Puerto Rico, Leaving and Summary (July 16, 2014)

We headed to Thirfty car Rental at 10:45 for our 1:50 flight; dropped off the car without issue. On the way to the airport in the van received southwest text flight delayed by 50 minutes which is fine!!! Trip home was very easy.

Overall thoughts about Puerto Rico:

It is awesome!

We could spend a lot more time here. Island is big enough it has much diversity to offer.

Felt safe everywhere we went.

Driving looks to be scary but really I wasn't bad at all. They drive fast but are courteous. Need to find an insurance company that insures in PR. Allstate does, Statefarm does not.

There are tolls on most main roads between cities. They range from $.50 to $1.50.

Gas was same price as in the mainland U.S.

Water is safe to drink and in most places very good.

Locals are very nice and easy going.

Cellphones work all over the island as does data as long as roaming is on.

Bathrooms are pretty readily available.

There are Walgreens stores everywhere; also several Walmarts (San Juan and Fajardo for sure).

Food is very heavy. Most everything is fried. No vegetables are served with meals but you can buy at Walmart where prices are good. You can also get some at roadside stands.

Beer and wine are expensive except at Walgreens and Walmart.

A car is a must. Parking in San Juan and Candado is very scarce.

Get a place where you can cook some of your own meals if you a health food conscious, otherwise you'll end up eating a lot of beans and rice.

Look at staying in Fajardo.  It looks like a nice town with lots to do.  Fajardo has easy access to the ferry to Vieques and snorkeling tours leave from here.

We would like to explore the west and carribean sides of the island as the seas are calmer and really nice by what we saw.

Southwest Airlines is easy in and out.

Thrifty car rental was easy.

Costs:

Total for hotel ~$1,200 which included breakfast, good wifi and a parking spot.  Our daughter was an extra $20 per day which is included above. Parking was $15 per day. Reserved parking spot is a requirement in Condado as on street parking is almost impossible.  This included all taxes and was for 7 nights.

Rental was a mid-sized for ~$500 total for car and full insurance. Full insurance was about half the cost.

Round-trip flights for three were ~$1,350 on Southwest, which was a great deal compared to all the other airlines we looked at.

Food was fairly expensive if you didn't look around. I would estimate ~$800 for the three of us and we tried to eat cheaply.

Gas was about ~$75 and parking in Old San Juan was about ~$35 at the parking garage near the fort. 

Again a place we would very much like to spend some more time.  Lots of additional things to do that we didn't have time for.

San Juan, Puerto Rico (July 9th, 2014)

Our youngest daughter had some time off from work in July, so we decided to take a quick trip to Puerto Rico with her. We left the house at 3:40 am for a 6:45 flight on Airtran, which was a bit strange as I had booked via Southwest.com.  Our flight left on time, which was nice. We had a scheduled 45 minute layover in Atlanta. Flight arrived 5+ minutes early. Had to go from terminal C to D. Very easy and quick. Carried on 3 of 4 bags as I was worried they wouldn't make the transfer to Southwest. Flight coming out of Atlanta was 45 minutes late leaving but arrived in Puerto Rico only 30 minutes late. 3 hours and 50 minutes gate to gate from Atlanta. 

San Juan, Puerto Rico was a small airport easy to navigate. Car rental was with Thrifty which had shuttle bus to facility. We waited about 15 minutes for a shuttle to come. Arrived at Thrifty and went through the rental process. Our insurance with Statefarm did not cover rentals in Puerto Rico, so we had to get their insurance. We talked to another women at Thrifty who was insured with Allstate, and she was covered in Puerto Rico. We updated to max coverage. We were glad to have the full coverage as some roads were a bit rough. After we got our rental contract we went outside to get our car. They picked a car for me and then went to wash and detailed it. Very interesting process; It took about 15 minutes to actually get our car after going outside. Once it was clean, we went over the car for damage with a Thrifty Rep. Lots of little dings and chips on car that only had 15k miles.

We brought our own GPS from home, so that we wouldn’t have to rent one. It took us straight to the Holiday Inn Express in Condado. We paid $128 per night for five nights and $178 for each Friday and Saturday. Also had parking next to hotel for $15 per night which was great. The parking was very tight, but we always had a spot. There was a gate with an electronic opener so very easy in and out. Parking is very difficult everywhere in San Juan. Most lots required valet services.

When we arrived at the hotel, our Verizon cell phones didn't work. We turned on voice and data roaming and then it worked as it would stateside. I called Verizon and they said ‘yes this needed to be done’ which was a bit disappointing as had gone by store and called international phone number and both said my phone was set correctly before I left. AT&T cell phones all work fine without anything additional needing to be done.

We took a walk on the beach in the evening; very nice out; high humidity but very comfortable. The sand was extremely soft and the beach was very clean. It appears that they clean it each night. Walked to a local restaurant that serves Puerto Rican food for dinner. Steve had flank steak, ordered medium rare and it came very rare. Heard others patrons with the same issue. Our daughter had ribs and Andra had shredded pork. We all had Mofongo which is a local dish, made from plantains or root vegetables and cooked many different ways. It was a very heavy dinner with lots of butter and fried stuff.  Overall we really enjoyed the meal.

Wonderful first dinner in Puerto Rico.  Definitely heavier food than were used to.