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What to do in Puerto Rico?


shipps

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My wife and I are going to San Juan PR next month for our fifth year wedding anniversary. Have you guys ever been there before? What is a must do/go/eat when you are there? What should we look out for as far as not doing or tourist trap type stuff?

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

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QUOTE (shipps @ Nov 4, 2015 -> 01:11 PM)
My wife and I are going to San Juan PR next month for our fifth year wedding anniversary. Have you guys ever been there before? What is a must do/go/eat when you are there? What should we look out for as far as not doing or tourist trap type stuff?

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

I use TripAdvisor for restaurants now, Yelp is garbage. TripAdvisor has not let me down yet, they also give out "Certificates of Excellence" for certain restaurants (as well as hotels and things to do) for places that consistently get great reviews.

 

A great tool.

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g147320...-Vacations.html

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My wife and I went there and stayed on the west side (Rincon), and then we went back and got married in San Juan in 2011. If you're traveling out of San Juan, you can check out the Arecibo observatory (giant radiotelescope seen in Contact and featured in Goldeneye), check out the rain forest, and check out the "biobay" Fajardo. We did the one on Vieques, but it's a really unique experience.

 

La Bombonera in Old San Juan has awesome breakfast. Other than that, we mostly just found little hole-in-the-wall places and they were all delicious.

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My wife and I went there and stayed on the west side (Rincon), and then we went back and got married in San Juan in 2011. If you're traveling out of San Juan, you can check out the Arecibo observatory (giant radiotelescope seen in Contact and featured in Goldeneye), check out the rain forest, and check out the "biobay" Fajardo. We did the one on Vieques, but it's a really unique experience.

 

La Bombonera in Old San Juan has awesome breakfast. Other than that, we mostly just found little hole-in-the-wall places and they were all delicious.

 

I'd get on another plane in San Juan and then keep going. San Juan is like is staying in downtown Honolulu.

 

There are so many better places to visit in the Caribbean than PR. A few I've personally been to:

 

Antigua

Aruba

Jamaica (Twice - I never thought I'd like but did)

St. Lucia

Barbados (Bring $ - Lots)

Anguilla - (See Above)

 

That's it.

 

Oh, I've been to the Dominican Republic too (DR) but I wouldn't recommend it. Place is a complete dump.

Edited by Ballz-n-Strikes
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QUOTE (Ballz-n-Strikes @ Nov 5, 2015 -> 01:55 AM)
I'd get on another plane in San Juan and then keep going. San Juan is like is staying in downtown Honolulu.

 

There are so many better places to visit in the Caribbean than PR. A few I've personally been to:

 

Antigua

Aruba

Jamaica (Twice - I never thought I'd like but did)

St. Lucia

Barbados (Bring $ - Lots)

Anguilla - (See Above)

 

That's it.

 

Oh, I've been to the Dominican Republic too (DR) but I wouldn't recommend it. Place is a complete dump.

 

I'd add Tortola (BVI) to that list too. I agree with the sentiment about San Juan. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not really Caribbean or unique. It's like a hot US city that speaks Spanish.

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QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Nov 5, 2015 -> 08:00 AM)
I'd add Tortola (BVI) to that list too. I agree with the sentiment about San Juan. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not really Caribbean or unique. It's like a hot US city that speaks Spanish.

Probably because that is, essentially, what San Juan is :lol:

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QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Nov 5, 2015 -> 08:00 AM)
I'd add Tortola (BVI) to that list too. I agree with the sentiment about San Juan. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not really Caribbean or unique. It's like a hot US city that speaks Spanish.

 

Yeah, we definitely had more fun when we stayed on the west side and explored around there. A couple of people from my work have taken a few surfing trips to Auigdila area if that's what you're in to. If you ever get a chance, you can take a small plane to Vieques. It's just started opening up to tourism in the last decade or so. No hotel chains, no real rental car facilities or fast food, kids breaking in wild horses down the middle of the "main" streets etc. We spent our honeymoon at this place.

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QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Nov 5, 2015 -> 09:07 AM)
[/b]

Probably because that is, essentially, what San Juan is :lol:

 

Well yeah, I get that, but a lot of people associate Puerto Rico more with the Caribbean. If you're looking for that kind of experience, that's not really what San Juan offers. I know when I was there I had expected something different than I experienced.

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QUOTE (knightni @ Nov 4, 2015 -> 01:13 PM)

 

I would love some roasted whole hog but not going to be eating any pig snout or feet. I m good.

 

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Nov 4, 2015 -> 03:14 PM)
Was in San Juan for a day during a cruise several years ago. Went to the Bacardi Distillery, which was not worth it IMO, the old fort which I found cool but I'm a history nerd and walked around old San Juan.

 

I will cross the distillery off my list then.

QUOTE (Chi Town Sox @ Nov 4, 2015 -> 04:04 PM)
I use TripAdvisor for restaurants now, Yelp is garbage. TripAdvisor has not let me down yet, they also give out "Certificates of Excellence" for certain restaurants (as well as hotels and things to do) for places that consistently get great reviews.

 

A great tool.

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g147320...-Vacations.html

 

I use trip advisor a lot. Way better than Yelp. Yelp has actually proven to be worthless to me.

 

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 4, 2015 -> 04:50 PM)
My wife and I went there and stayed on the west side (Rincon), and then we went back and got married in San Juan in 2011. If you're traveling out of San Juan, you can check out the Arecibo observatory (giant radiotelescope seen in Contact and featured in Goldeneye), check out the rain forest, and check out the "biobay" Fajardo. We did the one on Vieques, but it's a really unique experience.

 

La Bombonera in Old San Juan has awesome breakfast. Other than that, we mostly just found little hole-in-the-wall places and they were all delicious.

 

Dude my wife is a big time breakfast eater. Its her favorite meal of the day so we will def check that place out. Thanks!

 

Also is the biobay where they have the luminescent plankton? I really wanted to check that out.

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QUOTE (shipps @ Nov 5, 2015 -> 12:04 PM)
Dude my wife is a big time breakfast eater. Its her favorite meal of the day so we will def check that place out. Thanks!

 

Also is the biobay where they have the luminescent plankton? I really wanted to check that out.

 

Yeah, that's where the water glows all around you. It's best if you're there when there's no moon (new moon) and/or a cloudy night. There are three biobays on Puerto Rico. Mosquito Bay on Vieques is the best in the world, but that requires a trip to a separate island. The one in Fajardo is the next-best, and my parents said it was great. There's also one on the southwest corner of the island in Paragua. We checked that one out on our first trip because we were over on that side, but it's definitely the worst of the three.

 

I know they "go dark" every once in a while for various reasons and IIRC the one in Fajardo was experiencing that earlier this year or last year, so if you're going to do it make sure you check into current conditions.

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QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 5, 2015 -> 03:48 PM)
Yeah, that's where the water glows all around you. It's best if you're there when there's no moon (new moon) and/or a cloudy night. There are three biobays on Puerto Rico. Mosquito Bay on Vieques is the best in the world, but that requires a trip to a separate island. The one in Fajardo is the next-best, and my parents said it was great. There's also one on the southwest corner of the island in Paragua. We checked that one out on our first trip because we were over on that side, but it's definitely the worst of the three.

 

I know they "go dark" every once in a while for various reasons and IIRC the one in Fajardo was experiencing that earlier this year or last year, so if you're going to do it make sure you check into current conditions.

 

Great info.

 

We will probably have to go to the one in Fajardo. Not sure if we are going to be able to put a whole bunch of time aside to take a separate trip to Vieques but that may be possible.

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