Post by Old Coach on Aug 8, 2011 8:13:23 GMT -5
Puerto Rico Travel Experiences (not your Frommer’s Guide!)
Based on 10 to 12 trips to Puerto Rico over the past decade, I can share the following comments with you. It is a nice place to vacation, the people are great and the hotels on the beach are among the best you will find anywhere.
That being said, despite growing up and going to school in the South Bronx, I look at my vacations to Puerto Rico as trips to a foreign country. . . mostly because a majority of the people only speak Spanish, especially outside of the San Juan area. . .even though the official currency is the US dollar, you don’t need a passport and our health care system is in use there including Medicare and Medicaid. However, at the airport, most tourist hotels and in the Condado section of San Juan where most will be staying for the basketball tournament you will find most of the local people speak English.
The Condado section is an upper class residential condo area with tourist hotels on the beach that is helped by being separated from the rest of San Juan by a parkway (PR26) so it has retained some of its individuality and is relatively safe.
If you go to Google Maps and put in “San Juan Puerto Rico Condado” you can get an overview of the area. The hotels you want to stay at are on “Ashford Avenue”. . . the Marriott at 1309, La Concha at 1077, the Conrad at 999 and the Caribe Hilton at Los Rosales Street. I usually stay at the Marriott which has a Starbucks and Walgreens across the street as well as Subway and Dunkin Donuts a block or so away for when you get tired of hotel food and prices. There are also some good local restaurants in the area. Tourism is the largest industry in Puerto Rico so the major hotels on Ashford Avenue tend to have the best security and bilingual staff. You may be able to find cheaper hotels off Ashford Avenue away from the beach, however you may be sacrificing some security and communication. However, on all my trips to this area I’ve never seen any crime and you can walk Ashford Avenue from hotels to local restaurants and stores during the day and in the evenings without problems.
All the hotels have great pools. However if you like waves and the surf the Marriott may have the best. If you have kids under 10 the Carib Hilton has a terrific swimming inlet and the Conrad is next to a swimming cove. The downside is that the Carib Hilton does not have a casino anymore and you have to walk more blocks to get to the restaurants and shopping. With the Conrad, which is the basketball tournament headquarters, you also have to do a fair amount of walking.
If you like to jog (there’s a nice route around the Laguna Condado) and if your hotel has tennis you may want to bring bottled water and finish up these activities by 9AM as it can get pretty hot and humid!
For medical issues most major hotels have physicians on call that will come to your hotel room for a fee. Or you can call your own physician back home and have him fax an Rx to the Walgreens drug store in Condado mentioned above.
While the continuing economic difficulties on the US mainland may help you get good vacation packages, keep in mind that the unemployment rate in Puerto Rico is always higher so you have to be a careful tourist wherever you go as we live in a world of haves and have-nots. For example, if you were going to Rockaway, Jones Beach or the Jersey Shore and were using your Blackberry or IPad while on your beach chair. . .would you leave them unattended along with your wallet while you went in the water? No!. . .and I think you have to think the same way no matter where you vacation.
You don’t have to go through a travel agent to get the best deals for Puerto Rico. If you have any Marriott or Hilton points, etc try that first as the major hotel chains usually run deals and promotions as do Jet Blue and American Airlines. I have also used CheapCarribean.com or Orbitz.com at times with success. All deals and promotions change by the week, day and even by hour due to supply and demand so you have to check constantly to find your best prices. Last year I stayed in a resort about 30 miles outside of San Juan that added on extra charges for parking, internet connections and even for a room refrigerator that totaled almost $50 a day. I provided some interesting feedback to the hotel general manager on my departure! The bottom line is you have to understand what is in and not in your daily room rate.
From the San Juan airport a taxi is your best bet as it’s about $20 fixed price to hotels in Condado. Renting cars is challenging as many of the rental companies are not located on the airport property, you need maximum insurance coverage against theft and damage and many hotels charge $15 and up a day to park the rental. So I usually get around by cab and I’m hoping for the basketball games since the “Coliseo de Puerto Rico” is not that far from the Condado area shuttle buses along with cabs may be the best way to commute.
As I’ve seen my share of basketball games over the years, when Iona isn’t playing, I’ll be at the beach, happy hour, local restaurants or hotel casino so single game tickets are probably the way to go.
Also don’t expect any of the hotel casinos to give us tourists big payouts! Hope this overview helps.
Based on 10 to 12 trips to Puerto Rico over the past decade, I can share the following comments with you. It is a nice place to vacation, the people are great and the hotels on the beach are among the best you will find anywhere.
That being said, despite growing up and going to school in the South Bronx, I look at my vacations to Puerto Rico as trips to a foreign country. . . mostly because a majority of the people only speak Spanish, especially outside of the San Juan area. . .even though the official currency is the US dollar, you don’t need a passport and our health care system is in use there including Medicare and Medicaid. However, at the airport, most tourist hotels and in the Condado section of San Juan where most will be staying for the basketball tournament you will find most of the local people speak English.
The Condado section is an upper class residential condo area with tourist hotels on the beach that is helped by being separated from the rest of San Juan by a parkway (PR26) so it has retained some of its individuality and is relatively safe.
If you go to Google Maps and put in “San Juan Puerto Rico Condado” you can get an overview of the area. The hotels you want to stay at are on “Ashford Avenue”. . . the Marriott at 1309, La Concha at 1077, the Conrad at 999 and the Caribe Hilton at Los Rosales Street. I usually stay at the Marriott which has a Starbucks and Walgreens across the street as well as Subway and Dunkin Donuts a block or so away for when you get tired of hotel food and prices. There are also some good local restaurants in the area. Tourism is the largest industry in Puerto Rico so the major hotels on Ashford Avenue tend to have the best security and bilingual staff. You may be able to find cheaper hotels off Ashford Avenue away from the beach, however you may be sacrificing some security and communication. However, on all my trips to this area I’ve never seen any crime and you can walk Ashford Avenue from hotels to local restaurants and stores during the day and in the evenings without problems.
All the hotels have great pools. However if you like waves and the surf the Marriott may have the best. If you have kids under 10 the Carib Hilton has a terrific swimming inlet and the Conrad is next to a swimming cove. The downside is that the Carib Hilton does not have a casino anymore and you have to walk more blocks to get to the restaurants and shopping. With the Conrad, which is the basketball tournament headquarters, you also have to do a fair amount of walking.
If you like to jog (there’s a nice route around the Laguna Condado) and if your hotel has tennis you may want to bring bottled water and finish up these activities by 9AM as it can get pretty hot and humid!
For medical issues most major hotels have physicians on call that will come to your hotel room for a fee. Or you can call your own physician back home and have him fax an Rx to the Walgreens drug store in Condado mentioned above.
While the continuing economic difficulties on the US mainland may help you get good vacation packages, keep in mind that the unemployment rate in Puerto Rico is always higher so you have to be a careful tourist wherever you go as we live in a world of haves and have-nots. For example, if you were going to Rockaway, Jones Beach or the Jersey Shore and were using your Blackberry or IPad while on your beach chair. . .would you leave them unattended along with your wallet while you went in the water? No!. . .and I think you have to think the same way no matter where you vacation.
You don’t have to go through a travel agent to get the best deals for Puerto Rico. If you have any Marriott or Hilton points, etc try that first as the major hotel chains usually run deals and promotions as do Jet Blue and American Airlines. I have also used CheapCarribean.com or Orbitz.com at times with success. All deals and promotions change by the week, day and even by hour due to supply and demand so you have to check constantly to find your best prices. Last year I stayed in a resort about 30 miles outside of San Juan that added on extra charges for parking, internet connections and even for a room refrigerator that totaled almost $50 a day. I provided some interesting feedback to the hotel general manager on my departure! The bottom line is you have to understand what is in and not in your daily room rate.
From the San Juan airport a taxi is your best bet as it’s about $20 fixed price to hotels in Condado. Renting cars is challenging as many of the rental companies are not located on the airport property, you need maximum insurance coverage against theft and damage and many hotels charge $15 and up a day to park the rental. So I usually get around by cab and I’m hoping for the basketball games since the “Coliseo de Puerto Rico” is not that far from the Condado area shuttle buses along with cabs may be the best way to commute.
As I’ve seen my share of basketball games over the years, when Iona isn’t playing, I’ll be at the beach, happy hour, local restaurants or hotel casino so single game tickets are probably the way to go.
Also don’t expect any of the hotel casinos to give us tourists big payouts! Hope this overview helps.
