Anyone ever been to.... San Juan, Puerto Rico?

Curious too. I'll be stopping there for a day before heading to Treasure Island in the British Virgin Islands in June.

 

I've been, but only once, so take this with a grain of salt. My wife is like uber-platinum with Starwood, so we stayed at the St. Regis Bahia Beach. It was a beautiful property, but I usually like to get away from the hotel and the tourista locations and try to see some of the local scenery. For some reason, I just never got that good of a feeling in Puerto Rico, and it's tough to say why. Driving was crappy, and I've driven in some unfriendly places: Thailand, Ireland, Boston, Manhattan. And I found the food to pretty much suck (and I'm a big fatty, foodie glutton) pretty much anywhere off of the hotel property. And we did our research beforehand to find what was supposed to be the best of the best in local food.

Anyway, we did spend one full day in Old San Juan, and I have to say it was easily my favorite off-site experience. I can't recommend any place to stay right there, and I sure as heck can't recommend any place to eat (granted, we only had two meals in San Juan), but I can recommend that you just get out and walk. Lots of history and architecture, and generally a cool place to just go and see. I can't tell you for sure if it's worth a full vacation right there, but I know you need more than a day to see it. Might sound boring, but go see the fort. And if you like photography, it's a great place to get some pics.

 

I love San Juan. One of my favorite places in the USA and favorite island as well. The people are some of the nicest as well.


I created this guide a while back for a lot of my friends who visit the place:


-----------------

So basically visit:

1) Old San Juan

Within Old San Juan:

-Walking tour
-Bacardi Factory Tour
-Cafe El Punto
-Butterfly Art Gallery (http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2770573-butterfly_people_art_gallery_san_juan-i) and
(http://www.frommers.com/destinations/sanjuan/S28168.html) Really unique art gallery selling butterfly's.
-El Morro Fort and San Cristobal Fort


2) Bacardi Factory Tour (takes 1.5 hours to complete the tour, but located within Old San Juan)

You can take a free tour of that if you are interested.

http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/bacardi-rum-factory/


Outside Old San Juan:


3) Condado Resort Area (Takes 2 hours to see everything. It is located about 15 minutes from Old San Juan) ( tourist area with resorts and casinos)

4) If you like rain forest/nature type stuff, the El Yunque rainforest is about 40 minutes drive from San Juan. This is the only rain forest in US territory. (take 4-5 hours including drive). Once you reach the rain forest you can climb an observation tower, climb up or climb down the mountain. There is this winding slippery trail that takes you to La Mina Falls. At the bottom of the 45 minute walk is a mini waterfall that many people like to jump in and swim.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...ls-El_Yunque_National_Forest_Puerto_Rico.html


5) There also are some nice botanical gardens as well around the University area, if you are interested in that. It is called Rio Piedras.

6) There are these really amazing Bioluminescent Bays in PR. There are only three of them in the world. And two of them are right near San Juan. You will need to sign up in advance for it. A definite visit. You will go kayaking into a bay at around sunset and then the bay will start glowing neon colours due to plants and algae in the water. The location in Fajardo is 45 minutes away from San Juan.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/fajardo-bioluminescent-bay-laguna-grande
--------------------

Old San Juan History:

Also you can follow this self guided walking tour if you have some time to kill.

http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/old-san-juan-walking-tour-1/
(Just print it out and take it with you)



---------------------

Hotel:

Nicest and most stylish area is Condado district. Mostly casino's and giant resorts. You can get some really great deals on Priceline if you do some research. They will list the price at about $200 on their official website, but if you bid on the travel you can get it for about $100.

http://biddingfortravel.yuku.com/fo...in-IslandsBritish-Virgin-Islands#.UKcxRYdT-k8

Food:

Go to this place called Cafe El Punto on Fortazela Street in Old San Juan. Great local food and many local options. It's a hole in the wall treasure mostly locals visit. You can find most American chain restaurants in San Juan, but it's not worth going to since they have many unique local options. Punto De Vista and Marmalade are some other places a lot of people enjoy. You'll get the best and most unique food in Old San Juan. Condado District has good food, but it is pricier since it is the upscale part of town.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/cafe-el-punto-san-juan


Shopping:

San Juan has the biggest shopping mall in the whole Caribbean. It is called Plaza Las Americas. But if you are traveling from the USA, probably not worth it. Most of my friends who go there are usually from other close by islands which lack mass shopping.

Transport:

Either take cab or rental car. Cab is relatively cheap, but so is rental car. The only problem with rental is that all the street signs are in Spanish. So if you aren't familiar with the language you might get lost. Otherwise take your GPS and make sure in advance it has PR maps. Most GPS kits sold in the USA don't have PR programmed into it. Rental cars are pretty cheap running about 20 USD per day for compact size.

 

I was there for a couple days on my honeymoon this Spring.

Hotels:
We stayed at the Caribe Hilton. The grounds were pretty nice and the drinks were good. Our room was rather lacking and was in need of some updating. It wasn't bad, just not great. It was a pretty good price, which is why we stayed there. The majority of our honeymoon was in St John, so we didn't want to spend an extra couple hundred dollars on a really nice hotel in San Juan.

My friends stayed at El Convento hotel and really liked it. It's more centrally located (in Old San Juan) than Caribe, so I'd suggest looking into it. If you're going to spend time in that area, it'll save you a lot on cab fare.

Like Brightside said, there's a casion area and the hotels looked nice there. But, if you want more of the city of San Juan environment, I'd look into El Convento. We didn't gamble, but walked through. I'm not a big gambler, but I love Vegas... all other casinos don't really do anything to me.

Beaches:
Didn't really do the beach thing, since like I said, we were going to St John for 6 days after San Juan and figured we'd get a lot of beach in there.

Food:
I can't remember where all we went.
By looking at TripAdvisor, I remember going to Punto de Vista for dinner and drinks one night. It was a very small joint, mostly a bar. Food was pretty decent and cheap. The mofongo is the dish of San Juan, or so I'm told, so you'll need to get that at some point. It's just OK, lol. Very heavy, so either split it or be ready to be full all night. If you're near Punto de Vista, it's worth a stop, but I woudln't go out of my way for it. Cheap drinks for sure.

We also went to El Patio de Sam. We were hungry after walking around Old San Juan and just stopped in. Food was average, but I'd go there again for sure (if I was in the area). Wife got a salad, which she probably wouldn't recommend. I got a cuban which was OK. They did have really good drinks though. Wife got this blended mojito that I drank most of, haha. I just had a beer or three.
Here's her drink:

Spoiler

Things to do:
We really didn't do much because of our budget. We toured Old San Juan, went to some fortresses and saw where Ponce de Leon was burried (which wasn't all that exciting). You can pretty much cover all of OSJ in a couple days. We shopped a little, just popping into random stores and checking out what the street vendors had.

My Take:
San Juan was nice, but I'm glad we were only there a couple days. Maybe there are more things to do there if you plan it out right, but for us it was just a stop on our way to the final desination. Would I go back? Maybe. Would I plan a trip there myself? No. Would I suggest it to someone who has never been? Probably, depending on the person. I don't know what your budget is, or who you're going with, but check out Caneel Bay, St John. Place was awesome, but super pricy.

Various photos of our trip to San Juan.

Spoiler

 

My family is all from San Juan, St. Thomas and the virgin islands. It's one of the best places on earth- Wayyyyy better than Hawaii thats for sure, but we haven't been there in awhile so I don't know how much it's gone downhill since.

 

yes, the glowing bay is awesome. the city of San Juan is quite beautiful. you won't be disappointed. if you're looking for an adventure, you have to make a trip to the Batey Zipline and tell us about it. i didn't find out about this place until after my trip (a few years ago) and it's what i've been wanting to do when i go back. the tripadvisor reviews are off the charts.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...tey_Zipline_Adventure-Utuado_Puerto_Rico.html

 

I would go to Culebra Island. Flamenco Beach, Zoni Beach, Carlos Rosario Beach. You got some of the best scuba diving, snokerling, CLEAR water, etc etc. 20 minute plane ride from San Juan. VERY WORTH it. But not if your a touristy tourist.

 

Me and a few buddies did a guys trip down there a few years back. Great time.

We stayed at the El San Juan - pretty solid property with a big casino and the best club in San Juan.

Here's a few of my pics from the trip.

from the beach


El Yunque rainforest

 

I went to Puerto Rico once, friends of my parents live there, but I havent been in there in 12 years, so I dont know how is it now, but yeah the Old San Juan was great visiting the forth/castle "El Morro" is the most popular historic site in Puerto Rico.