I have to confess… until very recently, I had been sleeping on Puerto Rico. A gorgeous tropical island on the northeast side of the Caribbean, Puerto Rico is a US territory, and thus, came on our radar when we were looking for a beach vacation to celebrate our February wedding anniversary. Our TEN YEAR anniversary! In February 2021, international travel was still heavily monitored due to COVID-19, and I was unwilling to risk getting stuck far away from our children if (heaven forbid) one of us tested positive before a return flight home. I love traveling with the kids, but we are fortunate enough to have family that can watch them for a long weekend…and a wedding anniversary is the PERFECT time to take advantage.
Puerto Rico quickly became our preferred destination as we looked at pictures of sun-drenched beaches on Instagram and read about the history of Old San Juan. We knew that there would be more than enough to keep us busy, and all with picturesque scenery. Pampering was a priority, so we decided to find a beachfront resort close to San Juan. But we still wanted some adventure, so we planned to rent a car one day and drive to a few popular attractions around the island. Looking back, that second part was very ambitious!
We booked a four night stay at the Courtyard by Marriott Isla Verde Beach Resort, and I could not have been happier with our vacation! The luxury of travel without kids means we could stay in an actual resort hotel and not worry about early morning wake ups, routines, food preferences, or bedtimes. Just relaxation! The only requirements we had when booking a room were a beachfront balcony and an active pool scene, and the resort certainly lived up to that expectation. We spent every morning on the balcony, enjoying the views and watching the activity along the beach, and part of every day lounging by the pool, ordering drinks from the swim up bar, and chatting with other vacationers.
Day 1
A few weeks leading up to our trip, we made COVID test appointments at a local clinic. At that time, Puerto Rico was requiring negative test results within 24 hours prior to entry for every person including Americans. But then we really lucked out and one week before our vacation, this requirement was lifted, and we were able to travel to Puerto Rico with our vaccination cards as the only requirement. Before booking our flights, I did not realize how far east Puerto Rico was in the Caribbean. (I am sadly bad at geography.) Our direct flight from Houston was almost five hours! However, five hours well spent considering the upgrade in locale.
Getting through the San Juan airport and hopping into an Uber was easy enough. Isla Verde is to the east of San Juan, so it was a short ~15 minute drive to the resort. We noted restaurants and bars along the way in case we wanted to leave the resort at any point. Checking into our room was also easy, and we quickly found ourselves on our beachfront balcony admiring the turquoise water and sandy coastline. Despite it being mid afternoon by now, there were still many people on loungers in the beach in front of our resort, and there were also some surfers catching waves down the beach. Before enjoying the property ourselves, we ran to a nearby grocery store to stock our room with supplies – snacks and drinks. Fortunately Uber is super accessible around San Juan, so this errand was really quick.
After settling into the hotel room, we made a beeline for the resort pool. We spent a relaxing afternoon/evening lounging around the pool and taking advantage of the pool swim up bar. Eventually we couldn’t wait any longer for dinner and decided to eat at one of the hotel restaurants. During our visit, the Marriott had two restaurants open for business. (I think more might be open when COVID is not such a concern.) One restaurant has a fancier menu with steaks, seafood, and some local specialties, and they have indoor and outdoor seating. The other restaurant is a more casual affair, serving bar bites, some seafood dishes, and also some local specialties. This restaurant serves food poolside, beachside, and also some tables overlooking the beach. We opted for the casual menu, and dined at one of the tables overlooking the beach and the pool. Our dinner was perfect. The wine and our dinners were delicious. Scott ordered a mofongo (a Puerto Rican dish), and I had a delectable red fish. During dinner we made a big decision about the rest of our trip… we wanted to spend most of our time at the resort. We cancelled our car rental and our plans to sightsee beyond San Juan. We already knew we would come back to Puerto Rico – with the kids in tow – and we’d be able to be more adventurous then. What’s something that CAN’T be done when kids are in tow? Relax at a beach resort for days on end…. So we decided to lean into that.
Day 2
Happy Anniversary to us! Cheers to ten years! The day started out idyllic. Sleeping in, checking on the kids (doing awesome), watching our wedding video (tradition), and mimosas on the balcony. The morning was totally blissful, and the relaxation continued into the afternoon. We spent the bulk of the day lounging by the pool. I took a wonderful hours long nap, we ordered a late lunch, partook in fruity beverages from the pool bar, and met some interesting other resort guests.
In the late afternoon, we headed back upstairs to get cleaned up for dinner. To further celebrate our anniversary, we had dinner reservations at a highly rated restaurant in San Juan called Luisa. Dinner was such a treat. We started with cocktails and mussels, followed by our main courses. Scott enjoyed his steak, and I was very impressed with my dish – an interesting chickpea stew topped with a buttery fish filet. The wine was great too. We didn’t even have room for dessert at the end of the meal.
Between our leisurely morning, relaxing afternoon, and delicious dinner, this was my favorite anniversary so far! We thought we might cap off the night playing some slots in the hotel casino but ended up crashing early instead.
Day 3
After an early-is night before, we woke up ready for some sightseeing! We wanted to explore Old San Juan, and knew that wandering around the historic district would be more pleasant in the morning before the strong afternoon sun kicked in. Based on some advice I read online, we took an Uber straight to Plaza de Colon, one of the main squares in Old San Juan. This was advised to be a good meeting spot for taxis and Ubers and would be a good starting point for touring the area.
Old San Juan was stunning! The buildings were colorful and had unique architecture. The cobblestone streets had a distinct blue color. These cobblestones, also known as adoquines, were made from ballast material carried over in European ships, which was removed from the ships to be replaced with gold and jewels from the New World. We tried to follow a certain route through Old San Juan to catch all the main sights on our list, but we ended up weaving around and circling back around some areas. The area was very walkable and so scenic that we didn’t mind all the extra steps.
Our first stop was Calle de la Fortaleza. This name might not ring a bell, but I’m sure you’ve at least seen pictures of this street (which leads up to governor’s residence) with one of its famous art installations. Most notably, the street is often covered with bright, colorful hanging umbrellas or with a giant, long Puerto Rican flag. Unfortunately on our visit, they must have been in between installations because the street was bare. We could see the wiring where the decor normally hangs but nothing on this trip.
Then we strolled a bit north and passed by the Hotel El Convento, an actual former convent, and the Cathedral Basilica Manor de San Juan Bautista. It looked like the church was preparing for some type of ceremony, so we didn’t attempt to go inside. After that we walked past some of the famous street art and eventually reached the north edge of Old San Juan.
From the north side of Old San Juan, we could see the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery and beyond that, the Castillo San Felipe del Morro (also known as “El Morro” for short). The view was nothing short of stunning. We followed the busy street that curves along the north edge of the city toward the fortress. We admired the ocean views as we passed the cemetery and eventually reached the edge of the fortress grounds. It was a LONG walk from there up to El Morro and being on an exposed jut of land, SO WINDY (hold onto your hats, Scott almost lost his). Once we reached the fortress gates, we decided the view was enough for us and opted to turn around. There were fees for entrance to El Morro and we didn’t think we would want to stay long enough to be worth it.
Instead of heading directly south from El Morro, we kept following the coastline down and were rewarded with more scenic plazas, sculptures, and lookout posts on top of the city wall. We also caught glimpse of no less than 13 stray cats. Cats seem to be way more populous here than dogs (we saw two the entire trip). After a short time, we could see the Puerta de San Juan. This is a colorful gate that connects historic Old San Juan to the surrounding city outside the wall, and this gate is the only one that still exists. We walked through the gate and posed for pictures and enjoyed the views of the bay.
At this point, it was getting close to lunch, so we decided to walk back north a try to find a place overlooking the ocean. On the north side of the city, we decide to wander into an area called La Perla. This is a vibrantly colorful neighborhood (historically a shantytown) on the outside of the city walls, hugging the coastline, making for a gorgeous sight. We were on the slightly early side for lunch, so nothing in La Perla was open yet. But we found a cute corner place back in Old San Juan, La Vergüenza Viejo San Juan. They had clear views of the ocean, music was blasting, and tacos were incredible. This was just what we had in mind for a lively lunch break. We rounded out our visit with some souvenir shopping and headed back to Isla Verde.
All our activity this morning had us craving more pool time, so we snagged a couple loungers and spent the rest of the day enjoying the resort. We even got to know the resort’s two resident iguanas. Quite a jolt waking up from a pool nap to one of these guys next to me!
Day 4
Besides a couple brief dips in the waves, we hadn’t spent any significant time on the beach yet, so that was the goal for our last full day in Puerto Rico. Staking our claim on two beach chairs was easy enough since we headed down first thing in the morning, and the resort staff was on hand to help with umbrella setup. Our morning was so peaceful. We relaxed in our chairs, read our books, and dove into the water when we got too hot. The resort started food and beverage service at 11am – full service at the beach too – so we ordered a round of snacks and drinks to fuel us through the early part of the day.
Most of our beach trips the past few years have been at destinations with less than ideal swimming conditions, so swimming in the ocean here was such a treat. The water wasn’t the crystal clear turquoise in other parts of the Caribbean, but it was still beautiful. We had to wade through some patches of seaweed at the shoreline, but then there was an abrupt drop in the ocean floor and the water was great for swimming. Just deep enough to make it fun (about chest deep) and clear from all the seaweed. We noticed the patches of seaweed during our entire stay. We could see the shadows from our balcony, and they always remained right at the shoreline. The tide felt pretty strong, but the waves were powerful. We never saw seaweed washed up on shore, so we wondered if that combination was a perfect balance keeping the seaweed hovering just off the edge of the beach.
In the afternoon, we wanted to mix things up a little bit, so we took a long walk down the beach to a local brewery where we could taste some new beers and enjoy lunch. Ocean Lab Brewery was about a 10 minute walk from the resort, passing through the Isla Verde public beach/park. The brewery was part of a beach club complex but was open for visitors. The food and beer were yummy, and the view of the ocean from our balcony table couldn’t be beat. I was also having fun people watching at the beach club spread out below us. If we didn’t have an amazing resort to return to, this place looked like a great way to spend your day.
As we were finishing up our lunch, we noticed some rain clouds in the distance, so we tried to speed up our exit and get back to the resort before the rain. We didn’t even come close! About half way back to the resort, we were caught in an afternoon shower. At least we were in our beach attire, so nothing got ruined. It was actually pretty funny that we tried so hard to beat the rain and it ended up raining on us for maybe five minutes tops. The raincloud was moving that fast! By the time we made it back to our resort the rain had already passed by and it was sunny again. We returned to our beach chairs and spent more time relaxing on the beach and at the pool.
Our original plan for dinner was to eat at one of the hotel restaurants. Apparently we majorly underestimated the Monday night dinner crowd, haha, because the hotel lobby and restaurants were packed when we came down to snag a table. The wait for a table was super long, so we reconsidered our plans and decided to go out offsite. This ended up being a blessing in disguise because we ended up with yet another delicious meal, this time at Metropol, an authentic Puerto Rican restaurant near the resort. We both ordered different versions of mofungo and ate wayyy too much. It was just SO GOOD! We stopped for a nightcap at a dive-y bar on the way back to our hotel; 101 East Bar & Lounge was a fun stop. Blasting American 90s hits, crowded with both locals and tourists, and decent drink prices, we had a great time! Our last night in Puerto Rico was a success.
Day 5
Leaving Puerto Rico was so bittersweet. The island was gorgeous and rich with culture and history, and I knew that we had barely scratched the surface. However, our (not so little) babies were back in Houston, and I was dying to wrap them in hugs and kisses. The only thing that made leading Puerto Rico slightly better was knowing that we WILL be back, next time with the kids in tow, and we will get to explore much more of this tropical gem. So, until next time!
