If you are a citizen of United States, Puerto Rico is like your backyard paradise. Since Puerto Rico is a territory of United States you can travel there with only a driver’s license, no passport required. We arrived in Puerto Rico on Friday afternoon around 4PM and left on Monday around 2PM. It was a nice and short getaway. Here is how our weekend went.
We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel. Ubers are not allowed to pick you up from the airport, but you can use them for a drop-off. Be prepared to wait in a long line to get a taxi, but the line does move fast. The cab fare from airport to the hotel was around $20, plus you pay extra for luggage you are carrying vs Uber drive from hotel to airport that was around $9.16. We stayed at La Concha – A Renaissance Resort which was a nice hotel located 8 minutes via car from Old San Juan. Friday evening, we ate at the restaurant Oceano. I highly recommend it! The food was delicious, and the restaurant is right on the beach. Defiantly make reservations so you can secure your spot.
The following morning, we took an Uber to Old San Juan. We had the Uber driver drop us off at the Castillo San Felipe del Morro. We spent the first part of the day exploring the castle. The Spanish established a colony in Puerto Rico in 1508. To protect themselves from privateers and pirates seeking the wealth flowing in and out of the island, they’ve built a battery and tower in the 1500s to protect the harbor. Soon that became the basis for Castillo San Felipe del Morro or better known as El Morro. It was never defeated by sea, and it only fell once when taken by land in 1598.
We walked along the shore to the Old San Juan entrance. On our walk we started noticing one cat after another cat and then we met people that are part of a campaign called Save A Gato. They manage the colony of cats on the Paseo del Morro and the rest of Old San Juan. In the area along the castle up to entrance of the town there is approximately 130 cats, you can see them everywhere. Some of them are very social and would come to you to be loved while some are just going to run into the bushes.
We made our way through Old San Juan. This little town is so pretty and cute. The main streets are touristy, but not too bad, you can still walk side to side with your husband/friend. We made it into the town around lunch time, but we were not very hungry, so we skipped lunch and stopped at The Mezzanine for a refreshment. The restaurant is located on the second floor so it is kind of hard to spot it, but what’s cool is that the restaurant is located in what used to be the home of Pedro Albizu Campos (1891/93-1965) president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.
After a little break and refreshment, we continued walking through Old San Juan. There are many cute souvenirs shops, clothing boutiques, etc. We saw cats everywhere throughout Old San Juan – ether wondering around on the streets, lying on cars, or being in the boutique.
We made our way to Castillo San Cristobal, a castle on the opposite side of first castle we visited. Castillo San Cristobal was built over 150 years to protect El Morro and the city from land attack.
After all the walking we finally did get hungry and we stopped at El Asador around 2:30pm to get something eat. Many of you recommended to try Mofongo and it was delicious.
After our late lunch we took an Uber back to the hotel. We walked the beach by our hotel, decided to skip the dinner, and went to bed early – as usual 😊
Sunday morning, we had a leisurely breakfast and then went Zip Lining which was a lot of fun. We booked it at our hotel. The tour van pick us and few other people up and took us to the zip lining place. Following our Zip Lining adventure, the tour van drove us back to our hotel.
That evening we had dinner at our hotel. We were first in because we love eating dinner early, so I was able to take few pictures of the place as well. Dinner was delicious and I loved the way restaurant is set up.
Monday morning, we spent at the pool, which was really nice since there were no people. We really got to enjoy it. We checked out around 2 PM. It was a great little getaway and we really enjoyed it!
Hope you enjoyed reading this post!
Love,
Helena
This post is in not sponsored by La Concha A Renaissance Resort.
