Amazing beaches, great historic sites and breathtaking national forest(s) and caves. Puerto Rico is a must-see place if you've thought about visiting this place before.
This is a great place to stay! It's just a few blocks from the beach and from other great restaurants and the downtown area where major events take place. A great alternative to stay, if you find Marriott, Sheraton etc. to be expensive. Tip: If you're staying anywhere in a place where you can't speak their language fluently. Try to be extra careful with your baggage (Passport, laptop, camera etc). The moment my wife and I reached Le Consulat, I realized that I missed my laptop bag (which had my laptop, passport, camera and pretty much every important thing) in the taxi. The receptionist assured us it would go missing and there is NO WAY we could find that taxi. We had a stroke of luck where we caught another cab and went straight to the airport. Found our first taxi driver there and retrieved the bag (People told us, he wouldn't have known there was a bag in the cab. If he did, he probably would have taken it). So, anyways - wherever you go, make sure you've got everything!
This was our first place of visit in Puerto Rico. It was a great historic site. Lots of open space, a historic castle and a beach. It was a great start for our vacation. If you go there in the evening, there are some good bars and night clubs in the area.
This was one of the best restaurants we went to in San Juan. Pretty close to the Condado beach and some really good Italian food. The Yelp reviews didn't lie!
This was the best place in Puerto Rico as far as I'm concerned! It was one of the most beautiful beaches I've been to. Culebra Island is almost an hour from the San Juan Island. A lot of people book flight tickets (which are pretty expensive) and book condos in the island. If you ask me, this could easily be done in 1 day and very economically. There is a ferry that leaves from Fajardo (an hour from Le Consulat). If you can get there early (as early as 5:00 am), you can catch the first ferry that leaves to Culebra and have enough time to soak up the sun in the beach. If you plan to stay, there are some low cost alternatives too. We found some camp sites right next to the beach, which I bet would be inexpensive compared to some of the accommodations we found online. Water, sun, pina collada - this place couldn't get better! Oh, there are some great scuba diving tours in this place too.
El Yunque is the only national rainforest in the US. It was huge and we had a great hike in the La Mina trail that leads up to the La Mina falls. Plan a day or atleast half a day if you're planning to go to El Yunque. It's about 40 minutes from Le Consulat
The Rio Camuy Caves are on the opposite side of the main island, if you're staying in Le Consulat or downtown San Juan. It takes about an hour to get there, but this is a great place to visit, also you get to see the Arecibo Observatory which is about 20 minutes from here. You can cover these two great places in 1 day. Camuy Caves is the biggest cave system, I've ever been to. If you like caves, don't miss this place! Million year old stalactites and stalagmites are just the tip of the iceberg to this magnificent cave system.
If you're planning a visit to Camuy Caves, Arecibo observatory is a must see. It's pretty cool to see one of the largest radio telescopes in the world. For Science \\\//,
Castillo San Cristobal is a place where you can see history of Spanish Puerto Rico and American Puerto Rico come together. It's a really big fort and a great historic site to visit. You can get some breathtaking views of San Juan from here. If you're an urban photographer, it would be a sin to miss this place!
