≡ Menu

Puerto Rico’s Jobos Beach Is One Of The Best Beaches In The World

Have I finally found the beast beach in the world?

Jobos Beach in Puerto Rico
Support VBJ’s writing on this blog:

JOBOS BEACH, Puerto Rico- “You should go to Jobos. It has palm trees.”

“The reason why we came here instead of Crash Boat is because of the palm trees.”

The reason I came to this beach was, yes, the palm trees. There was a sprawling beach area in full sunlight — like every other beach — but back a little way, where the natural brush line would be, someone planted a bunch of palm trees. The result of this was a natural shade canopy where beachgoers could lay back, barbecue, and hang out without being completely baked by the sun.

My first thought after I spread out my beach towel, laid down upon it, and took in the view was that this was the perfect beach.

I am not a solar phobe. I do not believe that the sun causes skin cancer (seed oil consumption causes skin cancer). I believe that the sun is good for you. It makes you happy. It keeps you healthy. In fact, when in Astoria I sit in direct sunlight every morning working on my laptop. And if I feel I don’t get enough rays from that I go for a walk around my neighborhood without a shirt on. The sun is life.

Jobos Beach in Puerto Rico

Entrance to Jobos Beach

But too much sun — like too much of anything — can get uncomfortable. I don’t like burning, and baking in the tropical sun for hours and hours and hours everyday will eventually leave you looking like a strip of beef jerky.

So I’m particularly drawn to beaches that have the option of shade — and there is no better shade in this context than those that come from palm trees. My first thought after I spread out my beach towel, laid down upon it, and took in the view was that this was the perfect beach.

I feel that somewhere buried down deep in my life’s mission was finding the perfect beach. The beach is the end of the road, and for travelers the end of the road is the place where you can take off your boots and rest for a while. There’s just nowhere else to go.

Jobos Beach in Puerto Rico

Jobos Beach panorama

Jobos is a medium size pincer shaped beach that’s on the north shore of Puerto Rico’s Porta del Sol — the beach-laden western portion of the island. It is separated from beaches to the east and west by rocky outshoots. You could probably walk all the way down it in ten minutes. It’s not big but big enough. The water is glistening blue, the surf is shallow, and huge waves come in from the east in kind of a diagonal way being partially blocked by a rocky outshoot, which makes the water in the depth of the crescent nice and calm. It’s the kind of beach where you can just go out into the water and float, look up at the sky, and try to figure out where it all went wrong.

Behind the beach is a row of beach bars — the typical beer and cocktail joints and a cafe that specializes in acai bowls — that are arranged along a boardwalk with a generous amount of outdoor seating. This means you can get things to eat and drink without having to carry it all in … and places to hang out when you get bored of sitting around doing nothing and swimming.

Jobos Beach in Puerto Rico

Palm trees on Jobos Beach

But the best thing about this beach are, of course, the palm trees.

Another thing about this beach are the people there aren’t annoying — to put it basely. Oftentimes you find yourself at the road at what you think could be the perfect beach just to find yourself being pestered by helado vendors, jewelry peddlers, and drug dealers routinely interrupting your solace with attempts to get your money. Here at Jobos, nobody bothers you. One vender did come by dragging a cooler and was like, “I’m sorry to interrupt you but I just want to let you know I have some food here” and then walked away.

This is really the perfect beach. Here it is. I found it. To top it off the place is called “Jobos” — pronounced Hobo’s …

But all beaches — and everything perfect — has its limits. How much time of your life do you really want to devote to sitting around with sand in your crack? It was time to move on.

Jobos Beach in Puerto Rico

Jobos Beach in Puerto Rico

I stuffed my towel in my plastic bag and walked over to the bars. I was looking for some food. Up until this point I was basically surviving on Amish beef jerky and liver crisps and was into getting something a little more meal-y into me. I was thinking eggs. The only thing available was acai. I still don’t really know what acai is but it had some fruit on it and wasn’t bad. Kind of like candy but I could probably use the carbs. I came up with a new mission: to see if I could find a better beach than Jobos. I would travel down the coast and around the corner of Puerto Rico going to every beach I could find and ranking them. Yes, every once in a while even I do some travel writing.

Jobos Beach in Puerto Rico

Jobos Beach in Puerto Rico

My silhouette

I no longer publish my photo on this site but here’s a silhouette.

Book your room near Jobos Beach now



Booking.com

Filed under: Beaches, Puerto Rico, Travel Diary

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3694 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

Support VBJ’s writing on this blog:

VBJ is currently in: New York City

4 comments… add one

Leave a Comment

  • Rob May 13, 2023, 6:37 pm

    The Perfect Beach. I wonder how many more there are?

    Link Reply
    • VBJ May 16, 2023, 8:00 am

      I went looking for them! I’ll let you know in the next post 🤣

      Link Reply
  • Cym May 14, 2023, 3:04 am

    That looks like a pretty awesome beach. I’ve always loved the beach. Looking at the water, listening to the waves, soaking it all in, it was like an effortless meditation, and for me, the fewer the people the better.

    Anyway, I’m sure your time is limited, but if you are open to ideas for other topics to write about while you are there, how about covering surfing, and longboard skateboarding, is there a scene? And also, how about self-sufficient homesteading, or people living in houseboats; or treasure hunting, archeological digs? And how about beach bums, or any visible signs of homelessness? Or how about expatriate communities?

    Thanks, and good to see you writing again, and of course, traveling.

    Link Reply
    • VBJ May 16, 2023, 8:11 am

      Hello Cym,

      Thank you! Yes, beaches are pretty incredible places. I can’t really call myself a connoisseur but I do like them. I imagine there are some people that just travel the world from beach to beach … Andy kind of used to do this for a while.

      There is a surfing scene here. A pretty big one, actually. As for longboarding, I have no idea but I’d say not anymore than anywhere else. I believe there’s a big community of people living on sailboats, but house boats, not so sure. I could ask though if you’d like. Coming from NYC I think my perspective on homelessness has been permanently altered, but I didn’t see too much of this in Puerto Rico. I saw a couple beach bums but that was it. The family networks are really strong here, and places that have strong family networks tend to not have much homelessness. As for expat communities … I’m not sure if mainland Americans count as expats but there’s a bunch of us here … although not nearly as many as I’d think. I thought San Juan was going to be chock full of us … but it just wasn’t. I’m actually thinking about setting up a base of operations there … other than the fact that food is expensive the place meets all the criteria.

      Link Reply