San Juan Self Tour Tips

[geminirand]

Hi All,

 

I just visited San Juan via a cruise this past week and thought to impart some wisdom. Our ship arrived at 3:30 and we had to be back on board by 10pm.

 

We did a self guided tour due to our cruise cancelling all water based excursions and everything else being sold out.

 

Walking out of Pier 4, we were greeted by a tour guide offering to take us to several places for $10 each, for a 10 minute stop at each. This is stupid for two reasons: 1) a free shuttle will take you around the city and is right by the pier, and 2) who wants only 10 minutes at each place?

 

We could easily see Fort Cristobal from the pier and it is super easy walking distance, though a bit uphill. There is a statue to take a photo of on the way. The fort was $3 a person and offered good views of the ship and town, plus a bunch of displays of period items, and a gift shop of course.

 

We caught the free shuttle along the northern road to El Morro, on the opposite side of old San Juan (a mile). If you get off at the bottom you can see the very interesting cemetary along the northern edge of the castle's land. Otherwise stay on board and the shuttle will drop you at the gates (we didn't realize that). This did not offer as much to see due to a lack of displays inside, so it is mostly a structure self-tour for another $3 a person. I think the cemetary, which you can see without entering, is more interesting, and the castle is better seen from the ocean on entering the bay. Then again, $3 a person isn't much. The bathrooms inside are good.

 

The free shuttle stops at 6pm, or 5:45 in our case, so we missed it and had to walk back into old San Juan, but this was a blessing in disguise. We saw a few more things to take photos of before finding the northwest corner of old town and visiting some shops. Our cruise line, Royal Carribean, gave us a map of shops that was easy enough to follow. We bought something at Venetian Jewelers and they did a pretty good deal on it.

 

We ate dinner at Barrachina, which had excellent Pina Coladas ($7) and quite good food, and fairly good service, though the waiter didn't come by to check on us very often. The AC was blowing right on me so that I changed seats. We asked for authentic Puerto Ricon cuisine, but only one dish was really that way: a "local menu" item (it is part of the menu). A linguine pasta dish was pretty much the same thing you'd get anywhere, though I liked it better than the authentic dish.

 

It was really hot, by the way, the breeze being your only break from it.

 

The walk back to the ship was quite easy even in the dark, and we took some great night photos of the ship before getting back on. We felt perfectly safe the whole time.

 

Let me know any questions and enjoy your visit to San Juan! :)

 

Rand

 

P.S. I will try to post some photos

[cruisinRNfromdenver]

Do you know where the Bacarrrdi distillery is, is it with in walking distance also or on the free shuttle route? Thanks for your helpful info.

[RayInPR]

Bacardi is not in Old San Juan. It is in the town of Catano, which is across the bay from OSJ.

 

If you have a rental car, you can easily drive there.

 

Another option is to take the ferry from OSJ to Catano, and then get a taxi to take you from the ferry in Catano to Bacardi. The ferry is like 50-cents per person each way. The taxi ride should only be a couple bucks per person.

 

The tour at Bacardi itself is free.

 

You can read more about the Bacardi tour, including directions on how to get there, in our travel guide ... http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/2007/02/14/bacardi-rum-factory-a-tour-free-drinks/

 

And here's the location of Bacardi on our map ... http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&*****=1&msa=0&msid=116969536791656461166.00000111c2647d9ad5cbd&ll=18.470166,-66.124563&spn=0.040949,0.065746&z=14&iwloc=00000111c32510438ef8b

[gonzo1124]

Yes and the ferry to Catano is right in between pier 3 and 4. Most likelly, next to where you will be docking.