Travel Channel

 By Theodore Fischer

Best B&B
Villa Arynar B&B
Where: Ensenada Honda, Culebra, PR 00775
Tel: 787-742-3145
Email: broeder1@compuserve.com
Web: www.culebra-island.com
Rates: Nightly, $90; weekly, $595
Operated by retired U.S. Navy Officer Bernie Roeder and his French wife Francette, this B&B occupies a hillside overlooking the blue waters of Ensenada Honda, about one mile south of town. Guests can enjoy lounging in hammocks, swimming, or fishing from the Villa Arynar pier. Bernie, an avid sailor who was part of an America's Cup Challenge team in New Zealand, will gladly spin yarns about the sea to eager ears. A full breakfast is served on the deck. No children, pets or smoking allowed. Villa Arynar is open mid-October through mid-May.

Best Luxurious Hotel
Tamarindo Estates
Where: Playa Tamarindo, P.O. Box 313, Culebra, PR 00775
Tel: 787-742-3343
Email: jose2@tamarindoestates.com
Web: www.tamarindoestates.com
Rates: $140 to $265 per night; packages with car rental available
Luxury is relative on Culebra, and what Tamarindo Estates provides is the luxury of seclusion. Occupying a 60-acre plot on a private bay, the hotel offers accommodations consisting of a dozen one- and two-bedroom cottages. Each unit has a veranda with ocean views, a color TV (hardly standard on Culebra), air-conditioned bedrooms and a fully equipped kitchen with a microwave. The hotel's 1,800-foot (550-meter) beach is an excellent place for swimming, shelling, kayaking, scuba diving and snorkeling. There's also a relatively small swimming pool with a covered deck. Tamarindo also operates its own rent-a-car fleet and offers money-saving packages.

Best Family Hotel
Club Seabourne
Where: Fulladosa Bay, P.O. Box 357, Culebra, PR 00775
Tel: 787-742-3169
Email: seabourne@gobeach.com
Web: www.gobeach.com/culebra1.htm
Rates: $95 to $135 per night
A tranquil and intimate hideaway in a lush setting overlooking Fulladosa Bay, Club Seabourne appeals to families with 14 air-conditioned sleeping units and a freshwater swimming pool. Its freestanding accommodations consist of eight pink-and-white villas and a pair of two-bedroom cottages with kitchens, each accommodating up to four guests. All rooms have refrigerators. The Clubhouse has a patio bar, screened-in dining room and lounge equipped with plenty of books, games and videos. Rates include continental breakfast and transportation to and from the airport or ferry dock.

Best Budget Accommodation
Posada La Hamaco
Where: Calle Castelar 68, P.O. Box 388, Dewey, Culebra, PR 00775
Tel: 787-742-3516
Email: manager@posada.com
Web: www.posada.com/Hotel.htm
Rates: $65 to $85
This nine-unit, Spanish-style guesthouse is located on the edge of a canal that cuts through Dewey between the Caribbean and Ensenada Honda in the most urban setting found on Culebra. Accommodations - all air-conditioned with private baths - consist of six standard rooms, two efficiencies and a two-room apartment that sleeps up to six. There's no restaurant or bar, but guests can lounge on a terrace overlooking the canal. Each day the hotel provides guests with beach towels and coolers filled with - a Culebra rarity - free ice.

 By Theodore Fischer

Best Bar
Mamacita's
Where: Calle Castelar, Dewey, Culebra, PR 00775
Tel: 787-742-0090
Mamacita's is a pastel-colored saloon where locals, modern-day pirates, boaters, divers and ordinary tourists gather. Sit on the deck, sip the house piña colada (passionfruit juice, coconut cream and rum) and listen to recorded reggae and calypso music while the sun sets. Located alongside the canal just south of the Dewey drawbridge, Mamacita's is also a budget-priced hotel and a popular "nuevo Caribbean" restaurant with highly praised chicken wings, conch salad and churrasco (braised meat).

Best Waterfront Atmosphere
Dinghy Dock
Where: Punta del Soldado Road, Culebra, PR 00775
Tel: 787- 742-0581
Dinghy Dock is the ideal all-purpose waterfront hangout for low-key, tropical Culebra. It's located on the banks of Ensenada Honda just south of the drawbridge and actually has a dock where dinghies and other craft can anchor. There is a full bar and a restaurant that serves American and Caribbean dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Try the exotic tropical waffles for breakfast and the lobster or other fresh seafood (notably the tuna) for lunch or dinner. Enjoy the sunset with margaritas or Puerto Rico's own Medalla beer.

Best Local Seafood
Club Seabourne
Where: Fulladosa Bay, P.O. Box 357, Culebra, PR 00775
Tel: 787-742-3169
Web: www.gobeach.com/culebra1.htm
Club Seabourne is a secluded hotel with a casual restaurant serving American-Caribbean style seafood in a 35-seat screened-in porch overlooking Fulladosa Bay. Menu highlights include tuna and kingfish in various Caribbean sauces. The menu expresses the American origins of restaurant's proprietors Dan and Erika Gilmore with items such as the New York strip steak, but nods to the surroundings with Puerto Rican dishes including pastelon, lasagna made with fresh plantain. Arrive early and grab a drink at the popular outdoor bar. Club Seabourne is open for lunch and dinner.

Best Family Restaurant
Marta's Al Fresco
Where: Opposite ferry dock, Culebra, PR 00775
Tel: 787-742-3575
The location is convenient, the ocean view appealing and the home-style menu diverse enough to please just about any member of the family. Those with more sophisticated palates can savor Creole-style seafood and meat dishes or asopaos, a Puerto Rican rice and meat soup. Others can partake of steaks, burgers, sandwiches, and rice and beans. The décor isn't fancy but neither are the prices - $8 to $13 per person.

 By Theodore Fischer

est Kid Stuff
Playa Flamenco (Flamingo Beach)
Where: Two miles north of Dewey
This horseshoe-shaped, palm-tree-lined public beach that is situated between mountain ridges, used to be in the line of fire of U.S. Navy artillery practice. Today the mile-long strand is the most popular beach on Culebra. And with its soft white sand, warm shallow water and unthreatening surf, it's also the most child-friendly beach. An excellent site for entry-level snorkeling and diving, Playa Flamenco offers toilet facilities, Coconuts Beach Grill for lunch and a couple derelict target-practice tanks to explore. Home to brown boobies, sootie terns, laughing gulls and endangered leatherback sea turtles (nesting season is March through June), the beach gets its name from flocks of flamingoes that winter on the premises. Flocks of mainland Puerto Ricans also turn up on summer weekends and holidays, but at other times the beach is relatively unpopulated. Government-run campgrounds are located on the north shore. For reservations, write to Autoridad de Conservacion y Desarrollo de Culbebra, Attn: Playa Flamenco, Apartado 217, Culebra, PR 00775.

Best Day Trip
Isla Culebrita
Where: Culebra National Wildlife Refuge
Tel: 787-742-0115
Hours: Daily, sunrise to sunset
In 1909 Theodore Roosevelt established the Culebra National Wildlife Refuge, which now encompasses four tracts totaling 1,480 acres (600 hectares) on Culebra plus 23 outlying islands and rocks. Isla Culebrita, a mile-long coral cay located about a mile off Culebra's east coast, has changed little since Columbus' visit in 1493. Culebrita's sundry attractions include the abandoned Culebrita Lighthouse, six beaches, tide pools full of trapped sea creatures, lush forests, and abundant species of birds and diverse wildlife, including several endangered species of turtle (hawksbill, Atlantic green, leatherback, Atlantic loggerhead). To reach Culebrita seaworthy visitors can rent their own craft from Culebra Boat Rental (787-742-3559) or elsewhere. The more nautically challenged can hail a water taxi - try the Culebra Dive Shop (787-742-0566), Tanamá Glass Bottom Boat (787-501-0011), or Willey's Water Taxi (787-742-3537). Culebrita has no concessions, so plan to bring whatever you may need.

Best Adventure by Land
Bike Excursions
The small area, mostly flat terrain and virtually traffic-free roads of Culebra make it an ideal place for cycling. Possible destinations include Playa Brava - a heavy surf area on the northern coast - secluded Playa Zoni on the eastern coast and Punta del Soldado, a great place for snorkeling at the end of the peninsula, south of Dewey. Or ride out to Flamenco Beach for an alfresco lunch at Coconuts Beach Grill, where options include burgers, fresh lobster and piña coladas. Mountain bikes rent for about $15 a day (may be less for long-term rentals) from the Culebra Bike Shop (787-742-2209) or Dick & Cathie (787-742-0062). Some hotels also rent bikes. Reserve in advance during peak seasons and major holidays.

Best Adventure by Sea
Culebra Dive Shop
Where: Dewey, across from Public Library, P.O. Box 836, Culebra, PR 00775
Tel: 787-742-0566 or 787-501-4656
Email: divcul@coqui.net
An active U.S. Navy gunnery range until 1975, Culebra was off-limits to boating and other potentially reef-spoiling activities. Captain Richard Cantwell of the Culebra Dive Shop takes scuba divers and snorkelers to 50 sites off Culebra and smaller surrounding islands. Neophytes can wet their feet with the resort course ($90 includes equipment and refreshments) while more advanced divers can check out triggerfish and French grunts in Amberjack Hole, take an open-water dive in Anchor Reef, or examine exotic squatters in a sunken tug boat. Two-tank dives cost $85 (including lunch and refreshments), night dives are $60 and non-diving guests on the boat pay $25. Deep-sea fishing, boat trips, water-taxi service and kayak rentals are also available.

 By Theodore Fischer