A brief summary of our 4 night 5 day trip to Puerto Rico. Hope this is helpful to future travelers.
by food crawlers on August 10, 2008
2 main things that we liked about this hotel: Location and People- Location: Its located 2 blocks from the beach. All restaurants are within walking distance. The airport is 15 min away, Old San Juan is around 10 min and Isla Verde is 10 min away. There's a bus stop 5 min away from the hotel and bus route B21 goes to Old San Juan. Its 75 cents/person on the bus or $17 for a taxi.- People: Everybody here was so helpful. We got bumped to their Ambassador suite and got complimentary drinks at the grill. The people at the reception were nice enough to give us directions to where ever we wanted to go. We asked for a microwave and they brought one over to our room.
Wasabi Sushi is located right across from the Radisson. Our last night there, we decided to try it out.The hostess was very nice, she took our phone number and offered to call us when they had open tables outside.The sushi was pretty good. We ordered around 6 rolls including one with plantains on it.
We found this restaurant in the "Lets Go Puerto Rico" tourist book. Its a tiny place located in a strip mall next to a grocery store and baskin robbins. They were packed on a monday night, however, the wait wasn't too long.We ordered the chicken and fish mofongo dishes along with pina coladas. Mofongo is like a small mashed plantain cake with a tomato sauce. Its definitely worth trying at least once.
We were looking for an authentic place to grab a mid-day snack at. La Bombonera was just the place, its got a nice diner feel to it. We ordered the vegetarian omelette and the chicken salad sandwich.They also have freshly squeezed orange juice. Our waiter was really nice, he kept giving us these sweet donuts thingys with powdered sugar. He also gave us a postcard which said Rachel Ray recommended the place for her $40 a day show. heres the link:http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ad/episode/0,1976,FOOD_9947_38875,00.html
We rented a car and drove to El Yunque. It was around 40 min away from Condado. The other way to get there is with a tour. You can pick up a trail map from the first 'tower' and then drive up to pretty much any of the locations that you want to hike from.Things to keep in mind:1. There are only a few places to eat with limited options. So make sure you pack a picnic with lots of water bottles.2. Wear your bathing suit and bring bug repellent.3. We hiked the La Mina trail and the Mt. Britton trail - highly recommend it.
We rented a car to drive up to Fajardo and take the ferry to Culebra. We waited in line for 3 hrs to find out that the tickets were sold out. Since we were there already, we decided to go to Vieques instead. The ferry ride from fajardo is an hour and a half. Its $2 each way. Make sure you get your return ticket as soon as you get to Vieques. There are enough publicos around that will take you to the Sun bay beach. Its a pretty secluded beach, you will have to walk around 15-20 min to get food. So either pack a picnic or be prepared to go on a hunt. The beach itself is absolutely gorgeous. The water was blue and the sand was pretty fine. Overall, our trip to Vieques was definitely worth it and I think anybody going to PR should plan on going to at least one of the islands nearby.
This was the favorite part of our trip. Old San Juan is a quaint little part of Puerto Rico with cobblestone roads. Things to do around there:1. Definitely go to El Morro. The view from there are breathtaking! 2. There are tonnes of souvenir shops around Old San Juan. Good place to get some gifts.3. There are a lot of places to eat around there. Since it is a popular tourist attraction, some of the places are pretty overpriced such as dragonfly (we ate dinner there. It was good but felt like a rip off. Their regular sushi rolls are $16-$18). Try to find a small cafe with authentic Puerto Rican cuisine.
http://www.igougo.com/journal-j71395-Puerto_Rico-Puerto_Rico_Trip.html
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