Puerto Rico, isla hermosa

February 04, 2023

Beautiful island, lovely island

*queue Rita Moreno and/or Ariana DeBose singing "America" from either of the West Side Story movies. Here is a list of some famous people from PR, in case you didn’t realize.

I’ve had this drafted since the day we got back in mid-December (last vacay of 20222!). In order not to delay it as long as I did for Ireland, I’ll share it now, while I’m in the Auckland airport getting ready to fly over to Sydney to continue my first trip of 2023 :)

A lot of the pictures really are worth a thousand words, so you can also just scroll through and look at all of them if you’re not feeling like reading!

I hope my travel stories help you have a great Puerto Rico trip, or if you’ve been there before, you can give me tips for my next visit there. I will 110% be back there as soon as possible, and I certainly wouldn’t mind living there for a short time! I know there are some political and economic issues that I’m not super informed about, but overall I believe we are extremely lucky as Americans to have this beautiful island territory as part of our nation.

Best food:

Arepas at Luciano Seafood Restaurant near El Yunque

While I loved everything I ate on this vacation, my most memorable meal was the arepas at a little seafood restaurant on the main road in Luquillo, the town we stayed in to go to the rainforest.

We ordered seafood arepas, which had shredded crab and little pieces of shrimp in them. We also had arepas con queso, stuffed with cheese. If you’ve ever had arepas, just think of eating a doughy, bread pillow made of corn.

Honorable mention: Iguanas at the Wyndham

My honorable mention for favorite food was at the Wyndham resort of Rio Grande, same area as Luquillo. Mary Pat had roasted chicken, Linds had fish, and I had trifongo. In San Juan, I had already tried mofongo, but the trifongo was made of 3 types of dough, instead of the traditional one type.

I know I can’t even do it justice, so I won’t even try to describe all the ingredients. It made me think of pot pie, but also arepas and empanadas all in one.

Best drink:

Cocktails at Pira Rum

Drinking in San Juan is just a fun experience all around. The bar scene is really unique. You could get 2 cocktails all night and just keep exploring the bars and dancing to reggaeton and be totally happy.

My favorite cocktail in San Juan was a pink cotton candy gin drink at Pira Rum right next to our hotel, El Convento (yes, Convent as in nunnery. Awesome find from Mary Pat!)

Honorable mention: Cuba Libre at Casa Bacardi, the world's largest distillery of Bacardi rum

My honorable mention drink is Cuba Libre. If you like rum, even just a little bit, and in you’re in PR on a hot day, you can’t go wrong sipping on a Bacardi rum, Coke and a lime. When we toured the distillery of Bacardi (pronounced Ba-car-DEE, which I’ll now never forget!) which is the biggest one in the world. It sits in a beautiful lush area across from Old San Juan, in an adorable town called Cataño. I didn’t hear of many people taking the ferry or an Uber there, but we are so glad we did! Just make sure you reserve your spot for a tour, & take your cocktail on the tram ride!

Best activity:

A night out dancing at La Placita (pronounced la pla-SEE-ta; think of the song Despacito in your head :))

La Placita was so memorable because it was all outside. After our Uber dropped us off around the corner from one of the first bars on the square, we walked up to the center of the area, literally the little plaza and were mesmerized by the atmosphere there. It was after 11pm on a Friday night, and there were hundreds of people dancing in the street, with a large stage and a huge band playing every multiple instruments and singing their hearts out. Most of the crowd was dancing in unison, a “1234” line dance like the electric slide, but way cooler.

When the older adults (& I mean, older adults of all shapes, all joyous to be there dancin) started to trickle out of the crowd, the young college crowd seemed to take over. We bar hopped, which is a blast there because most of the drinking is outside, and they continue to blast music in the streets. If you don’t speak Spanish or otherwise don’t listen to Latin music much, I highly recommend you download a Spotify top hits playlist of Latin America music before you visit Puerto Rico to hype you up!

I love this blogger's description of a night out in La Placita. She and her friends really got the locals' experience!

Honorable mention: the war forts

An awesome non-drinking activity is walking around the old military forts in Old San Juan. They’re considered US National Parks, so that’s a nice perk if you want to visit a bunch of those in your lifetime. We only had time for the Cristobal fort (or castillo) toward the water on the southeast side of town, and it gave us stunning views of the city, the picturesque colorful houses, the palm trees for miles, and of course the ocean. From Cataño we could see the most famous fort on the island, Felipe del Morro.

Traveler's Tip:

1. Puerto Rico LOVES Christmas. Going there during the holidays is gorgeous with all the lights, decorations, and festive drinks. Our favorite Christmasy spots were the little market down next to Princesa restaurant, the light show over the capital building, and the drinks at La Casita by the ferry terminals.

2. Rent a car, just for 1 day. Driving in San Juan was hectic (Linds handled it well :)), but it was nice to have the car to get from San Juan to El Luquillo (the rainforest town we stayed in) and to drive on our own schedule to Las Paylas (the waterslide waterfalls). Otherwise, use Uber as much as possible!

Lots of other travel advice you read or hear will be all about the gorgeous beaches. While we loved the beach we went to, we really didn't have time to explore the more scenic and tropical areas.

Here are some of my other fave photos from our beautiful 5 days on the north side of Puerto Rico!