A Puerto Rican Escape

We had a spectacular time in Puerto Rico. It is a marvelous mix between Latin American culture with old European-style buildings. They have the jungle, rainforest, colorful cities, unmatchable food, and warm beaches. Puerto Rico has everything (well, except mountains I guess). Plus they invented the Piña Colada!

Where We Stayed

Typically we stay in Airbnbs when traveling away from home because it’s significantly cheaper, but we actually found The Wave Hotel on Groupon to stay in. The cost was about the same per night for some of the Airbnbs in the area and the hotel. The hotel included breakfast and had better parking options if we decided to rent a car, so we chose the hotel. The Wave was only a few blocks from many of the restaurants and beaches I’ll be mentioning in this post.

In San Juan there are a few different places that are on the top of my list. Condado is an area with hotels, restaurants, and a beach all within walking distance. Most of my recommendations will be from this area. There were a few days where we uber-ed over to Old San Juan (yes Uber is plentiful in PR and much cheaper than taxis!), which was incredible and beautiful and there are several different hotels and Airbnbs over there as well. The main downside to staying in the Old San Juan area is that the cruise ship ports are here and so it is pretty much always busy.

What We Ate

Condado In Condado, there were several great restaurants within walking distance of our hotel especially on Ashford Avenue. Our favorite was Orozco’s, which we had our first night. We split a pitcher of sangria and I ordered a combo meal that came with rice and beans, which were main staples of our meals in Puerto Rico. We liked sitting on the patio and people-watching. Another restaurant in that area that we loved was Ropa Vieja. They had a great patio and we were recommended the skirt steak, which was also great. La Placita is an area near Condado that is known as more of a bar/party scene. We had a lot of people recommend this area to us for drinks or dancing. This was around a fifteen minute walk from our hotel.

Another place that we enjoyed in the Condado area was a coffee shop called Barista Squared. It’s a great specialty coffee shop that had great coffee, cappuccinos and breakfast. Their avocado toast was especially delicious. They also had a little used book shelf that you could buy books from for a few dollars. Halfway through the trip I finished the book The Lovely Bones, and then I picked up an Agatha Christie book (for $2) at this little used library. Right across the street from Barista Squared was a cluster of other restaurants that looked great, but we only got the chance the visit one of them: Condal Tapas. They had a rooftop patio and excellent sangria.

Old San Juan is a gorgeous part of the city with vibrant old European-style buildings. There are all sorts of different bars and tapas-style restaurants with patios with colorful umbrellas. My recommendation is to just wander and explore the area and stop at patios for drinks and tapas. Most of the restaurants have deals like 2-for-1 drinks in the afternoon. Collin and I especially enjoyed getting piña coladas and mojitos at some of these restaurants. La Cubanita is a well known speakeasy for craft cocktails and the Cinema Bar is another popular place that is right over by the citadel.

Barrachino is one of the main restaurants in the area and it is famous for inventing the piña colada. It is a large restaurant that seems to always be busy because of this claim, so reservations are vital to get into this restaurant for dinner. We got dinner there one night, and honestly, it was not worth it. I got a piña colada, which was more about the experience than the actual quality of the food and drinks. My recommendation would be to skip out on Barrachino’s, take a picture in front of their plaque, and get a piña colada and dinner elsewhere.

Some of our other favorite places in Old San Juan: St. Germain bistro and cafe (half priced drinks during happy hour), El Parnaso (great patio seating), and Aureola Mexican Cantina (really good tapas and rum punch).

What We Did

On the first day we flew into San Juan, settled into our hotel, and walked to the beach near Condado. We enjoyed walking around the Ashland Avenue area where there were restaurants, bars, parks, and shops.

We booked two “experiences” through Airbnb, which turned out to be our favorite parts of the trip.

We met the group at a hotel parking lot and they took us to the western side of Puerto Rico for a day trip. It was really cool to see the other side of the country, which was much different than San Juan. They brought us to a cottage where we received our gear (life jacket, helmets, and harness) and started hiking. We hiked through the jungle and belayed down to a cave and then to the river. We swam and body rafted down the river. This experience also included lunch and a beer back at the cottage after our long day.

Here is the link to this Airbnb experience.

Our second Airbnb experience was my favorite. We met at a marina on the eastern side of the country and got on a catamaran. The crew was incredible and took us to an island to spend time on a beach and snorkel. After about two hours they took us to a reef for prime snorkeling. We had an amazing time snorkeling in the coral reef. The experience provided lunch and unlimited drinks (including rum drinks!). It was amazing. If you are going to Puerto Rico, I HIGHLY recommend this experience.

Click here for the link to this snorkeling experience.

At the beach during one of our Airbnb Experiences

Small things you may want to know:

Uber is everywhere and much cheaper than the taxis; download the app before you go
The US dollar is used, so you do not need to exchange money
If you are a US citizen, you do not need your passport to travel
There are drugstores like Walgreen’s or CVS around, so you can buy sunscreen and aloe (which we ended up needing) there after your arrive to make flying easier
My cell phone worked while we were there, but it was on “roaming” most of the time, which could incur extra costs. Collin’s phone did not work unless he was connected to wifi
Outlets are the same as US ones
We were there is mid-March and the weather was typically sunny and in the upper 70s