avvdixon

Yes, I would be interested to know this as well! Thanks!

This sounds like a great plan! Can you tell me which hotel you went to? Thanks

OSJ is a culinary hot zone. There are dozens of restaurants and bars of all kinds from the inexpensive to the break your wallet type and everything in between. Think of any type of world cuisine and more than likely there's a restaurant for that (except maybe Indian and Thai). You will definitely not go hungry in OSJ.

 

Ahhh...so you know of la Placita!! It doesn't get any better that that for a few drinks under the stars with great latin music and a festival-like atmosphere every weekend. For those who don't know, some people bring their own instruments and jam together for hours. Sometimes you actually find salsa artists jamming along. The vibe is good, the music is great and the drinks are mostly on the cheap side. Stay near "the market" in the center of all the action since the pubs with music more geared towards the younger crowd are located on the peripheral streets.

 

I don't know if they have luggage storage or not but the Marriott Stellaris in Condado have day passes where you can use the beach, loungers and pool facilities. That would be the closest to port. There's also a place in Isla Verde and/or Ocean Park that's a beach club type of place but I forgot the name. I do know it was on someone's review a few months back (one of Mitsugirly's maybe??).

 

It doesn't get any more grass-roots than Guavate. Excellent choice!! Guavate is littered with awesome places to eat. But not all of them are in the top part of the mountain. There's El Mojito which is almost a stone's throw away from the highway 52. Once you take the exit for road 184, turn left at the intersection and start up the mountain. The restaurant will be on your right in less than a quarter mile. Further up you will find the center of the "pork highway" where there are a bunch of restaurants almost side by side. Two of the oldest and most popular are El Rancho Original and Lechonera Los Pinos. If you go, get there before noon or else traffic will be a pain once you get near the lechoneras. As a hint, when ordering your pork, ask for meat from the ribs or "costillal". This is where the most tender and tastier meat is from. If you dare, ask for an ear. It is the most tasty, fried pork rind you will ever taste!!

THANK YOU!! When we travel, our goal is always to learn about the culture, people, food, and music of our destinations. We do the museums and touristy things to learn as much as possible, but then we also like to get off the beaten path and try to get a local's "perspective". One of our favorite memories from our honeymoon in Cancun & Cozumel was after dinner in downtown Cancun ( we never ate at the resort, we always went in town for food and many times were the only tourists in the place) we were walking and happened upon a talent show of some type. We sat down in the park with the rest of the locals and enjoyed the singing and dancing & I tried to understand as much as possible with my rusty Spanish - it was magical.

I'm glad you like our ideas for La Placita and Guavate. I was hoping they would be the local flavor we are wanting. I appreciate the tips on ordering, too!! Hopefully, we will come again and I can pick your brain for exploring the Western side of the island. Wish we had more time this trip, but as you experienced already, it's going to be a busy itinerary as is!

Loved reading this review and for all of the helpful information and pictures!! We'll be there in 2 weeks!

We are arriving on Friday at 6:00am and plan on spending the day in OSJ and at the forts/museums. Already have your restaurant suggestions in the itinerary! I know it will be a tiring day, but we're planning to have some long, lingering meals/drinks to relax and rest our feet throughout the day. Hoping we can last long enough to go to the Placita for a little dancing in the evening as we both love salsa.

Saturday morning we are renting a car and heading to El Yunque for some hiking and then Luquillo for beach in the afternoon. We have a hotel in Luquillo. Sunday morning we were going to do a really early hike at El Yunque and then head to Guavate for the lechoneras before heading back for the cruise ship (we signed up for late embarkation time).

Questions: Suggestions for a favorite lechonera in Guavate?

Also, we got a red eye flight back to U.S. at 1:00am on Monday after our cruise. This gives us all day on Sunday to relax and we were hoping for a beach day. Having a hard time finding a place where we can just use the beach and hopefully pool area while storing our luggage for the day. I called the Intercontinental & they said we'd have to call the day of for availability. I don't want to take a chance on being stuck for an entire day with luggage and no place to go! Any ideas?

Thanks for the great report so far. I read mitsugirlys & that lead me to yours. We will be doing this itinerary in March and I'm anxiously gathering information for the trip. Originally I thought we'd be heading to Magens Bay but I'm struggling to decide between Coki and Magens now! We love to snorkel, but will be traveling on land for part of the day as well. I thought we'd just spend 2 hours enjoying Magens Bay and leave the snorkeling to St. Lucia, but now I'm contemplating Coki. Have you been to Magens? What are your thoughts?