Ponce is a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on August 12, 1692 and is named after Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the great-grandson of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce is often referred to as La Perla del Sur, La Ciudad Señorial, and La Ciudad de las Quenepas.
Mercedita International Airport (AIM) is an international airport located three nautical miles (6 km) east of the central business district of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The airport covers 270 cuerdas of land and has one runway. It was inaugurated as an international airport on 1 November 1990. It was built with combined funds from the Municipality of Ponce and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
The Carnaval de Ponce, officially Carnaval Ponceño, is an annual celebration of the Carnival holiday held in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The celebration lasts one week, and like most observations of the holiday ends on Fat Tuesday. Thus, like the Carnival holiday in general, it is usually held in February and or March. It dates back to 1858. Some authorities, such as the Smithsonian Institution, believe the Ponce Carnaval can be traced to as far back as 250 years ago. The Carnaval coincides with the Mardi Gras of New Orleans, the Carnival of Venice, and Rio de Janeiro's Carnival and hundreds of other places that observe this holiday around the world. The estimated attendance is 100,000. Scenes of the 2011 Carnaval Ponceño were featured in the Travel Channel on 7 August 2011.
The Ponce Historic Zone is a historic district in downtown Ponce, Puerto Rico, consisting of buildings, plazas and structures with distinctive architectures such as Neoclásico Isabelino and the Ponce Creole, a local architectural style developed between the 19th- and early 20th-centuries. The zone goes by various names, including Traditional Ponce, Central Ponce, Historic Ponce, and Ponce Historic District.
Porta Caribe is a tourism region in southern Puerto Rico. It was established in 2003 by the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, an agency of the Government of Puerto Rico. When created in 2003 it consisted of 14 municipalities in the south central zone. With the creation of the neighboring Porta Cordillera zone in July 2012, the municipalities of Adjuntas and Jayuya were transferred to the newly created Porta Cordillera zone and Porta Caribe became a 12-municipality tourism region. The name Porta Caribe translates to "Doorway to the Caribbean." Its executive director is Maritza W. Ruiz Cabán.
Teatro Fox Delicias is a historic building in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Inaugurated in 1931, it originally housed a movie house until 1980, from 1991 to 1998 it house a shopping mall, and stating in 2004 it housed a boutique hotel. Its architecture is Art Deco. Originally called Teatro Delicias, it was renamed Fox Delicias many years after its inauguration based on a contract with 20th Century Fox.
Isla Cardona, also known as Sor Isolina Ferré Island, is a small, uninhabited island located 1.30 nautical miles south of the mainland Puerto Rican shore across from Barrio Playa, on the west side of the entrance to the harbor of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The small island is considered part of barrio Playa. It is home to the 1889 Cardona Island Light, which is listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Together with Caja de Muertos, Gatas, Morrillito, Ratones, Isla del Frio, and Isla de Jueyes, Cardona is one of seven islands ascribed to the municipality of Ponce. The island gained notoriety in 2010 when the Puerto Rican Bird Society made it a target for the eradication of the black rat.
The Hotel Ponce Intercontinental is an abandoned hotel with a still existing structure at Cerro del Vigía in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The structure is considered a historic landmark and a national icon in the city of Ponce and Puerto Rico. The property is currently owned by Misla Hospitality Group, a family of local Ponce investors who bought it from CBC Development. Its architecture is classical modern. When it opened, in 1960, it became the first modern hotel in the city.
The Ponce Plaza Hotel & Casino, formerly Ponce Ramada Hotel and Ponce Plaza Ramada Hotel, is a five-story hotel in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The hotel opened in the summer of 2009 and is known for the historic value of its structure: its main entrance is a historic colonial structure known as "Casa Saurí". In February 2013, the hotel expanded its facilities to include a casino, a cocktail lounge, and a 4-story, 200-car parking garage. On 1 July 2014, the owners left the Ramada namesake franchise and renamed the hotel Ponce Plaza Hotel & Casino.
Complejo Ferial de Puerto Rico, is a 3,000-seat indoor arena and convention center in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is intended to be used primarily for trade shows, conventions and sporting events. It opened in June, 2012. One of the first pre-inauguration activities was a set of Olympic boxing pre-match games. Its official inauguration was subsequently set for September 2012. However, its official inauguration took place on 11 October 2012.
SITRAS, officially, Sistema Integrado de TRAnsportación del Sur, is the mass transit system in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The service was inaugurated on 14 February 2012.
Día Mundial de Ponce is a cultural celebration held in Ponce, Puerto Rico, every year during the month of September. The celebration actually starts the Monday before Labor Day with various evening-time cultural festivities. It then culminates with the grand parade that takes place on the Sunday before Labor Day. The celebration started in 2012 and has an estimated attendance of 4,000 people. The week-long event aims to celebrate the cultural heritage of the city by giving tribute to the organizations, the people and "the great sons and daughters of the city of Ponce." The first year of this celebration, the Grand Parade took place on the last Sunday of the celebration, but starting in 2013, the week-long events ended on a Saturday and the Grand Parade was changed to take place the last Saturday. That year the celebration was also changed to occur the last weekend of September, rather than the weekend before Labor Day.
The Festival Nacional de la Quenepa is a cultural celebration that takes place every year in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The festival centers around the genip fruit, the city's official fruit. The celebration lasts three days and takes place over a weekend. It is generally held on the second weekend of August, but occasionally during a weekend in September. It is sponsored by the Oficina de Desarrollo Cultural of the Ponce Municipal Government.
Cruce a Nado Internacional is a yearly international swimming competition that takes place at Bahía de Ponce in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is the oldest open water swimming event in the Caribbean. The event generally occurs on the first Sunday of September, to coincide with the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend every year. The event is sponsored by Club Cruce a Nado, Inc. Some 100 athletes compete, swimming 1.5 nautical miles nautical miles. The event started in 1980. The 2020 season's event did not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but its 40th season took place on 5 September 2021 instead.
The Complejo Recreativo y Cultural La Guancha is a recreational complex in barrio Playa in Ponce, Puerto Rico, with family recreational and cultural facilities that opened on 23 June 1998. The highlight of the complex is the Paseo Tablado La Guancha, which is flanked by a beach, an observation tower, an amphitheater, and 24 open-air kiosks. It was developed during the administration of Mayor Rafael Cordero Santiago. In October 2017, after Hurricane Maria, it closed to the public to undergo repairs but, as of January 2020, when the area suffered severe damage due to the 2020 Puerto Rico earthquakes, no repairs had been made and, as of 17 June 2020, it remained closed. By late 2020 arrangements were made for the merchants that operated from waterfront kiosks to reopen their businesses out of provisional facilities at a temporary location away from the waterfront while reconstruction of the waterfront area takes place.
Fundación Biblioteca Rafael Hernández Colón is a gubernatorial library and museum that records the political life of three-term governor of Puerto Rico, Rafael Hernández Colón. It was founded in 1992 and in September 2015 it moved to its current location at the southeast corner of Calle Mayor and Calle Castillo in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in the Ponce Historic Zone.
Nightlife in Ponce, Puerto Rico includes government and regulatory aspects, societal and cultural attitudes, and age- and gender-centric issues relative to adult and family life after dark in the city of Ponce. It focuses on all entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes activities like parties, bands and live music, concerts, and stand-up comedies, and venues such as pubs, bars, cabarets, nightclubs, cinemas and theaters. These venues and activities are often accompanied by the serving and drinking of alcoholic beverages in addition to non-alcoholic drinks for the family. Nightlife venues often require a cover charge for admission.
The Carnaval de Vejigantes, officially Carnaval de Vejigantes de La Playa de Ponce, is an annual celebration held at Barrio Playa in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The celebration, which commonly lasts three to five days, generally takes place in late January or early February. It started in 1991. It takes place at Parque Lucy Grillasca on PR-585 in Barrio Playa. The parade, one of the highlights of the carnival, usually takes off from Cancha Salvador Dijols on Avenida Hostos (PR-123) and ends at Parque Lucy Grillasca (PR-585). Attendance is estimated at over 15,000 people. It is attended by people from all over Puerto Rico, and some attendees are from as far as the United States. It is organized and operated by a community, civic, NGO group, not by any government or government agency.
