Rio Piedras
Río Piedras is a highly urbanized commercial and residential district in San Juan, the capital municipality of Puerto Rico.
Adjacent to the Hato Rey business center and concentrated in the barrios of Pueblo, Universidad, Hato Rey Sur, El Cinco, and Monacillo Urbano, it is about 4 to 7 miles from the Old San Juan historic quarter, Condado and Isla Verde resort areas, and SJU airport. It has been the home of the main campus of the University of Puerto Rico since 1903, earning the popular name of Ciudad Universitaria. The largest health institution in the archipelago, the Centro Médico de Puerto Rico, is also located within its limits. Named after the river that flows through it, the Río Piedras, the district was the downtown center of a former municipality with the same name that was merged into San Juan in 1951.
Getting around Rio Piedras the local way
- Get inA popular method of getting to Cataño from Old San Juan (or vice versa) is the AcuaExpreso Ferry, most famously known as La Lancha de Cataño (the Cataño Ferry).
- Get inThis ferry service has become a "moving landmark" of both Cataño and San Juan, and an icon of Puerto Rico.
- Get inThe Cataño Ferry Terminal (officially called Cataño AcuaExpreso Terminal) is located on Las Nereidas Avenue in downtown Cataño, next to the popular boardwalk.
From Wikivoyage: Cataño, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.