Puerto Rico doesn't have a lot for kids to do. I'm not being mean I'm being honest and, with as long as I lived there this past summer, I'm sure I'm qualified to say it. One thing it does have a mere hour outside of San Juan is the Arecibo Lighthouse Museum. It's not really a museum but it's well run, exceptionally maintained and all kinds of fun like we could hardly believe.
In the area there are two kid-centric family attraction parks, with the other one being Fun Valley Park. In terms of what they are, they are miles apart. In terms of where they are they're about a mile apart. Any comparison would be apples to bananas, both in terms of fun and value, so I won't even try. I'll say that if you're looking for a fun day with your kids an hour west of San Juan, spend your morning at Fun Valley Park (and have lunch there) then spend your afternoon at the Arecibo Lighthouse Museum.
The biggest and best attraction at the Arecibo Lighthouse Museum is the Pirate Cave & Aquarium, but that's so amazing it gets a whole, separate article just to explain it. I'll cover that one soon enough, but there's plenty else to keep you and yours occupied in the meantime.
The coolest thing there was easily the pirate ship and replica of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. These 1/3-scale ships were so much fun, with ladders to climb, windows to look in and all sorts of wooden sailor men hanging out for you to poke and pretend around. They even have dolphins in the grass (which looks like water) for you to check out too. The ships were what we kept coming back to between moments of checking out all the other stuff.
Above - From here I could see land-ho, sea-ho and heave-ho, but I still can't tell you what any of that means.
The next striking thing was the playground. It had enough space and toys in it I imagine it could easily handle 200 kids at a time. It has countless forts, swings, and all kinds of things to play on, in and around. Just like the tall ships, we kept coming back to this area. There was also a vintage 1964 helicopter (I think they called them Hueys back then) for even more make-believe.
The playground even has shaded areas for the parents to rest and recharge for the next round of play, which is nice, but I'd rather just spend my time playing.
At the top of the hill is the lighthouse and museum. This is a real, working lighthouse maintained by the Coast Guard and you can go right up to it and inside, where they have all kinds of historical items with placards explaining it.
And if the parents aren't feeling up to the hike, they can hang out on the decks. I know it doesn't sound like much, but the view is spectacular and the decks are huge enough to handle hundreds on a bad day.
Above - The view from the lighthouse down on the decks. As you can see the view is sweeping and spectacular and there's plenty of room to take a load off while your youngsters are busy being pirates, explorers, zoologists or helicopter pirates... wait, helicoptor pirates? Maybe I should look into that one.
Those are just the highlights. The lowlights include an odd, kind of creepy Taino Village, complete with an oddly naked Indian woman, (and yes, that's brother Patrick with an odd paw to the booby) modeled after the traditional Indian tribe villages, a mockup of original slave quarters, some old horse & buggy things, a statue ensemble representing the Spanish American War, and a "Jibaro" House, which I was never able to identify or even locate… something might be lost in the translation right there.
There is also a Mini Zoo, but be advised that when they say "mini" they aren't kidding. It's like a scaled down petting zoo, except scaled down a bit further. There are chickens, ponies and not a whole heck of a lot more… then again, it's another bonus feature of the place, and not the actual attraction, so I didn't mind it one bit. Along the walkway, however, I did manage to spot a giant iguana wandering the foliage. That was pretty awesome.
The only downside to the Arecibo Lighthouse Museum is the nickel-and-dime add on costs once you're inside. The admission is only $9 adult, $7 children and $2 for parking, but the concessions are mediocre and far too costly. We had two hot dogs and two raspberry smoothies, and it came out to $14. We left broke and far from full. The gift shop is also absurdly overpriced with dollar store trinkets and the sorts of things we buy from catalogs for a buck all priced around $5 each.
You'll have more fun at this place than you can believe, and I recommend it highly, but if you're not careful you'll also spend your pockets inside-out.
The Arecibo Lighthouse Museum is located about an hour west of San Juan on the coast of Arecibo. You can follow the signs easy enough, or check them out online at www.arecibolighthouse.com for current rates, hours and detailed driving directions.
Above - At left you can see the entire exhibit commemorating the Spanish-American War... can't we all just get along?
Above - The deck of the pirate ship had everything you could want for play. Ropes, wooden men, exhibits for learning, lookout points, cannons and pretty much anything else you could imagine a pirate to want.
Puerto Rico doesn't have a lot for kids to do. I'm not being mean I'm being honest and, with as long as I lived there this past summer, I'm sure I'm qualified to say it. One thing it does have a mere hour outside of San Juan is the Arecibo Lighthouse 
