Sunday New York Times to the rescue:
36 Hours
San Juan
By JULIA CHAPLIN
SAN JUAN is known for its clichés: big, gaudy casinos, honeymooners sipping rum punch on the beach and salsa bands at every turn. But avoid the tourist haunts, and you’re likely to find a more authentically pulsing Latin culture — a city of faded Art Deco neighborhoods, a growing contemporary art scene and emo reggaetón stars hiding out in dark corners of bars in Old San Juan.
Friday
6 p.m.
1) RICO SUAVE
No man should be caught after dark in the tropics without a proper guayabera, the loose fitting dress shirt that originated in Cuba and Mexico. And Clubman in the Santurce neighborhood (Avenida Ponce de León, 1116; 787-725-3680), which opened in the 1940’s, is the place to score one that’s both well crafted and rico-suave tailored. Antonio Navado, a knowledgeable salesman who has worked in the boutique since the beginning, will guide you through the in-house label offerings of long and short sleeves, linen and cotton and hues like pastel lime, canary yellow and cloud blue ($60 to $150).
9 p.m.
2) MAKING THE SCENE
O.K. Now you’re ready to strut your stuff at the hot, new restaurant of the moment. But don’t worry: the recently opened Boceto (Avenida Isla Verde, 7480; 787-268-2627) in the Isla Verde district is thankfully not another trendy lounge with wanna-be South Beach décor and blaring hip-hop. There are small gothic-chamberlike rooms with velvet couches, mosaics and carved wooden chairs that make perfect thrones for sampling the Spanish-skewed menu that includes tapas like zippy stripped bass ceviche ($14) and tropical root vegetable chips with tomato cancassé and mango sauce ($9).
11:30 p.m.
3) LADY LUCK
Bronzed Las Vegas types and women with a lot of leg and cleavage converge on Friday nights at the island’s most turned-out gambling palace, El San Juan Resort & Casino (Avenida Isla Verde, 6063; 787-791-1000; elsanjuanhotel.com). There are other casinos in many of the big hotels lining the beach in the Isla Verde district, like the InterContinental and the Ritz-Carlton, but none pack quite the same dolled-up punch. Having undergone a semirecent renovation El San Juan doesn’t skimp on sweeping cinematic gestures like gold cupolas, mirrored ceilings and a lot of carved mahogany and red marble. The blackjack tables, submerged in a smoke and alcohol haze, are all the more authentic with a salsa band performing nearby.
Saturday
Noon
4) FISH FOR BREAKFAST?
Why not? Beeline it to Tasca el Pescador in Santurce (Calle Dos Hermanos, 178; 787-7210995) among the brightly painted hole-in-the-wall restaurants surrounding the Plaza del Mercado, a traditional farmers’ market where vendors sell everything from tamarindo to yuca to sides of beef. Inside the hyper air-conditioned, florescent-lighted dining room (two mainstays of the Puerto Rico culinary experience) is a fully stocked old wooden bar and an array of colorful, fresh fish on ice. The owners, Antonio Nuñez, a retired matador, and his wife, Asunción Martínez, bring in fish daily from around the island. Standouts include a thick salmon fillet in guava sauce ($17.50) and a whole, sautéed local yellowtail ($18).
3 p.m.
5) NEW ARTISTS ON THE BLOCK
Five years ago San Juan’s contemporary art scene was practically nonexistent. That’s changing thanks to a handful of new galleries and collectors like César and Mima Reyes, who frequently play host to visiting artists like Jorge Pardo, Martin Creed and Cecily Brown. The galleries are mostly concentrated in the commercial stretches of Santurce, including Espacio 1414 (Avenida Fernández Juncos, 1414; 787-725-3899), which opened a year ago in a former Royal Tire warehouse with works by Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla(the Puerto Rico-based artists nominated for this year’s Hugo Boss Prize), Piotr Uklanski and Peter Halley. Desto (Calle Américo Salas, 1400; 787-633-3381; esigualdesto.com) is an artist-run space, and a few minutes into the Hato Rey area is TagRom (Calle Guayama, 13; 787-403-6603). But the most hive-like of the batch is Galería Comercial, (Avenida Fernández Juncos, 1412; 787-217-5848; galeriacomercialpr.com). When it’s not touring on the Art Basel circuit, it’s open in a weathered pink concrete building that doubles as an air-conditioned refuge for a new generation of the avant-garde handpicked from the local Escuela de Artes Plásticas by the young gallery owner Tito Rovira-Rullán.
5 p.m.
6) HIDING IN PLAIN VIEW
As in Havana and Miami, Art Deco flourished in San Juan in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. But unlike South Beach, there’s no quaint district with perky, pastel restorations. Avenida Ponce de León in Santurce is the best place to glimpse these dilapidated gems with their old paint and funky, machine-age shapes. Many of the retro buildings are derelict, while others have been drafted into service as beauty schools and office buildings. Park at the top of Ponce de León at the corner of Avenida Jose de Deigo and peer into the lobbies of the faded beauties at close range, including the sun-bleached pink Paramount Theater and the old Telegraph Building in all its streamline splendor.
9:30 p.m.
7) PLEASE, FEED ME
Old San Juan, built in the 1500’s by conquistadors, was once the turf of gangsters and drug dealers. Now, its colonial buildings and narrow cobblestone streets are popping with trendy restaurants, boutique hotels and bars that serve watermelon sangria. In SoFo (South of Fortaleza), there are dozens of painfully chic restaurants, like the bordello-themed Dragonfly (Calle Fortaleza, 364; 787-977-3886), which serves nouvelle Latino fusion fare, and Aguaviva (also at Calle Fortaleza, 364; 787-722-0665), which specializes in Latino seafood dishes. For a more laid-back experience, try the 40-seat Panza in the lobby of the new Chateau Cervantes (Calle Recinto Sur, 329; 787-724-7722), or 311 Trois Cent Onze, (Calle Fortaleza, 311; 787-725-7959; www.311restaurantpr.com). Owned by Christophe Gourdain, a former bar manager at Jean-Georges in New York, and Sylma Pérez, 311 has French-tropical dishes like mango and crab salad ($11) and Caribbean lobster tail with Champagne beurre blanc ($35). The décor of its 300-year-old building is noncliché tropical with a dark wood bar and banana leaves.
11:30 p.m.
8) NIGHT MOVES
Bar hoping in Old San Juan can feel a bit like pre-Katrina Bourbon Street, especially along Calle San Sebastián where on humid weekend nights it’s wall-to-wall with young women in microminis and reggaetón acolytes in baggy athletic jerseys. Barú (Calle San Sebastián, 150; 787-977-7107) and El Café Seda (Calle San Sebastián, 157; 787-724-7720) are among the most populated of the dozens of bars. But the in-crowd hides out behind the crumbling colonial facade of Marrero (Calle Sol, 270; 787-406-7205), where there is a jukebox in front and a pool table in back, the latter presided over by bleary-eyed regulars. If you can last till the wee hours, you might glimpse Residente Calle 13, an art school graduate who has become the island’s first intellectual-styled reggaetón star. He wears tattoos of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Matisse on his arms.
Sunday
10 a.m
9) DON’T WEAR THAT THONG
Where isn’t there a beach in San Juan? For soft sand sunbathing and easy, wave-free swimming, nothing beats Isla Verde. There’s a reason many of the luxury resorts, including the Ritz-Carlton, InterContinental and the Water Club, were built there. Sure the shoreline is built up with high-rise hotels and condos à la Miami Beach and the crowd tends to be on the pasty tourist side, but if you look out to sea you will hardly notice.
Noon
10) BACK TO THE FUTURE
Culture buffs should skip the museums — why travel all the way to Puerto Rico to spend the day indoors? Instead, drive to Puerta de Tierra and explore some of the great midcentury hotels. The Normandie (Avenida Muñoz Rivera Oeste 499; 787-729-2929; normandiepr.com) is an Art Deco extravaganza built in 1942 in the shape of the old French luxury liner. It has porthole windows and a tiled lounge that spills out onto a front deck. In the 1950’s, Toro Ferrer Arquitectos, a venerable Puerto Rican firm, designed the El Caribe Hilton (Calle Rosales, San Gerónimo Grounds; 787-721-0303; hiltoncaribbean.com/sanjuan) in a tropical International style with flirty curves and brightly painted concrete blocks that scream retro vacation. Unfortunately, the Hilton recently renovated away much of its original charm, but the bones and intention are still there.
2 p.m.
11) JET FUEL
Need a little pick me up before dealing with the airport? Puerto Rico takes its coffee seriously. Its arabica beans from the wet, mountainous regions are said to have a special richness. Connoisseurs abound at Panadería España Repostería in Isla Verde (Centro Comercial Villamar, Marginal Baldorioty de Castro;787-727-3860), an old-school, florescent-lighted cafeteria and bakery in a strip mall. Some of the most intoxicating café con leche ($1) is whipped up behind a metal counter there. Locals know it tastes even better with a thick slice of flan ($1.50) in coconut, vanilla or cheese.
The Basics
San Juan is just under four hours on a nonstop flight from New York and is served by the major airlines. Public transportation is scant, so you will need to rent a car or take cabs, which are plentiful and relatively inexpensive.
With its classic midcentury facade the InterContinental San Juan Resort & Casino (Avenida Isla Verde 5961; 787-791-6100; www.ichotelsgroup.com) is the best-looking hotel on the beach. The interior, however, is generic hotel chain with floral comforters and nondescript semiantique furniture. Still a room on an upper floor with an ocean view that seems to go on forever can’t be beat. Rooms start at $239.
The Normandie (Avenida Munoz Rivera Oeste 499; 787-729-2929; www.normandiepr.com) has survived multiple renovations and still retains its original over-the-top charm. Rooms start at $137.
Among the latest boutique hotels to open in Old San Juan’s SoFo district, the Chateau Cervantes (Calle Recinto Sur 329, 787-724-7722; www.cervantespr.com) is in a 16th-century building. The 12 rooms are cozy, with Art Deco-modern interiors and cast iron balconies that overlook the narrow streets below. Rooms start at $500.
― ianinportland (ianinportland), Monday, 30 October 2006 16:29 (seventeen years ago) link
six months pass...
five years pass...
one year passes...
Yeah, definitely go to Arecibo if you're at all a science/tech fan.
We stayed at these places:
http://villaherencia.com/ - Villa Herrencia in Old San Juan (This place was fucking fantastic but slightly pricy, worth it though.)
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review ... _Rico.html - San Juan Park Hotel (This was probably the best value for the money.)
http://www.copamarina.com/ - Resort outside of Guanica.
http://www.rainforestinn.com/ - Bed & breakfast outside of El Yunque. Really, really cool, friendly owners, beautiful views, loud as fuck tree frogs all night long.
Bear in mind it was my wife and I on honeymoon so ymmv as far as some of these places. There are lots and lots of options, of course.
I'd leave a day or two for San Juan itself, though you could easily do more. We wanted to get out and see the rest of the island so we rented a car and did the circuit all the way around. El Yunque is worth visiting, for sure, as is the dry forest near Guanica. I found the east coast of the island the most inviting, though we didn't make it to Vieques or the bioluminescent bays. If you go near Fajardo my suggestion is get some food and drinks here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/la-estacion-fajardo, it was fantastic. The pinxtos stands in some of the beach communities are amazing as well.
If you make it to Ponce the tour of the Serralles family home is worth taking, they're the originators of Don Q and Captain Morgan rum. A lot of Ponce was pretty depressing when I was there, though.
Also, if you're renting a car, be sure to get a really good map, because if you venture off the main roads shit gets confusing really fast.
That's all that springs to mind at the moment, I've been traveling the past few days and my mind is frazzled.
― dan m, Tuesday, 12 August 2014 12:37 (nine years ago) link
one year passes...
two weeks pass...
six months pass...
two years pass...
one year passes...