Travel

[ZoetheCat]

I went to San Juan about six years ago and absolutely loved it.  We stayed at El Convento Hotel.  The location was great, about a five minute walk to downtown.  The public spaces of the hotel are very grand and both on site restaurants were great.  The room we stayed in was pretty small and quite dark, but it was fine.

To be honest, it never occurred to me that San Juan might be considered a dangerous place.  We are fairly frequent travelers, and so, of course, I am always aware of my surroundings.  But we walked downtown every night and never felt unsafe.  There were always plenty of people around.

For the most part, we just walked around San Juan and soaked up all the local color.  I have been to Europe many times, and Old San Juan had a definite European feel to me.  We did visit the fort and took the local tram when our feet got tired.  We visited the Condado area of San Juan one day and had a great lunch on the beach.  Condado is not really walkable from Old San Juan (you could walk there but there's a lot of traffic, not many sidewalks and it's not really ideal).  Since we didn't rent a car, we took the local bus over and back.  We wanted to visit the rain forest, but my husband was having trouble with his knees, and it probably would not have been enjoyable for him.  He's since had knee replacement so maybe it's time for a return trip!

One of the highlights of this trip, aside from the town itself, was the food.  We did not have a bad meal the entire trip.  In fact, I would recommend doing a food tour.  We didn't do this in San Juan, but we did when we went to Charleston, and really loved it.  A tour guide takes you to several restaurants over the course of an afternoon (or evening) and you have small plates of whatever that restaurant is known for.  The guide also gives information about the town as you travel from restaurant to restaurant.  I think it would be great to do take this tour at the beginning of your vacation, and then you can get ideas on which restaurants you might want to go back to.

Hope you have a great trip!

[granddi]

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@chrystaltree wrote:

OMG!  This couldn't come at a better time.  We decided on Puero Rico for our August vacation.  We're getting together to make the reservation s today.  Looking forward to the responses.   

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Wow, we are getting some great comments. I think the El Convento Hotel does not have elevators. We are looking at going in January. If you go in August please give a report. 

I always use Trip Advisor for ideas. And of course out great forums here. 

[ShopperL]

I did a food tour in San Juan and it was awesome.  Highly recommend it.  Booked via tripadvisor.

[Pink123]

For me coming from working at the cruise lines, visiting often, and my father being a travel agent I feel you could  find a safer place to visit Than San Juan.  It used to be quite nice.

They have suffered greatly after the big hurricane that struck many years back.  Many have come to the United States - mostly in the I-4 Corridor of Orlando Florida for refuge.

No place is safe IMO including the United States but Puerto Rico is on the bottom of my list.  A lot of bad stories.  If you are sheltered in a Ritz Carlton outside the city of Puerto Rico then I would say you will be fine.  But that is big $$$.