Is there anything better? Your first full day of vacation? We wasted no time hitting the ground running on Friday.
Old San Juan
When you're planning a big day exploring, you have to get started with a nice breakfast. Pannes is an all-day breakfast/diner style restaurant that is less than a block down from the Renaissance La Concha Resort and other resorts in new San Juan. They specialize in coffee and have a large breakfast menu that is served all day. Audrey chose the Nutella and fruit pancakes while I hit the breakfast tacos. We found this place on our first trip to San Juan and will hit it almost each morning. There's no shortage of great breakfast spots here, but this one is most certainly our favorite.
Following breakfast, we did a little blogging and content before catching a taxi to Old San Juan. For those unfamiliar, there is old San Juan and new San Juan. The newer area is where most of the beach resorts, hotels, and casinos are located. Old San Juan is historic as you might be able to decipher from the name. It's a beautiful area with cobblestone streets, forts, boutiques, bakeries, and more. Some people choose to stay in Old San Juan and if you are looking for that experience, it's certainly not a bad idea. We always choose to stay in new San Juan. We can enjoy the beach and resort and take a simple $20 taxi ride any time we want to visit the old area.
First time visitors shouldn't miss Old San Juan. We like to start at Castillo San Felipe del Morro. It's an original Spanish fort that overlooks the entrance into San Juan Harbor. The views of the coast line are on another level and the fort is something to behold. My recommendation is to take a taxi to the fort, then walk around and explore from there. The fort is at the top of the hill and you can work your way back down hill to other areas without having to trek up and down the slopes.
A self-guided walking tour is all you need in this area. It's safe and the walk along the narrow cobblestone streets will be worth every step you take.
We always opt for the "self-guided culinary walking tour". That's fancy talk for we walk around and find good food. One of my favorite things eat in Puerto Rico is the Empanadas or Empanadillas. A fried pastry with your choice of filling. We stopped at a food truck near the Harbor and picked up a couple of them for lunch. Our filling of choice was pizza and chicken respectively. Both were delicious. Don't miss these if you are ever in the area. Good ones are not hard to find, they are available everywhere.
Following lunch and a nice walk around the streets of Old San Juan, we jumped in a taxi and headed back to the resort. Again, total roundtrip for this ride was $50 after tip or $25 with tip each way.
La Concha Renaissance Resort
Our go-to for accommodations while staying pre-cruise here is the La Concha Renaissance Resort. It's a Marriott property located in the Condado Beach area of new San Juan. It's got a private beach, infinity pools, dining, fitness, and an onsite casino.
A major reason for staying here is the service and quality of the hotel. The staff is super friendly and the rooms and interior of the property are nice, clean, and unique. Ocean views from the rooms are terrific and if you want to unwind with a drink, the infinity pools overlook the beach so you can be in the water looking at the ocean without battling the surf or getting sandy. Bar service is readily available at the pools, and again, the servers are extremely friendly and energetic.
Any hotel on the beach in San Juan is going to pricey, but in terms of the same category of hotel, it's as affordable as any but you still get a quality experience. It's a great place to relax and get into vacation mode pre-cruise.
Upcoming Content
On Saturday, we don't have a ton planned. We are going to enjoy the infinity pool, rest a little from a busy walking day on Friday, and prepare to board Voyager of the Seas on Sunday. Our content tomorrow will be a preview of our upcoming cruise, more explorations from Puerto Rico, and more.
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