We are taking a family trip to Puerto Rico in August. Does anyone have any hotel recommendations? We want a clean hotel that has easy access to the beach. My husband and I are taking our 10 month old son and our two moms (they get along great). :) We either need a place with 2 bedrooms or a place where it is not too expensive to get two rooms...
Puerto Rico hotels are expensive .
We just booked this hotel through priceline for $110.00 a night :-)
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/sjupr-san-juan-marr...
There is a trick how to do it . I believe the regular price is almost $300.00 a night
Hi J., I have been to Puerto Rico a few times. One thing to know is that Puerto Rico is not a "resort type" vacation destination. It is mainly a pit stop for cruises and for vacationers going to the Virgin Islands.
The hotels are very expensive. And when we booked the Marriott Stellaris for 300 a night, I was expecting luxury. It is the best hotel in San Juan. Although the lobby is absolutely gorgeous, the rooms are no better than a Holiday Inn. I have no problem with Holiday Inns, but for 300 a night? The pool area is very nice and kid friendly. Anything under 100/night in San Juan is going to be very seedy. The beach is...so so. I was told the more beautiful beaches were a ways from San Juan.
Based on my experiences in Puerto Rico, I would definitely choose Mexico (playa del carmen,tulum area) over Puerto Rico a million times over. It's more affordable, offers all inclusive resorts, closer, and much more beautiful.
If you are making the trip all the way out to Puerto Rico, you may as well continue on to one of the Virgin Islands as most are only a short 45 min to 1 hr flight away. St Thomas is the busiest and offers some kid friendly(babysitters available) all inclusive resorts and is about 200 roundtrip from SJU airport.
http://travelwithkids.about.com/cs/caribbeanwkids/a/usvii...
Check out El Conquistador,we got married there 4 years and were back once. It is one of the few places I can go back again and again. Never have to leave the place,about 45 minutes for the airport, and good foe kids. Just remodeled a few years ago and should be done but doublecheck.
Enjoy!
It all depends what do you want to do and see while in Puerto Rico. The beauty of staying in San Juan is its closeness to Old San Juan, the old spanish architecture, spanish forts, coblestone streets, history, arts and crafts are mostly located in this area. You can even stay in an old convent (El Convento Hotel).
El Conquistador, Rio Mar and The Gran Melia (previously called Paradisus) are all Resort and Spa type of hotels.
Now, if you really want to get away, you need to stay in the west coast area, Rincon, www.rincon.org , it is where all the most beautiful beaches of Puerto Rico are located and the most beautiful sunsets. One of the most spectacular sights is the annual migration of Humpback Whales that takes place every winter.
Personally, I like Rincon of the Seas Grand Caribbean Hotel.
Don't forget to visit El Yunque, Puerto Rico's tropical rainforest.
We stayed at the westin and it was awesome. Safe and on the beach. Pools also
We stayed for our honeymoon at the Hyatt Regency right outside of San Juan off the main strip of all the touristy places.
The Hyatt is expensive but it is worth it. They have a water play area at the hotel-swimming pools and lazy River- a really long one. You are right on the beach and there is nothing beside the hotel except their golf course. So basically, you have that part of the beach to yourself. It wasn't crowded at all. It was quiet too.
Here's where we stayed:
Hyatt Dorado Beach Hotel. There is actually 3 hotels (all Hyatt's right beside each other). Across the street is Hyatt Regency Cerromar Hotel and nearby is the Embassy Suites Dorado Del Mar Beach Hotel. You can take a bus to each of the hotels and eat at the other hotels if you want. The food was great, they have a variety of casual and really nice restaurants.
We took a cruise and then extended our stay after the cruise. This is where we went and got a great deal going thru the cruise line. We stayed there 3 days and did a lot of sightseeing and swimming and relaxing. I think it cost $150-175 back in 2000. I'm sure the prices have gone up now. It was more expensive if we didn't go thru the cruise line.
You could check to see what else if farther up the road and outside of San Juan. You might try checking with a travel agent and see if you can get a map. It was about 15-20 minute drive from San Juan. We didn't want to be around a lot of people and this was perfect. If you don't mind the other people, you might check in San Juan where there are lots of hotels right on the beach.
I have pictures, however they aren't on the computer. I have a scrapbook. I may have more information in my scrapbook. I saved just about everything we did in San Juan area. So, if you need more info, I can look for it and see if I can give you more information. Just let me know. We loved Puerto Rico and want to go back. It was beautiful and the weather was great. Hope you find a nice place and have a wonderful time.
We stayed at the Ritz Carlton and it was beautiful in every way - nice beach area too.
I'm sure it's expensive, but we were on a free trip several years ago.
We stayed here almost 10 years ago...it was brand new then. Very posh, yet affordable if you don't mind the garden view. It has everything...it's own island, horses, boats, jet skis, beautiful pools, golf course. The spa is amazing. The only draw back is it's not in San Juan, it's a bit of a drive, but it was definitely worth it back then.
If you can stay here, this place is amazing! I have family from there that live here now and when they go back to visit, they stay there. You would love it!!!
We did a pre-night cruise stay in Puerto Rico about 2 years ago. We bid online and stayed at the Caribe Hilton, near old San Juan area. The hotel was clean, as with all caribbean hotel it just depend on what room you end up with. We seem to be in a older wing of the hotel, but I'm sure it was becuase we paid $65 dollars through priceline as opposed to 200.00 the hotel site was charging. There is a nice steakhouse on site but I can't recall the name of it. They are on a small strip of beach area just for the hotel. They also had very nice shaded hammocks near the pool area.
Hi J.,
I can't speak to price since I was there on a work trip, but I can say that the Marriott the mama below is staying at is very nice! I really enjoyed Puerto Rico, its a beautiful island. And its relatively small, so I would recommend renting a car and making a day trip of driving across it. Its beautiful. Enjoy!
There is a really cool site called VRBO.com it's stands for vacation rental by owner. i have had great luck with this site - i love it
