Puerto Rico has been on my list for a while now and I’m so excited that we finally got to go!! I got a ton of requests for a Puerto Rico Guide to share everything we did, so here it is! We are by no means experts and honestly, Brett did most of the planning for this trip. He’s a research guy and I love that for me! 🙂 So in this post, I will break down where we stayed, what we did, where we ate, etc.
We were only there for 5 days (day 6 was travel) and weren’t able to experience everything we wanted to, but it was an awesome getaway in the middle of winter. It’s also an easy trip to make to somewhere so warm and tropical in January/February. Florida during those months can be a toss up when it comes to weather. Our trip was just under $6,000 for 4 of us for 5 days with everything included.
Travel
We flew out of Chicago on a direct United flight to San Juan. Brett always drops us off at the check in, parks in the (G/H) economy lot, and then takes a shuttle back in to meet us. It ended up being about $90 for parking for the 6 days. The flight was around 4 hours on the way there and 4.5 hours on the way back! I would arrive 2 hours early at both the Chicago and San Juan airports.
Car Rental
We rented a car through Avis and used their preferred system. We heard from a friend (thanks Nicole!) that waiting in the rental line when they went was horrible and people were waiting for hours. So Brett did everything he needed to ahead of time and when we got there, all we had to do was find the Avis lot and were able to walk right up to our car. It was such a smooth process without the hassle of the lines! Highly recommend doing preferred with whatever rental company you use.
Lodging
We stayed at two resorts while we were in Puerto Rico, both in Dorado and relatively close to each other. Dorado is a nice town that was about an hour from the airport, 1.5/2 hours from El Yunque, and an hour or so from Old San Juan. Traffic can be bad and also vary quite a bit depending on the time of day. We stayed at the Hyatt Vacation Club at Hacienda del Mar and the Embassy Suites by Hilton Dorado del Mar Beach Resort. The main reason we ended up moving to the Embassy Suites was that the Hyatt didn’t have rooms available our entire stay, so we found somewhere nearby that looked nice.
What I will say is that the Hyatt was much nicer than the Embassy Suites. The rooms were newer, there was laundry, a full kitchen, a nicer beach, pool, etc. and it was only about $50 more per night! So we ended up moving back our last night to enjoy the Hyatt for one more day! The only downside to it was the sleeping situation. It had a room with a King bed and then a queen pullout. The pull out sleeper sofa wasn’t the best, but it worked and everything else made it worth it!
For food, the Embassy did have a breakfast that was included and also a free drink/snack every afternoon which was nice. The Hyatt had a restaurant/bar that served breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but you had to pay for everything.
When we go to Puerto Rico again, I would love to stay at an Air Bnb in Fajardo or somewhere near Rincon on the far west side. I would also visit the islands of Vieques or Culebra… so maybe we need to go back a few times! Dorado was a great first stop and I highly recommend the Hyatt.
Activities
We were only in Puerto Rico for four full days and one half day. Our last day was a full travel day. So we had four days to plan activities. We decided to do two beach days and two “activity” days and put the beach days first and last because we wanted to be able to relax more at those points of the trip. We did Old San Juan for a day and then drove to El Yunque, the only rainforest that is part of the US park service.
As we were checking into our hotel, Brett mentioned to the guy that we would be heading to Old San Juan for the day and he recommended taking the ferry out of Cataño. It’s $5 to park in the ferry lot and $1.00/person round trip. They said that it would be much cheaper and faster to take the ferry vs. driving and finding parking (which can be expensive and difficult) in Old San Juan. We had a great experience doing this and it was only a 15 minute ride. You can get the schedule ahead of time and plan accordingly.
Once we got to Old San Juan, we didn’t have a great plan and just ended up walking the cobblestone streets. Wear comfortable shoes! We started by the water/fountains, and then made our way into some of the beautiful neighborhoods to see the shops, the colorful buildings, and the cats! So many cats! We ate lunch before we left, but stopped at Señor Paleta for a popsicle! We also visited the El Morro fort from the outside and the large space surrounding it. Our day ended with amazing gluten (and dairy free option) pizza from La Masa Pizzería.
Visiting El Yunque and having a day of adventure was number one on my list for our visit to Puerto Rico. It came highly recommended! We ended up using Viator and doing a half day tour. We met our tour guide at a local grocery store and then followed her into El Yunque and parked. It was a 1.5 mile hike (medium difficulty) in to get to the activities and a 1.5 mile hike out.
The activities were a blast! We did a natural water slide, a cliff jump, and rope swing! It was a blast and such an adventure. Our girls (age 12) did great with it!! We saw younger kids, but I’d probably recommend it for kids at least 8 or older. There are some parts of the climb/hike and the activities that are a little more intense.
I got questions on what we wore, so I thought I’d address that as well. Plan to get really dirty! It’s muddy and part of the hike is through water. So wear clothes you don’t care about as much. For shoes, the girls and I wore water shoes and Brett wore Keen style shoes. We hiked in them and wore them for our activities. I would not wear tennis shoes. They would feel too soggy and not be comfortable to wear! Brett also wore a backpack and we were able to carry some things in! We thought we would need bug spray, but there were essentially no bugs. Our guide told us that hurricane Maria killed 70-80% of the bug populations. I don’t think there was a single bug I saw during our time in El Yunque.
Other than that, we spent time at the private Hyatt beach and played in the waves. It was like a wave pool at the water park, but way better. The water was warm, the waves were amazing, and we had the best time. A man also recommended Playa Puerto Nuevo and said it was the best beach around Dorado, but we didn’t have time to check it out. So if you stay in Dorado and don’t have a good beach at your hotel or stay, I’d check that one out!
Food
Because the Hyatt had a kitchen inside our room, we actually went to the grocery store and bought food to make in our room. The local Super Max had a lot of great (gluten free) options and had everything we needed. We ate most of our breakfasts and lunches in the room. We also ate at the Mahi Mahi restaurant at our resort and got quite a few drinks/snacks throughout the day.
As for restaurants in Dorado, we ate at Don Tako and La Terraza. Don Tako had your traditional tacos, nachos, etc. The chips and guac were great! La Terraza was a more up scale restaurant with some traditional Puerto Rican Food and good drinks! We tried the mofongo, which is a must and Brett got some fish and plantains! I highly recommend La Terraza if you’re in Dorado.
We also went to La Masa Pizzería in Old San Juan and loved it. They have gluten free crust and dairy free cheese options. The pizza was delicious!
Puerto Rico Guide… hasta la próxima
I will absolutely be going back to Puerto Rico! A lot of people asked if we felt safe, and we did! Most people also speak English if that’s a concern for you. I got to use my Spanish a few times, but we would have been ok if I didn’t speak Spanish. Puerto Rico is so tropical and I love that it’s not all that far away. We can’t wait for our next visit!! I hope this Puerto Rico Guide has been helpful. We are starting to build our content as we travel more in hopes of being a resource for you. You can see other places we have traveled, both locally and afar here.
