Help for first timers in port

we will be in SAN Juan in a few weeks between 7 and 3.

We will have our kids with us and would love to explore a bit of the City. I know they have the trolleys are these pretty good and frequen post hurricane or are we better just walking off an paying a private taxi?

Let me know if this plan is ok

Take them to cristobal fort(the one closest to port) then walk the streets maybe find a mice place to get authentic food and do a spot of shopping.

So I have done little to no research on this port mainly because we are beach lovers

What things should I include to see? Is everything walking distance keep in mind I have kids who I’m sure will be bored or not want to walk. My husband and I would do it by foot

Is the fort near old San Juan or elsewhere

And what is the main strip we should walk down for shops? I’d love to see some of those beautiful coloured buildings little cobble streets shutters

We don’t want a beach club nor a zip line or rainforest we want to see San Juan and taste food.

Any restaurant recommendations would help I’m just going off TripAdvisor

Here’s what my family did two weeks ago during an 8-4 stop. Hopefully, it’s helpful to you.

A couple weeks before our trip, I reached out to Puerto Rico Tourism Company via email at contact@tourism dot pr dot gov. (Not sure if I’m allowed to type out email addresses here.) I asked them to mail a map to me to help me plan my walking tour, and they ended up sending three great maps. I chose one and marked it up with the places I wanted to see. Well, guess what I forgot at home and where my first stop was when we arrived! Fortunately, Puerto Rico Tourism Company is a logical first stop. While I recreated my tour on the map, my family checked out the jail cells.

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From there, we would have walked along Paseo de la Princesa, but as you can see from the picture below, the area was closed due to flood damage. I hear that it reopened this week.

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So instead, we headed inward to the historic city, stopping at this chapel that wasn’t open, Capilla del Santo Cristo.

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And then pigeon park...

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I didn’t take a picture of the governor’s mansion. Next was the cathedral...

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Colorful buildings everywhere...

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Unfortunately, the gate was also off limits due to the flooding, but I believe it’s open now.

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La Rogativa...

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More of the streets...

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We paid $7 per adult to tour Castillo San Felipe del Morro, and the entrance fee gets you into both forts/castles.

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We saw the cemetery from above and also walked down into it.

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We saw Totem Telurico in Quincentennial Plaza. From here we could also see San Jose Church, which was under construction but looked beautiful.

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We did all of this in about three hours, so it was about 11:00. Some people spend that much time at a single fort, but I knew my kids couldn’t handle that much sightseeing, so I kept us moving and planned a midday break for lunch at the beach to cool off and recharge. I got an Uber driver to take us to Kiosko El Borica for lunch with a beach just across the road. It’s a place I found online that’s popular with the locals. It’s just outside of San Juan towards Loiza along the beach road (25 minutes from the totem pole). It was a long wait, but the food did not disappoint.

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The beach across the street...

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We let our Uber driver convince us to not stay at that beach but to head to a section of Isla Verde Beach away from the hotels and directly across from the airport. I wished that I had stuck with my original plan closer to Loiza, but this beach was nice. Had we stuck with my original plan, my family could have been swimming while I waited for lunch, so we lost some time there.

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We had about two hours of beach time and arranged for the driver to pick us up at 2:00.

Next, our driver dropped us off at the other fort, which is closer to the port, Castillo San Cristobal. We had just under an hour to explore. My youngest loved the dungeon.

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We had a short walk back to the pier. Along the walk, we saw the statue of Christopher Columbus at Colon Plaza.

We did no shopping, so I can’t help you there. But I will add that I had a few places picked out for lunch in Old San Juan had we decided to stay there. Check out Casa Cortes Chocobar, Punto de Vista Restaurant and Bar, and Cafe Manolin.

I hope this helps!

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I don’t see my pictures. Do you?

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Let me try again.

Jail cells...

Paseo de la Princesa...

Chapel...

Pigeon Park...

Cathedral...

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Colorful buildings...

El Morro

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El Morro...

Cemetery...

Totem Pole...

Lunch...

Beach across from restaurant...

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Isla Verde...

San Cristobal...

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Omg amazing Thankyou I love the idea of organising the maps before you go.

Was it a lot of walking for the kids? I know everyone says it’s small walking around old Sam Juan is it really that small? Are Uber’s easy to find? Thankyou again

You are very welcome.

It was not a lot of walking. The stops that I planned in the morning were very close together, so we never had a long walk between anything. Had we gone straight from one fort to the other, that would’ve been a longer haul, but instead we used that as our midday break and hopped in an air conditioned SUV.

I used the Uber app to get a driver. They are not abundant. A taxi driver might me easier to haul down if you’re not using your phone.

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You have been a huge help Kelsey Thankyou

I’m thinking a walk around the old town first, down the board walk to the fountain then through the streets to find the cathedral, the statue and I wanna see the PR flag painted door as I love street art. Then use the free trolley ( hopefully they working ) to go to el Morro and Cristóbal

I am thinking I bypass Morro and just do Cristóbal unless it’s an absolute must. Then a nice long lunch for some PR food maybe a spot of shopping. Happy to give the beaches a miss here and focus on the city although I hear it’s hot I can already hear my 7 year old complaining haha

Sounds like a great plan! Both forts are beautiful, but if my youngest had to choose a favorite, it would be San Cristobal for the dungeon.

Can you see my thick, black dots on this map? Those are our stops. We started like you did but had to improvise with some closures.

This isn’t the map I used that day. Another one I got from the tourist company was even better, but I gave it to my mom. If you don’t get one in advance, I highly recommend stopping there on your way to the fountain.

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Oh Kelsey that’s great thankyou what a help you have been!!! I too was thinking Cristóbal only and if we feel up to it and have time to add Morro off the trolley rather than walking. I need to be sure to allow time to visit a jewellery store and treat myself to a tanzanite ring I hear they are beautiful!

I am really looking forward to this port now. My husband was thinking the kids can stay at kids club but I think for a bit of complaining they will get a lot more out of seeing Pr.

And you will have some amazing photo ops with the kids. Best of luck to you. Have fun!

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Here’s what my family did two weeks ago during an 8-4 stop. Hopefully, it’s helpful to you.

 

A couple weeks before our trip, I reached out to Puerto Rico Tourism Company via email at contact@tourism dot pr dot gov. (Not sure if I’m allowed to type out email addresses here.) I asked them to mail a map to me to help me plan my walking tour, and they ended up sending three great maps. I chose one and marked it up with the places I wanted to see. Well, guess what I forgot at home and where my first stop was when we arrived! Fortunately, Puerto Rico Tourism Company is a logical first stop. While I recreated my tour on the map, my family checked out the jail cells.

[ATTACH]417737[/ATTACH]

 

From there, we would have walked along Paseo de la Princesa, but as you can see from the picture below, the area was closed due to flood damage. I hear that it reopened this week.

[ATTACH]417738[/ATTACH]

 

So instead, we headed inward to the historic city, stopping at this chapel that wasn’t open, Capilla del Santo Cristo.

[ATTACH]417739[/ATTACH]

 

And then pigeon park...

[ATTACH]417740[/ATTACH]

 

I didn’t take a picture of the governor’s mansion. Next was the cathedral...

[ATTACH]417741[/ATTACH]

 

Colorful buildings everywhere...

[ATTACH]417742[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]417743[/ATTACH]

 

Unfortunately, the gate was also off limits due to the flooding, but I believe it’s open now.

[ATTACH]417744[/ATTACH]

 

La Rogativa...

[ATTACH]417745[/ATTACH]

 

More of the streets...

[ATTACH]417746[/ATTACH]

 

We paid $7 per adult to tour Castillo San Felipe del Morro, and the entrance fee gets you into both forts/castles.

[ATTACH]417747[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]417749[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]417750[/ATTACH]

 

We saw the cemetery from above and also walked down into it.

[ATTACH]417751[/ATTACH]

 

We saw Totem Telurico in Quincentennial Plaza. From here we could also see San Jose Church, which was under construction but looked beautiful.

[ATTACH]417752[/ATTACH]

 

We did all of this in about three hours, so it was about 11:00. Some people spend that much time at a single fort, but I knew my kids couldn’t handle that much sightseeing, so I kept us moving and planned a midday break for lunch at the beach to cool off and recharge. I got an Uber driver to take us to Kiosko El Borica for lunch with a beach just across the road. It’s a place I found online that’s popular with the locals. It’s just outside of San Juan towards Loiza along the beach road (25 minutes from the totem pole). It was a long wait, but the food did not disappoint.

[ATTACH]417753[/ATTACH]

 

The beach across the street...

[ATTACH]417754[/ATTACH]

 

We let our Uber driver convince us to not stay at that beach but to head to a section of Isla Verde Beach away from the hotels and directly across from the airport. I wished that I had stuck with my original plan closer to Loiza, but this beach was nice. Had we stuck with my original plan, my family could have been swimming while I waited for lunch, so we lost some time there.

[ATTACH]417755[/ATTACH]

 

We had about two hours of beach time and arranged for the driver to pick us up at 2:00.

 

Next, our driver dropped us off at the other fort, which is closer to the port, Castillo San Cristobal. We had just under an hour to explore. My youngest loved the dungeon.

[ATTACH]417757[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]417758[/ATTACH]

 

We had a short walk back to the pier. Along the walk, we saw the statue of Christopher Columbus at Colon Plaza.

 

We did no shopping, so I can’t help you there. But I will add that I had a few places picked out for lunch in Old San Juan had we decided to stay there. Check out Casa Cortes Chocobar, Punto de Vista Restaurant and Bar, and Cafe Manolin.

 

I hope this helps!

 

 

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Kelsey - Thank you so much for sharing your itinerary and the beautiful photos. I'm going to contact the tourism board tomorrow to ask for maps for our trip in August. Thanks again!

Now I am just playing the waiting game for those maps.. no big deal I suppose I can pick them up in the tourist centre

They never replied to my email, but the maps showed up in my mailbox in less than a week.

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Kelsey - Thank you so much for sharing your itinerary and the beautiful photos. I'm going to contact the tourism board tomorrow to ask for maps for our trip in August. Thanks again!

You’re welcome!

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Just to give an idea of the distance for walking ... it's .8 miles to Totem Telurico in Quincentennial Plaza from the downtown cruise port.

Wow! Awesome post. Thank you so much.

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So many wonderful things to see in San Juan. This is one of my favorite ports. I love history and this port is steeped full of it. Be sure to go to the forts and the beautiful churches.

My Hubs thought I was nuts but I also enjoyed walking through the cemetery by the big fort.

Some of those graves are hundreds of years old. They are very ornate and the statues are amazing! OSJ is beautiful and the people are very friendly, so don't be afraid to ask for recommendations from the locals.

We are headed back in about a month...I can't wait!

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You have been a huge help Kelsey Thankyou

I’m thinking a walk around the old town first, down the board walk to the fountain then through the streets to find the cathedral, the statue and I wanna see the PR flag painted door as I love street art. Then use the free trolley ( hopefully they working ) to go to el Morro and Cristóbal

I am thinking I bypass Morro and just do Cristóbal unless it’s an absolute must. Then a nice long lunch for some PR food maybe a spot of shopping. Happy to give the beaches a miss here and focus on the city although I hear it’s hot I can already hear my 7 year old complaining haha

Don't bypass El Morro!!! It's super cool!

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Great information!

Thanks for the info! Our trip is a long way out but I love the whole planning process and this was very helpful!

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I'm toting around many extra pounds (size 3XL) and had no problems walking to the fort in OSJ. We walked everywhere, including my 9 year old that hates walking. Not a peep out of her. We just broke it up into 1-2 blocks at a time. We headed left off the ship to paseo de la princessa for some cool pics, and stopped by again on the way back, because there was a little outdoor market and some food carts set up. Casa Cortez was our snack break - the churros were delicious! We headed up to the fort, and stopped at a fountain to take pictures with a huge lizard. After the fort, we walked back to the ship. It really isn't a bad walk, even considering that you're going uphill, if you break it up with several stops.

I don’t see my pictures. Do you?

 

 

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How far is the Isla Verde beach from the port? Can you rent chairs and umbrellas?

Any info would be helpful. Thanks!