Affiliate disclosure
I earn a commission when you book a boat trip through a link on this site, and it costs you nothing extra. That commission is the only money this site makes. I earn nothing on the ferry, nothing on the beach wristband that costs a couple of dollars and nothing on the camping — which is to say I earn nothing at all from the cheapest and, for most people, the best way to do this trip. I recommend it anyway.
The arrangement, in plain terms
Flamenco Beach Culebra takes part in the GetYourGuide affiliate programme. Every boat link and every booking panel here carries a partner id. If you book after clicking one, GetYourGuide pays me a percentage of the price. You pay exactly what you would pay going to GetYourGuide directly. Nothing is added to your bill, and no discount is withheld if you go around me.
There are no sponsored placements, no paid listings and no advertising on this site. No operator has paid to be included, none has seen a page before it published, and none can buy a position in a list or a sentence in a review. I do not run, own or crew any of the seven boats.
What I earn nothing from, which is most of the island
| What it is | What it costs | What I earn |
|---|---|---|
| Flamenco Beach wristband, per person | $2 | Nothing |
| Ferry, Ceiba to Culebra, adult, one way | $2.25 | Nothing |
| Ferry, children 4–12 and ages 60–74, one way | $1.00 | Nothing |
| Parking at the beach, per vehicle | about $5 | Nothing |
| Camping at Flamenco, per tent per night | $35 | Nothing |
| A shared boat trip from Fajardo | from US$150 | A percentage |
Five rows of that table are the cheapest and most common ways to spend money on Culebra, and none of them pays me anything. The sixth is the only thing on this site I am paid to send you to, and it is also the most expensive. Read every recommendation here with that in front of you.
The part that costs me money to write
If you specifically want to stand on Flamenco Beach, take the ferry
Not one of the seven boat trips listed here promises Flamenco Beach. Two say so in their own words — one writes that “Beach stops vary daily based on conditions. Flamenco Beach is not guaranteed”, another that its captain will decide which beach has the best conditions on the day. One says “Flamenco Beach or another beach”. Four never mention the beach at all.
The ferry, at a couple of dollars, is the thing that delivers that beach on purpose. The boat trips deliver reefs, a lunch, a guaranteed seat and a day on the water, which is a good product and a different one. I earn on the second and nothing on the first, and I still put the first one first — at the top of boat trip or ferry and on the home page.
That is the whole conflict of interest on this site, stated rather than managed. Three more places where the honest answer pays me nothing, because one example looks like a gesture:
- The gate charge is on the page before anything I sell. The most common question this site gets is what the beach costs. The answer is a couple of dollars, it is the first thing on the entrance fee page, and a reader who acts on it may well book nothing at all.
- I will not claim a boat trip price covers the wristband. It would be an easy sentence to write and it would raise bookings. No product page here states it in either direction and nobody has verified it, so this site says nothing.
- The trip with the biggest rating gets the most sceptical page. The catamaran carries 4.7 from 1,692 ratings and would be the easiest thing here to sell. Its review opens with the fact that its own full description is mostly about the Cordillera Islands off Fajardo rather than about Culebra.
None of that is generosity. A site that gives the right answer when there is no money in it is the only reason to believe the pages where there is money in it. If you cannot check my incentives, you have to be able to check my facts.
What the commission does not do
- It does not order the lists. On the tours list the seven trips are grouped by where they leave from, because that is the only grouping a reader can act on. It is not the order that would earn most.
- It does not hide a bad review. Every critical review in the whole pool — two one-star ones and a three-star complaint about 23 people on a boat — is printed uncut on the reviews hub.
- It does not inflate a rating. No score appears anywhere on this site without the number of ratings behind it in the same breath, and two of the seven products are described as having too few to mean anything.
- It does not let me tell you what you are buying. This site never asserts what a boat trip includes beyond the words on its own booking panel, and never asserts that it lands anywhere the operator has not promised. That rule costs the most bookings and it is not negotiable.
The links here that earn nothing at all
Most of them. Nothing is paid for the links to the ferry operator, to the wildlife refuge, to any map on this site, or for a single word about the wristband, the camping or the públicos. If you follow the advice on the free pages and skip the boats entirely, this site earns nothing from your visit and has still done its job.
If you would rather I earned nothing but still want to book, go to GetYourGuide directly and search for what you want. You will pay the same. I would rather say that out loud than have you wonder whether the recommendation was bought.
Questions about any of this? Get in touch, or read how this site decides what goes on a page, including the list of things it could not verify and therefore does not print.