Considering that i am half Puerto Rican, other half Italian. I have been wanting to visit the gorgeous islands for years. This year, San Juan happened to be our top pick for our yearly family summer vacation! I was super excited!
I didn't really know what to expect on this trip. I thought Puerto Rico was mostly just beaches and cute little family owned resturants, maybe a few forts. I was actually surprised to see that San Juan is very urbanized. Tons of building, resuraunts, traffic, shopping, bars, and plastic surgery. Odd right? Its one of the first things that i noticed while driving to our hotel from the airport. Billboard after billboard of recommended doctors and pictures of fake boobs everywhere haha. I thought it was interesting.
I had a lot more fun on this trip than i planned. I knew the drinking age there was 18 because one of my best friends, Camila, basically lives there and always tells me her stories. Drinking is very laid back in PR, very different from where I'm from. I appreciated that, and i actually had more fun with it feeling like something i was allowed to do. Where i live, if you are drinking under the age, its a "huge deal." Not really, but people my age like to make it feel that way. They post it all over social media and get blacked out to make themselves feel cool. I don't like that. In PR, its legal! So kids don't show it off and try so hard to make it a big deal. Its a laid back thing that we all do for a little fun. I miss that. Its also so different and almost empowering, empowering? I don't know if thats the right word to use lol, but it just felt nice to just be able to walk up to any bar and order a cranberry vodka. No ID no questions no stress. It made me feel more mature and if you know me personally, i am a very maturing person. I don't know if thats the right word choice either haha. I'm a pretty independent person and others would say that I'm pretty mature for my age. I just really want to be 24 already. I just want to get married and travel and have cute babies and live life happily. I don't like all this in-between time, i feel like its point less. So, i loved that aspect of doing mature things and feeling like the adult that i am.
Back to the trip- Sorry i get so sidetracked! We fit a lot of stuff into the 5 days we were there, so i am going to give you a list of all our travel details:) Let me know if this post is helpful to you guys or if you ever/or have ever visited San Juan!
Hotel- We stayed at the Caribe Hilton, which is a part of the Condado Lagoon Villas property. Kinda confusing, but either way, you will still have access to everything they have to offer. This hotel was breathtaking, i highly recommend it. We spent more time at our hotel then we did out doing stuff just because it had everything! This hotel had its own private beach just for its guest, and huge pool which is really 3 pools in one, with a swim up bar. Also, a second private pool on the other side of the hotel. A beautiful bar in the lobby with unforgettable views, and super friendly bartenders that will give you advice on what to do on your trip :) Tons of seating and complimentary fruit infused water. That was defintley bonus points for me. 7 restaurants (a really cool sushi one called Lemongrass, GET THE SENSI ROLL!!!) Including Starbucks and Quiznos for quick services. Lots of shopping, and lots of wildlife. Im a huge animal lover so seeing that they had iguanas, parrots, a turkey, a rooster, fish, and lots of ducks on property made me really happy.
I didn't really know what to expect on this trip. I thought Puerto Rico was mostly just beaches and cute little family owned resturants, maybe a few forts. I was actually surprised to see that San Juan is very urbanized. Tons of building, resuraunts, traffic, shopping, bars, and plastic surgery. Odd right? Its one of the first things that i noticed while driving to our hotel from the airport. Billboard after billboard of recommended doctors and pictures of fake boobs everywhere haha. I thought it was interesting.
I had a lot more fun on this trip than i planned. I knew the drinking age there was 18 because one of my best friends, Camila, basically lives there and always tells me her stories. Drinking is very laid back in PR, very different from where I'm from. I appreciated that, and i actually had more fun with it feeling like something i was allowed to do. Where i live, if you are drinking under the age, its a "huge deal." Not really, but people my age like to make it feel that way. They post it all over social media and get blacked out to make themselves feel cool. I don't like that. In PR, its legal! So kids don't show it off and try so hard to make it a big deal. Its a laid back thing that we all do for a little fun. I miss that. Its also so different and almost empowering, empowering? I don't know if thats the right word to use lol, but it just felt nice to just be able to walk up to any bar and order a cranberry vodka. No ID no questions no stress. It made me feel more mature and if you know me personally, i am a very maturing person. I don't know if thats the right word choice either haha. I'm a pretty independent person and others would say that I'm pretty mature for my age. I just really want to be 24 already. I just want to get married and travel and have cute babies and live life happily. I don't like all this in-between time, i feel like its point less. So, i loved that aspect of doing mature things and feeling like the adult that i am.
Back to the trip- Sorry i get so sidetracked! We fit a lot of stuff into the 5 days we were there, so i am going to give you a list of all our travel details:) Let me know if this post is helpful to you guys or if you ever/or have ever visited San Juan!
Hotel- We stayed at the Caribe Hilton, which is a part of the Condado Lagoon Villas property. Kinda confusing, but either way, you will still have access to everything they have to offer. This hotel was breathtaking, i highly recommend it. We spent more time at our hotel then we did out doing stuff just because it had everything! This hotel had its own private beach just for its guest, and huge pool which is really 3 pools in one, with a swim up bar. Also, a second private pool on the other side of the hotel. A beautiful bar in the lobby with unforgettable views, and super friendly bartenders that will give you advice on what to do on your trip :) Tons of seating and complimentary fruit infused water. That was defintley bonus points for me. 7 restaurants (a really cool sushi one called Lemongrass, GET THE SENSI ROLL!!!) Including Starbucks and Quiznos for quick services. Lots of shopping, and lots of wildlife. Im a huge animal lover so seeing that they had iguanas, parrots, a turkey, a rooster, fish, and lots of ducks on property made me really happy.
Sightseeing- Old San Juan was probably our favorite place to visit while on our trip. Those pictures that you first saw on this post were from there. You really can't go to San Juan without visiting this historic place. Lots of gorgeous colorful buildings, lots of shopping and restaurants, i recommend Mojitos. They even have a Marshalls, Walgreens, Rainbow, and tons of other urban shops! It is a happening place to be. We walked around, looked, shopped, and enjoyed some traditional Puerto Rican food.
We reserved one of the days on our trip to visit El Yunque National Rainforest. We booked a tour online with a private guide. El Yunque is about 45 minutes away from San Juan so its a little bit of a drive, but it went by quickly. Our tour guide picked us up at our hotel and on our way we were! It was very hot, very interesting and super fun! I got to see a waterfall!
My sister and I decided that to really experience Puerto Rico, we needed to go out. We heard from a few people that Club Brava was a really classy and safe place to go and have a good time. They were right! Brava is located inside San Juan Hotel, about 15 minutes from where we stayed. We took a $20 taxi ride there and back. And it was $20 each to get inside. Thankfully we got in touch with a promoter so we got in with him and spent the whole night in VIP, so we didn't have to pay for entry or drinks, thankfully. Thats the right way to experience PR haha. We were broke by the end of the night because of those taxi rides, but it didn't really matter cause we had an unforgettable time. I love how everyone dresses up really fancy in dresses and stilettos there. I feel like thats how it should be. Where i live, people wear high waisted shorts and a crop top to the club. Take me back to Puerto Rico someoneeeeee. I love my heels.
Bottles of white Bacardi currently sold in the United States are labeled "Puerto Rican Rum," and their contents are produced by the world's largest distillery, in San Juan! So of course we couldn't go to San Juan and not visit the distillery! We saved the last day of our trip to book our tour so that we could get drunk and then fall asleep on the flight back home. Good idea, right? Hahaha I'm just kidding. Maybe.
Anyways, that was super enjoyable! We chose the mixer tour so we learned how to make a mojito, a rum coke, and this other one which was so strong i almost threw up tasting it. Never again. I now have an official Bacardi bartending certificate, woohoo!
I really hope you guys enjoyed this post! I worked really hard on it! Im also really sorry if the pictures look a bit blurry, they are fully hd pictures but for some reason when i upload them on here they turn blurry and i don't know how to fix it:(
I also vlogged a little bit of our trip so don't forget to check that out below! Please leave me a comment on this blog post so i know that atleast someone read to the bottom:)
ily xoxo Stephanie