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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Puerto Rico
Found a great airfare to San Juan and am seriously considering buying those tickets! For those who have been there, a few questions:
- Would you consider it to be expensive?
- What areas are must-sees?
- Hotel/B&B recs?
- How does the beach compare to other Caribbean locations? I've been to Mexico, Bahamas and Belize
I'm a beach lover, my husband is a nature lover. We are active and low maintenance. We like saving money but don't mind spending it for something spectacular.
I twitter randomly about gardening, sustainable living, local restaurants, cooking and more. Follow me on Twitter at Sarah_STL
Re: Puerto Rico
We got married in PR a few years ago. We picked it because we thought it was cheaper than a lot of other parts of the Caribbean. I did find food to be very expensive. On the other hand, we did eat at a few hole in the wall local places that were very cheap.
After our wedding in Old San Juan, we spent most of our honeymoon in PR. We did one night near the rain forest--a must if your H likes nature, two nights on Culebra--loved, three nights in Ponce--good base if you like colonial towns, and three nights at a hacienda in the mountains--no beach, but really beautiful and your H would probably love it.
We got married at Hotel El Convento in OSJ, so that is my hotel rec.
The beaches right in San Juan are just ok. Outside of SJ, Flamingo Beach on Culebra was the most beautiful beach I have been to and almost empty. Culebra might be a good fit for you both. Beautiful beaches and lots of hiking/nature too. Luquillo Beach was also very nice.
I did a girls trip here a few years ago and I had such a great time.
Prices: Overall I thought the prices were reasonable, very similar to what you'd pay at home for things.
Things to do: Just walking around the Old San Juan Area is a fun outing. We also did a snorkel booze cruise one day which was super fun. We didn't make it to the rainforest there - but I hear that is a nice thing to visit.
Hotel: We stayed at the Waldorf Astoria which was really nice. The trip advisor reviews were a little sketch, but I was very pleased and happy with the hotel. We got a really good deal for this hotel on expedia or orbitz or one of those websites.
Beach: I think it depends on where you stay. I think there is an Atlantic side and a Caribbean side...where we stayed near Old San Juan, the beach wasn't wonderful...but the water when snorkeling in the Caribbean was great.
Here is a link to my blog with more info: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/bookitorskipit/19/tpod.html
We went to PR in January. We stayed at El Convento in Old San Juan, which was pricy but I highly recommend it. We spent a very enjoyable day walking the forts and shopping area. We then spent 3 nights at a rainforest B&B on the eastern side of El Yunque. It was beautiful!! From there, we had good access to the beach at Luquillo (45 min drive), the bio bay at Fajardo (30 min drive), and hiking trails, waterfalls, etc right outside the door of our room. We then returned to San Juan for our last night and stayed in the Carolina area close to the airport. Overall, it was a fantastic trip and I would very much recommend PR!
To answer your specific questions:
- Food can be expensive depending where you eat. We had several very good meals for $50-100 in Old San Juan, but we also had great local food at the Luquillo Beach road side stands for less than $10
- Hotel recs: El Convento in Old San Juan, Casa Flamboyant (near Naguabo) for the rainforest experience. Shirley is an amazing hostess!
- The beach at Luquillo was very nice and comparable to other beaches we have been to in Jamaica, Mexico, and Grand Cayman.
- Must-see: Bio Bay. This can be done in Fajardo or on Vieques Island. The Vieques trip gets higher reviews online, but our B&B hostess said that was only because they used to let you swim in the lagoon and Fajardo did not. That has since change because DEET damages the ecosystem so neither place lets you swim. Fajardo is much more accessible if you're only staying on the mainland and well worth the trip. Plus, if you go to Fajardo, you should stop and eat at La Estacion. It's a gas station-converted restaurant with excellent food! (It's on the main road to the beach at Fajardo.)
We just got back from PR 2 weeks ago and we loved it!
We stayed at the St. Regis on the Bahia Beach (Atlantic Ocean side of the island). We LOVED the resort. The ocean at the resort was not the clear carribean water so we couldn't snorkel but we did swim. We snorkled a lot on our last 2 vacations (St. John and Grand Cayman) so I was okay not doing it on this last trip. We could have drove to the other side of the island and gone on a snorkel tour or gone on our own but we didn't have enough time to fit that in.
We visited the El Yunque rainforest which was beautiful. Lots of hiking and site seeing to do in the rainforest. We did a hike to one of the waterfalls where we could go swimming. We did some other site seeing in the rainforest as well.
There are several zip line companies on the island. I had never went before so we did a "beginner" one right outside the rainforest and it was a great experience for my first time and I'd go again if I had the chance. The Luquillo food kiosk is just down the road from the rainforest.
We did the bio bay kayak tour in Fajardo which was a lot of fun. We spent a day exploring Old San Juan and had a blast. We enjoyed dinner at Marmalade.
I thought the prices were reasonable or comparable to other carribean islands we've visited. Everything at the resort was expensive but that was expected. Once we were off the resort grounds we could find plenty of inexpensive places to eat.
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