Our Stay
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We stayed for a week at Conrad Hilton, San Juan in Condado. Its a very beautiful and interesting place. There are lot of hotels located in that area which opens up to beaches. It's just beautiful. I would suggest to stay at least one day at hotel and not have any plans to go out. You can just have margaritas and beer at the pool area and enjoy pool volley ball. Surprisingly, our hotel has a table tennis table. We being Asians loved playing TT after a long time.Our hotel entrance opened up to Avenida Ashford. Avenida is Avenue in Spanish. I had a very funny conversation with a parking attendant when i wanted to find Avenida Ashford knowing I'm at Ashford Avenue. Its an interesting strip with lots of hotels, restaurants and pubs. You can also find walgreen, clothing shops and ice cream shops. Many of the restaurants are open till late night.
Puerto Rican Food
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Since I'm a complete vegetarian, i really cannot comment about authentic puerto rican food.
Their food is different than what we get here in US. I had less hard time finding vegetarian food than here in US. Everyone has a good variety of vegetarian options. Some people were open for any custom food orders which i found amazing. People are very accommodating. I could find one Indian & Latino restaurant in Old San Juan. The food there was amazing. We can find Italian, Mexican and various other cuisines too. But they have a tinge of puerto rican flavor to it which i liked. They tend to use more plantains, papaya and other ingredients.
Language
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Most puerto ricans talk Spanish and not English. Most of the locals working at hotels and restaurants speak English. But if you come across locals in some remote place, the chances of them speaking English is less. Even though they realize we don't talk Spanish they still put their complete effort in answering our questions which was surprisingly pleasant.
Locals
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I really liked puerto ricans. They are very easy going people and extremely helpful. I dint find people at shop counters nice. They seemed to be more arrogant. May be they are frustrated with their jobs. But locals otherwise are very nice. They go extra way to help tourists. They sure have a totally different culture than US which i appreciated a lot. Any other country or place so near to US would totally be influenced. They seem to have a way better social life than people here. Locals seemed very much like Indians with some similarities in culture and social life. Its not like we meet friends and family once in a year.
Puerto Rican Music
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Puerto rican music is probably the predominant Caribbean music heard in US. All the pub's play local music. I really enjoyed their music. The major type of music coming out of puerto rico is salsa. I liked dancing to puerto rican music. Puerto ricans love to dance and drink. I sure had fun dancing salsa there.
Our Journey and Experience of Puerto rico.
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Day1: Condado
We reached puerto rico in the afternoon. We dint decide to take a car for first two days. Since we had
an early flight, we dint had much sleep. We rested at the hotel for a while and headed out to Avenida Ashford in the evening. The strip was colorful and happening. I really liked taking a stroll there.Conrad Hilton has 4 restaurants inside the hotel which opens till 4 am. It saved us many days when we came back late. Also the restaurant pool area opens up to the beach. I loved to sit there and watch waves splashing the rocks.
Day 2: El Morro, San Cristobal and Old San Juan
We had plans to go visit old San Juan. We woke up around 8am. Our hotel room had a balcony
which had a beautiful view. We wanted to visit El Morro, San Cristobal, Calle San Fransisco street and Calle Fortaleza street.There are lot of buses to go to old San Juan from Condado. We took the bus to old San Juan. It costs 75C. Parada means bus stop. Just look for any nearest bus stop and en-quire if bus to Old San Juan comes that route. Soon after we got down the bus at Old San Juan, we took a trolley which takes tourist to the forts. The trolley ride is free.
Our first stop was San Cristobal. We bought a
combo ticket for both El Morro and San Cristobal at the counter. It will save you a dollar. San Cristobal is more than El Morro's partner in the defense of old San Juan. It is the largest military structure built by Spanish in the Americas. Its worth a visit if you are staying in San Juan. We visited all the important places in the fort such as the main battery, barracks, chapel, north battery, and devils sentry box. The views from the fortress are amazing. It took us three hours to visit the fort. We then waited for the trolley bus. It took around 40 minutes for the next trolley. We then headed towards El Morro fortress.
El Morro fortress is a sixteenth century fort. This fort is now declared a world heritage site by UN. It took around 3 hours for us to visit the fortress. Also the view from this fort is awesome. It was a good workout walking the fort. The weather was a little hot. Make sure you carry good amount of water. We had some energy bars with us to keep us more active. To the west side of this fort you can also view another fort(la Cruz) towards the palm trees.We were pretty tired walking for hours. We then decided to walk towards old San Juan shopping areas. We went to San Francisco and Calle Fortaleza streets. They are the main shopping streets which boast many designer outlet stores. There are also many eateries. These streets are very vibrant. The streets look very different. The weekend traffic was crazy and there were plenty of people in the streets. We did some shopping and headed home. Old San Juan has a central bus stop from where you can take bus back to Condado.
Day 3: El Yunque, Luquillo beach and La Laguna Bio-Bay in Fajardo
We never planned the whole week ahead. We always planned one day ahead. Yesterday while visiting the fort we met another Indian couple visiting puerto rico for the first time. We decided to go visit places together. We all wanted to visit El Yunque, the rain forest and then do the bio luminiscent bay in Fajardo if time permits.
There are lot of people who would take you to rain forest as a package trip for 60$. Instead we chose to explore it on our own. We needed a car to do so. Taxi to El yunque would cost more. We rented a car from the airport and headed towards El Yunque. Generally car rental in puerto rico is more expensive than US. It was crazy this time of the year since so many tourist were visiting the place. It was around 99$ a day without insurance. Make sure you book your rental car before you visit puerto rico. It may get real expensive otherwise. Also always check with your insurance provider if they cover damages in puerto rico. Luckily my insurance covered me in puerto rico.
We reached El Yunque by 11am. El Yunque is a tropical rain forest. The rain forest is open from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. The entry fee is 3$. We then took the map and started exploring places. We basically wanted to see La cocal water falls and then hike towards la mina waterfall and then hike the El Yunque trail.After driving the narrow zig zag roads for 10 mins we reached the La coca water falls. It was a nice falls but defnitely not a huge one. It was a very small water fall as you can see in the picture.
We then started driving towards La Mina Trail. There are two trails we can take to reach the La
Mina water falls. We hiked for like 30 mins to reach the falls. It was amazing. I loved it. Water was cold. I always would love to play in fresh water than salty water. We played in the water for a good time and then hiked back to head towards El Yunque Trail.El Yunque trail has the best views. Make sure the weather is good before you take this trail. Also make sure you can complete the hike before the park closes. The trail takes like 45 mins to complete. Its not a difficult trail but takes all your energy out. Its like number 7 above elevation on the treadmill. Going up needs a lot of energy.
Coming down is very easy. Make sure you have lot of water and some food to eat. If you are not in shape you may need some serious motivation or a enjoying company to make the complete hike. Fortunately we had a small group of 4. It was fun hiking. My hours at gym helped me a lot. I did stuff myself with lot of energy bars. The trail is surrounded by luscious green trees around. It wasn't hot at all since the sun light reaching the ground is less which also makes it pretty dark by 5:00 pm. So don't stay late there. It may not be safe and darkness would sure creep you out. There were less people hiking this trail. We dint meet too many people on our way. We were running out of time. We couldn't reach the peak of the trail but we sure made it to the mount summit point which has the beautiful view of the rain forest. It was breathtaking. I loved it. I so wanted to spend more time there but we were getting late. We headed back to our car and headed out of the park to Fajardo.
We reached Fajardo by 6:30 pm. We had booked the kayak trip to bio luminiscent bay at 8:30 pm. There are three bio bays in puerto rico. Both mosquito bay in vieques and la laguna in fajardo are brightest. We reached the Luquillo beach. Its a beautiful beach and is good for surfing. There was a eatery next to the beach called "Guava". We had some good food with liquor and had fun chatting and watching puerto rican locals way of partying. The women were clapping and singing and having a gala time.We then headed towards Bio luminescent bay for a kayak trip. There are lots of tours at a single place. You basically can pick any tour. It was pretty dark and i wanted the thrill of kayaking in the night. Be sure to spray the mosquito repellent. Its pitch dark and you are surrounded by lots of trees. The kayaking was fun though i screamed when i bumped into trees. After kayaking for half an hour we finally reached the bay. It was beautiful watching the light luminated from the micro organisms. They glow in the dark when agitated. The light is their defense mechanism. Just put you hand into the water and see your hand glow. It was amazing. Our tour guide was fun and extremely helpful. He answered all our questions and made sure everyone are comfortable kayaking.
Day 4: Vieques Island
Vieques Island is one of the larges island of puerto rico. When i planned initially i wanted to take
a bicycle tour of the entire island. We had to drive for an hour from San Juan to the ferry area in Fajardo. We very quite over confident about the ferry timings and woke up a little late in the morning. But the ferry time aren't very good. Basically the ferries are meant to satisfy the locals requirement and not the tourists. There are only three ferries a day. One at 9:00 am and other one at 1:00 pm and the last one at 3:00 pm. We reached the ferry late at around 10:00 am. We had to wait for the next ferry at 1:00 pm. I had to miss the bicycle tour. We tried all other alternatives to reach the island. The only other way was to take a flight. But the fares were too expensive. It would cost you around 100$ to fly there in season. The ferry only costs 1.50 dollars.
We reached the Island by 1:45 pm. We only had three hours to see the island. We wanted to see all the beautiful beaches there. We took a taxi from the ferry terminal at vieques to Esparanza. It has both blue beach, and red beach there. We inquired about renting bicycle or a scooter there. But to our bad luck both had sold out. We had to again hire a taxi to reach the red beach. It was a nice beach but a smaller shore. The locals here are very friendly. Be sure to have some taxi numbers to reach back the ferry terminal. The last ferry to leave vieques was at 6:00 pm. We so wanted to go see blue beach but we ran out of time and had to head towards ferry terminal. Though we did very less this day we still were tired. May be it was a carry over from the other day.Since this was our first trip we dint knew much about the ferry timings and the time it takes you to reach these islands from San Juan. We heard that before some years there used to be a fast ferry to these islands from San Juan which is no more there since locals hardly used it. I suggest people to stay in this island for atleast one night and explore it completely rather than visiting from San Juan.
Day 5: Camuy, Arecibo observatory and Ice cream shop
Rio Camuy Park is a million year old cavern. This is the third largest underground river cavern system in the world. The drive to camuy park was adventurous. The directions weren't clear and my GPS dint help us much locating the park. The locals mislead us many a times. Though we left hotel by 7:45 am to reach camuy park by 9:00 am we finally managed to reach the caves by 10:45 am. There are various safe guided tours throughout the day which takes you through the caves. They issue a number when you buy tickets which decide the tour time. It took an hour and a half for our tour to start. We just sat there outside having some beer. Finally our turn came and we headed towards the trolley. This is the first thing you do in this cave. The trolley takes you down to the caves. The cave is beautiful with ceilings of crystalline stalactites. It was a memorable experience. It would take 2 hours to complete this park. The walkways are slippery. Make sure you wear a good shoe or a slipper.The visitor center has a gift shop and a snack bar. The park
is open from 8:30 am to 3:45 am Wed - Sunday. But always call and check if the park is open since the park may be closed because of weather or some other reason.We then started heading towards Arecibo observatory. It is nestled in the mountains of northern puerto rico and is the worlds largest radio telescope. You would start this place by watching a movie about the observatory. I really got bored with the movie and fell asleep. The movie was about the typical day life in the observatory. I expected it to have more of their work. It was disappointing. Then
we walked towards the telescope. Its good but i dint feel like paying 6$ for this place. Its a small place with nothing much to do. All you can do is stand and watch the telescope. I felt i could have seen the Golden Eye movie instead.I thought i could have done Bacardi Factory tour instead of this. It's just my personal opinion. By the time we finished this observatory we dint had much time to visit bacardi factory. Some local at the hotel suggested to visit this ice cream shop which is supposed to be very famous. We drove to the ice shop with loads of expectation. The ice cream shop had lots of flavor with them. But the texture of the ice cream wasn't great. I quite dint enjoy their ice cream. I have had good ice creams back home in India. It was disappointing driving all the way to this shop to finally eat the chocolate ice cream.
Day 6: Snorkel Trip to Culebra
I was very excited to snorkel. This would be the second time I would snorkel. We took fun catamaran snorkel trip to culebra. The tour started at 9:30 am from Fajardo. We drove from condado to the Fajardo. The pier from which the tour starts is not in the ferry terminal. You have to drive for another 10 mins to reach this place. We reached the pier at around 9:00 am. There were around 20 people in the ferry. The ferry sailed for around 45 mins and took us to a beach where people could practice snorkel. They said there are some corals there but i couldn't find any. But i really liked the idea of a practice session before you snorkel in the reef. It gave me 
time to get used to the breathing. We then had our lunch. I really liked the lunch. Be sure you reach the boat on time to eat otherwise you would not find anything left.We then sailed for another 20 mins to reach the place where you would snorkel. The water depth there was 50 feet. Though i swim well i still went with floaters since the water was too deep and the currents were high. It was a little cloudy day and hence high currents which made swimming harder. Other two people with me got scared to swim and hence i had to again go alone snorkeling. First time i headed out i couldnt find any corals. I came back to boat disapointed. I wish these tour
people somehow plant a ball or something where there are corals. I was too determined to enjoy snorkel and went again looking for corals. This time i had a different strategy. I followed some people who were scuba diving. Wow i then found corals and the marine life. It was a great experience and one of the most beautiful thing i have seen. I wish i could stay there more but the current was too high and i had to swim back for a break. My friend Ram couldn't spot corals at all and hence i decided to go again with him to show corals. Everyone in the boat were back by then and were having fruits. We both decided to head out for a final round of snorkel. I was blown out 
again to see it all so clear. Water wasnt too deep there. It was hardly 15 feet depth. I swam back to the boat satisfied. I had snorkeled before in Key West, FL but the water there weren't clear and i couldn't see corals and fishes clear. I took some pictures using under water camera. The entire tour ended by 3:30 pm. We then took shower in the pier and headed backWe still had lot of time and wanted to go to some place for the evening. It was pretty cloudy and hence most of our options dint seem practical. We finally headed towards this strip in Fajardo where there are lots of shops and eateries. Since it was Christmas Eve many of the eateries were closed. We had some beer and tried local Rum and had fun playing pool. It was a good evening. We then headed home. I was very excited about the whole day. Though i am new to swimming i was proud i could snorkel for so long without getting scared of the high currents.
Day 7: In Condado
It was 25th of Dec, the Christmas day. We expected everything to be closed today. But surprisingly everything was working pretty much the same as any other day. But we dint plan out another place and hence decided to enjoy staying at the hotel though i wanted to visit Playa Flamenco Beach in Culebra.
Our hotel was very beautiful. When looking for hotels to stay in puerto rico, make sure you either stay in San Juan Condado on Ashford Avenue or in Old San Juan. Otherwise you are sure not to find any eateries around and would be boring.We woke up late and then headed towards the pool. We then had good time swimming and trying all of their margaritas. Surprisingly the hotel had TT table. It was long time since I played TT. It was so much fun relaxing and having fun at the hotel itself. There was a little water sport tube at the corner of the pool for kids. I so much had fun playing there. We then played pool volley ball for a while. I realized I suck badly
and headed again for TT instead. After all this fun we went back to our hotel room and decided to have beer and enjoy the view from the balcony. After all the drinking we were too hungry and headed out towards Ashford Avenue. We tried Mexican restaurant which had live puerto rican music. It was fun listening to their music and dining there. We had our flight back at 2:00 am. I dint realize that it was 12:00 am when we finished eating. I dint feel like leaving puerto rico. It has vibrant environment and awesome weather. I had to head back to Boston. Overall i was happy about the trip and left puerto rico with lots of good memories.Things to Know:
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1) Watch for Taxi Scams. Always negotiate the taxi fare before you board the taxi. You can check with your hotel desk for an appropriate fare. People dont always use meters.
2) Finding any attraction is not easy. There are no evident signs to follow like in US. Asking locals for direction may not always be a good idea since they mislead sometimes. Make sure you always keep an buffer of an hour time.
3) Driving car on weekends is a pain.
4) You don't need to rent a car if you are planning to stay and visit places around San Juan only. Make sure you have exact change if you travel in bus.
5) Check if your car insurance in US covers puerto rico.
6) Car rental is much more expensive in puerto rico compared to US. So make sure you book your car well in advance.
7) Make sure you have cash always. Not many people accept cards and small places may not have ATM's.
8) Some phone providers charge for making and receiving calls in puerto rico such as verizon. I dint had any problem since AT&T had coverage there for free. You can actually rent cell phones in puerto rico.
9) People on H1 B visa should carry their passport with a valid I-94. If your I-94 is expired you should carry your renewed I-94 provided by INS. Its a domestic travel and will not require restamping.
