Bioluminescent Bay

Swimming in the biobay here is one of my favorite things that I have done so far. It is surreal and something you have to experience for yourself! I have done 3 tours involving bioluminescence and this one tops them all. It is seriously like magic. I’m glad we drove the 2+ hours just to do this. It is the only biobay that allows swimming still in Puerto Rico. The water was warm too. Totally worth it. We went right after a full moon but mother nature still rewarded us with bright dinoflagellates. Highly recommended!!! We went with Paradise Scuba and Snorkeling who took good care of us. Seriously though no words could fully describe this amazing experience!

Was expecting pretty much nothing having read all the other reviews. Boy was I wrong and in all the right ways. AMAZING! One of the coolest things I have ever seen. I would love to check out another bay for comparison but we were not disappointed in the least!

While I loved my snorkeling trip through Paradise Snorkel and Scuba (see my separate review), the Bioluminescent Bay specifically was the low point of the trip.
As others have noted, if the weather and lighting conditions aren’t right, it can be tough to see the luminescence. We were really only able to see it while in the water in the shadows of our boat. It was definitely cool, but lacked the WOW factor I’d been expecting. I’m so glad I did it, but I won’t go out of my way to do it again.
That said, if you want to check out the Bioluminescent Bay, I couldn’t recommend Paradise more highly as your tour vendor.

Not a blue bay anymore… nice kayak ride but not worth $ 90. I wish they were hones with us and told us that the biobay is no longer brite

Back to the Bio Bay with colleagues on 9−18−14 — full moon and it was raining — do NOT go here when there is a full moon and/​or when it’s raining. Being there once before and being super impressed — I was at least able to slightly see what others new to the Bio Bay were unable to detect.
I’m not sure if it was just the weather and the moon or if there is just too much pollution occurring. At any rate — this is perhaps the worst of the bio bays in Puerto Rico — very sad!

Sorry to be a party pooper but that probably has more to do with the fact that my friends and I opted for the KAYAKING ADVENTURE (of death) instead of the clear bottomed boat. NEVER AGAIN.
$ 40 gets you a 2 person kayak for a half day (this should have been a red flag) because it’s going to take (AT LEAST) 3 hours to get there and back. The man gives you a tiny head flashlight and says he’ll come find you if you don’t come back in 4 hours (this was also a red flag).
Kayaking was cool for like 10 minutes but then it got super dark, windy, waves were strong and we weren’t exactly clear on where we were going (a lot of «are we there yets?»). To be fair, we were not all experiences kayakers, so this was an issue (and almost broke up my friends’ relationship mid-​trip…) By the time we FINALLY got to the Biobay, we were so exhausted and dreading the trip back that we didn’t fully appreciate the coolness of the bay. We all agreed that the stars were the best part of the trip. The Biobay was cool but in a kayak, it’s hard to find the best spots so we sort of wandered aimlessly, some of us got in which was cool, but it wasn’t nearly as intense as the pictures. The way home was even scarier, with some of us dehydrated, following boats into the middle of the ocean that were not our boats, thinking we were going to die out there, and general panic. (I may be being a bit dramatic, but it’s honestly how you feel when you’ve been on a boat for 4 hours in darkness without a map, person in sight, voice within hearing distance, water/​food).
I would also suggest you eat dinner before this if you are going to take the kayaks, because all that will be open when you get back is Burger King.
I would recommend you take the clear bottomed boat and NOT kayak! I’m glad we did it, if only for the horror story, but I wish we’d taken the boat.

The moon was pretty bright so the bioluminescence was less so but still a great time.

This ranks way up there in the coolness factor and the ooh and ahhh factor.
When I was told that I had to jump off a boat in the dark and into the ocean I wasn’t really all that thrilled. I was already cold and the creepy factor of jumping into black water was not something I looked forward to. But… I took the boat out there and since everyone else was doing it…
Once you’re in the water and can see the sparkles and star like creatures light up as you swim or lift your arms out of the water the amazement of it all takes over and I enjoyed swimming for at least an hour. The water was comfortable to swim in and there were several other people swimming with me. Put on a snorkel while you’re swimming so you can really see your hands and arms light up or your friends while they swim around you.
Tips:
1. Book a tour-​we booked with Paradise and they did an great job of getting us out there quickly. For about 30.00 we were fed and boated out and back.
2. Wear a swim suit. (Sounds obvious but several people didn’t bring theirs.)
3. Bring a towel
4. You may want to bring a light jacket if you chill easily. The ride out on the boat is windy and it is after dark.
5. Still go if there’s rain. It makes for a spectacular show.
6. Try and book when it’s NOT a full moon. The more light the less you will see.
7. Bring your snorkel so you can really see what’s going on.
A not to be missed tour!!!

Glow in the dark water amazing! Talk about being in Avatar!

There truly is an impressive display of bioluminescence here. The Bay itself is apparently impossible to get to from land — take a boat from the Parguera marina. There are several small boat operators that you can charter for the trip.
The water is silty (part of the conditions that lead to the bioluminescence), so don’t expect grand displays — the show is much more intimate. Definitely bring fins and a mask/​snorkel and swim around, watching the water react to your strokes. But also take a moment to hang face down in the water, motionless — watch the deep space twinkling around you. It’s a beautiful thing.