Puerto Rico

fre3doms

My fiance booked our plane tickets just the other day! I have no idea which hotel we are using but I'm pretty sure it's in San Juan.

Anyone been to Puerto Rico and have advice? Things not to be missed? Any suggestions are welcome. This will be the first time there for either of us.

alithebride

pr is a great time. old san juan is fun to walk or for dinner. cafe puerto rico on simon bolivar sq is a hidden gem imo. if you want to visit other hotels mine (well not MINE but the one where i stay most hwen i visit is water club. they have a fantastic restaurant in the lobby and a great rooftop bar andlounge. you can walk to the el san juan from there which is fun at night as tehre's a casino and dancing and there's a great bbbq place upstairs (it's the sister of one of my fave manhattan places). both hotels are in the isla verde section of san juan.

Pepper6

Definitely do not miss the bio bay!  There are a few, but the one in Fajardo is supposed to be the brightest.  We did our tour with Pure Adventure, and they were great.

Also, if you like more adventure, I recommend the waterfall hike/zipline tour with Acampa.  It's a little pricey, but it's an all day activity and was really amazing.

Take a day to check out Old San Juan.  You can buy a pass to tour both forts, which are pretty cool.

You also have to try mofongo!  My favorite was the carnitas mofongo at Mojito's in OSJ, but I'm sure there are a lot of places to try it.

AprilH81

I echo @pepper6 for the bio bay trip!  I did the kayak trip (about 30-45 minutes from Old San Juan) one night before a cruise and it was amazing!  There is also a boat trip that goes to Vieques that is also supposed to be good.

Old San Juan is great to wander around and visit the forts.

There are some other day trips that I am interested in doing if I ever go back for more than one night before a cruise.  There is a big cave, the rain forest, zip lining, and all kinds of activities.

cruffino

I loved PR. We stayed in san juan at the Marriott. Old san juan was lovely and we had a lot of fun hiking in the rainforest. Food was great everywhere and I second tge suggestion to have mofongo! It's delicious.

fre3doms

Thanks ladies!! I love having suggestions. I told my fiance already I want to do one of the bio bays. I also want to hit the rainforest too. Old San Juan sounds great especially since we're both history nerds who like going to museums and the like.

mlg78

I just returned from my honeymoon today and we did a cruise out of San Juan but we stayed there 2 days prior to the cruise.  We loved the fort and Old San Juan.  Ask locals where to go for meals and they always made great suggestions.  Cabs are rather pricey there.  We had to pay about $20 to go virtually anywhere it seemed.

Starfish622

Mlg78 where did you end up staying? I've been looking at the Marriott ( I have points that I could use there).

mlg78

The Marriott was just down the street from my hotel. I know someone who stayed there on my cruise and enjoyed it.  As I said, a cab will cost about $20 to go anywhere...but we flew in on Thursday and Friday morning we went to the fort and then wandered around Old San Juan and then cabbed it back and did dinner around the corner from the hotel.  Go to Orozco for dinner...it was delicious and live music too!  It's not a long walk to the beach and there's a Walgreens right by Marriott where you can pick up last minute items.  We grabbed wine there to take on the cruise too.

fre3doms

Fun. I don't know which hotel we're at but my fiance mentioned it's near one of the phosphorus bays. He knows I'm really eager to go to one of those. I think we might be renting a car.

We'll definitely try the monfongo. We like to be adventurous with food. And that sounds yummy.

Pepper6

  

mlg78 said:

I just returned from my honeymoon today and we did a cruise out of San Juan but we stayed there 2 days prior to the cruise.  We loved the fort and Old San Juan.  Ask locals where to go for meals and they always made great suggestions.  Cabs are rather pricey there.  We had to pay about $20 to go virtually anywhere it seemed.

The cabs in San Juan are priced by zones and have predetermined rates, so you should be familiar with it before you go and report any cabbies that try to charge you more (LINK).

Depending on where you are staying, and where you want to go, the buses are pretty easy to use as well.  We had a few tours we booked that picked up from the hotel, so we didn't need to worry about transportation then either.

We did rent a car for about two days, to drive to Fajardo for the bio bay tour, and the next day to drive to Isabella for a horse back riding tour.  Keep in mind though that if you are staying along the beach in San Juan, most of the hotels charge for parking, ours was $16 per night, which is a lot if you don't need to drive a car every day.

RachelMarie247

I just got back from Puerto Rico. My advice is to avoid  the Wyndham there at all costs. They are about to to a renovation, but the rooms are SO bad, and the service is horrible. I also got attacked by fire ants.

nikib0210

Definitely do dinner at Marmalade one night - it is amazing, we ended up going twice on our trip there. We thought Toro Salao had the best sangria on our trip. And we also enjoyed El Picoteo at the Hotel El Convento. 

If you can make a trip out to Vieques, the biobay there - Mosquito Bay - is absolutely gorgeous.