San Juan 2024

4/27/2024

San Juan

Google map of places - link

Stay - we stayed in Isla Verde, a beautiful resort-esque place on the beach of Puerto Rico. You pretty much need to Uber or get a car to get anywhere else of interest, however

Hacienda Muñoz - a pretty coffee plantation with fantastic coffee and some light sandwiches just out of the way towards the south end of the island.

We opted to skip Ponce due to timing, and instead went to Yauco, a small town that has added the largest outdoor art exhibit in Puerto Rico. Buildings have been painted beautiful bright colors with the Yauchromatic art project. We made a pit stop at Próceres, a coffee shop to get some more espresso.

Along the way towards the salt flats, Piraguas Las Muchachas is a street stand that serves shaved ice. Line up in your car and drive up to the counter.

Salinas de Cabo Rojo, or the salt flats, is a large expanse of salt flats in the southwest part of the island. Keep going past the bumpy dirt roads (it's better if you have something capable of doing off-road, there were a few other cars scraping their frames unable to get past) to get to this more secluded absolutely beautiful Playa Sucia.

There tons of other gorgeous beaches as well. Mar Chaquita beach is definitely worth checking out - it is slightly protected by a rocky entrance, so the waves aren't too bad. It's not all sand, however, so you still want to be careful. Playa Ojo de Agua is more secluded, and the waves are a bit harsher, but it is a great scenic location.

Cuerva del Indio is a cave hidden inside a giant jagged rock formation with hieroglyphs from natives. There's $10/person parking after 9:30am on private property near the site, or limited street parking just east or west of there. Walk along the beach towards the formation, where there is a slightly treacherous walk up the rocks towards the cave. The cave is still a questionable drop down and climb in, so we opted not to go in, but many do.

Walk east however, along the path of many more rocks and you'll find the most beautiful scene of many arches in a row and more beaches, including Playa Caracoles.

On the east side, Playa de Luquillo is a nice beach with lots of food and shops nearby.

El Yunque is the national forest on top of many lists of places to visit. We did a quick tour and went to Las Pailas, sliding down a natural waterslide and jumping off some rocks into the pool. Definitely need to add hiking next time.

Old San Juan is a must visit - a great walking town with historic forts, a thriving night life on the north end, and lots of restaurants and gift shops.

Food - Bebo's BBQ next to the airport has the best pernil ever and amazing BBQ all around. It's a long line that goes relatively quickly. There's no menu that we could find, and not everyone speaks English there, so look up a menu online and have your order ready. The Piñones area just east of San Juan has a ton of street food carts with lots of delicious food.

Drinks - La Factoría and Jungle Bird were fantastic. The former is a multi-room craft cocktail/wine/dance bar, and the latter does tiki. Monostereo stood out as well - the bar leads down to another bar which leads into a courtyard with tacos which if you go back around, takes you upstairs to either a no menu dealer's choice cocktail bar or a dance club with a balcony that has New Orleans Bourbon Street vibes.