your group rides alone, not that the group pays one price. Every private ride is priced per rider, and a child’s place costs what an adult’s does. Two riders on El Criollo pay $280, or $296.80 with the fee. The listings give ten as the limit on the two shorter private rides, but one booking online takes at most four on any ride (on FareHarbor, at most three on any November date).
The 90-minute group ride is sold twice, and it is the same ride from the same stable: on FareHarbor at $90 a rider plus the 6% fee, $95.40 in all, at 8:00 AM or 4:45 PM; on Viator at $105, at 8:00 AM. The terms differ as well: Viator refunds in full up to 24 hours before the ride, FareHarbor up to 48 (the rest is under Booking it).
Both group rides are made for families and riders of every level, first-timers included, and the one-hour ride, $79.50 with the fee, is the cheapest of the five. The private hour is for families and first-timers who want the guide to themselves; El Criollo is the same length as the 90-minute group ride, on beachside and riverbed trails, with nobody else in the line.
El Comandante is a different outing. It goes out through the countryside and the island’s back roads, the pace building as the ground opens up, to the black sand for photographs, then back to the farm. It is built for riders who want some speed, and it is the only ride that leaves at 7:00 AM.
Who can ride: 190 pounds, and the ages
- 190 lb (86 kg) is the limit on every ride. A rider over it does not ride, and on a FareHarbor booking is not refunded. The booking form on FareHarbor asks each rider’s age, height and weight, and their experience, from first-timer to advanced.
- Ages. Both group rides and El Criollo take riders from age 3, and anyone under 18 rides with a parent or legal guardian. El Comandante is 18 and over.
- Experience. Both group rides and both shorter private rides are for every level, first-timers included.
- Helmets come with the group rides, and riders wear them the whole way.
- Pregnancy. The 90-minute group ride is not recommended for pregnant travelers.
Playa Negra, and getting there
Playa Negra is on the south coast, a short drive west of Esperanza, and the sand really is dark: it is black from volcanic rock. Golden cliffs, low green scrub and driftwood surround it.
It is not a swimming beach. The tourism board says so plainly, because of the rip currents. Ride it, walk it and photograph it, and swim at Sun Bay, the calm crescent east of Esperanza.
Getting to the horses is up to you: there is no pickup. The rides meet at the Playa Negra parking lot by the beach’s entrance, and for the 90-minute group ride you park in the lot across from Playa Negra Fine Foods. To reach the sand on foot, park alongside the road and walk the dirt track in: it leaves PR-201 and runs a little under half a mile down to the beach.
The ferry from Ceiba lands at Isabel Segunda, on the north coast, so the ride starts with a drive across the island, in a rental jeep or a público, the shared vans that run between the ferry and Esperanza. Getting around Vieques has who rents what, and where.
Ride on a day you are already on Vieques. A ride missed because the ferry or a flight ran late is not refunded: Isla Nena’s terms put getting to the island on the rider, and inside 24 hours Viator refunds nothing either. Esperanza, a short drive away, is where most visitors stay; where to stay has the rooms by town.
Morning or afternoon
Every ride but El Comandante goes at 8:00 AM and again late in the afternoon: the one-hour rides, group and private, at 5:00 PM, and the 90-minute rides at 4:45 PM. Viator sells the 90-minute group ride at 8:00 AM only; its afternoon ride is on FareHarbor. El Comandante leaves at 7:00 AM and is back at 10:00.
In winter the afternoon rides are sunset rides. The sun sets over Playa Negra at 5:45 PM on 1 December and 6:06 PM on 15 January, so the 90-minute rides, from 4:45 PM, come back after the sun has gone down. The one-hour rides, 5:00 to 6:00 PM, end after sunset in December and just before it by mid-January. By 15 March sunset is at 6:32 PM, and all of them end before it.
The morning is cooler, and it leaves the evening free for the bio bay, which is at its best on a dark night. Isla Nena watches the weather, and in rain or unsafe conditions it delays or cancels a ride, with the choice of another date or a full refund.
The horses: Paso Finos
Isla Nena’s horses are Paso Finos, the smooth-gaited breed Puerto Rico counts as its own, and the guides tell its story on the ride.
Puerto Rico made the Purebred Puerto Rican Paso Fino Horse national and cultural heritage by Act 34 of 2023, approved on 3 February 2023. The law rests on a study published in Scientific Reports in January 2022, which found that the Paso Fino descends from the Puerto Rican Criollo horse, shaped by islanders’ breeding over centuries, with no genetic contribution from the South American Paso horses. Criollo is the name Isla Nena gives its 90-minute private ride.
The horses loose on the roads
Vieques’ free-roaming horses are not these horses. You will see them on the roads, in the grass behind Sun Bay and on Playa Negra itself, like the ones in the photograph above. Most belong to island families, who work them when they are needed and turn them loose to graze, and the Sun Bay page has the rest of their story.
On the ride and off it, give them room, do not feed them, and drive slowly after dark.
Booking it
The cards below are the five rides, the 90-minute group ride twice, all leaving from Vieques itself, and among the few trips here that are not on the water: the tours that leave from the islands has the rest.
- The 90-minute group ride is on Viator and on FareHarbor. Viator sells the 8:00 AM ride, with free cancellation up to 24 hours before and booking open until three hours before it starts. Its $105 is a discount on a $150 price, so expect the price to rise when the discount ends. FareHarbor sells it at 8:00 AM and 4:45 PM, for $90 plus the 6% fee, on the terms below.
- The one-hour group ride and the three private rides are on FareHarbor only. Every FareHarbor booking has the same terms: a full refund up to 48 hours before, nothing after, and a booking made less than 24 hours ahead cannot be changed or refunded. Online booking closes the evening before for the 8:00 AM rides and two hours before for the afternoon ones, and for El Comandante 48 hours before. El Comandante’s first date on sale online is 1 December 2026.
Tips are not included on any of them.
