Ok, I wasn’t actually worried—I was thrilled that my May escape-the-office-with-the-girls vacation to Dominica (about which, more to follow in separate posts) would involve a day-long layover in San Juan, Puerto Rico on our return. It was like a bonus trip, and a challenge: experience as much of San Juan as we could in about 24 hours.
A dear friend from Puerto Rico had advised me to find three things in San Juan: mofongos, Medalla beer, and seafood. With such a short stay, my travel companion and I weren’t willing to limit ourselves to only experiencing the food and booze. (Although we did check all the items of her list, and more!)
When we were booking this part of our trip, we did just enough research to decide that we should stay in Old San Juan, rather than the towering tourist villages just west of the airport, where you can find such tourist staples as the Hilton and the Morton’s Steakhouse. This was absolutely the right choice.
Old San Juan (Viejo San Juan or San Juan Antiguo) is everything you want out of a historic city, easily walkable narrow streets with something to see on every inch of every street on the little peninsula the old town occupies. Everything was brightly colored, from the paint on the multihued townhomes, to the turquoise waters of the Atlantic on the north side and the Caribbean on the south side, to the fuchsia bougainvillea that spilled over terraces, to the tiny little mosaics that marked the street numbers of houses or depicted the patron saints of churches. The old town teemed with restaurants, cafes, and bars, all contained within imposing fortifications that encircle the town and provide excellent vantage points for selfies.
The fortifications are the dominant feature of the little peninsula. On the east side, across from the Puerto Rican Capitol, you’ll find Castillo San Cristobal, while at the western end of the peninsula, you’ll find the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, or “El Morro”. The entire city in between is encircled by stone walls.
We spent just long enough in El Morro to take some selfies on the walls and skim through the history exhibits, which taught us a bit about the purpose of El Morro, Castillo San Cristobal, and all the walls in between. The island had been hotly contested among European colonial powers during the Age of Sail as the gateway to the Caribbean, and had been caught up in many battles. The city’s defenders had built up the walls and castles incrementally from the 16th century onward to fortify the island amid the persistent risk of war.
The trek to and from El Morro, while a short distance on a map (and, in fact), was made unusually punishing by the heat. Even the locals were complaining that it was exceptionally hot for May. By the time we made it back from El Morro to the city proper, we sought out any place with air conditioning and food like two women seeking an oasis in the Sahara.
We stopped for lunch at a place called Tropical Taste, which I found by following my Puerto Rican friend’s advice to seek out mofongos. This place came up in Google searches for both “best restaurants in San Juan” and “mofongos near me”, and if we hadn’t been looking for it, we never would have found it because it was strangely situated at the back of a shop.
Mofongos are a delightful Puerto Rican plantain-based specialty, savory and served with the meat of your choosing. I went with the churrasco, a spicy grilled beef. I had eaten mofongos before (at a dearly departed restaurant in DC called Banana Café), and these were, I must say, just as good as advertised. If you like a savory plantain, you will love mofongos—they are roasted and lightly mashed with garlic and I don’t know what other goodness. We also tried the Medalla at Tropical Taste. It was a nice light lager, similar to other Caribbean beers we’d enjoyed previously on the trip.
After lunch, we meandered some shops and art galleries and stopped by the Paseo de Sombrillas on Calle Fortaleza to snap some quick photos. In another town, this would just be a boring, official street that passes in front of the governor’s mansion. Not in San Juan. Here, the street is graced by a canopy of upside-down umbrellas, colored pink, blue, green, yellow, purple, that sway in the wind like psychedelic boughs. (Trip Advisor informs me the colors change throughout the year.)
From there, we descended down the walls on the south side of the city, and perused the artisan tents on the Paseo de la Princesa. At this point, we were again lured indoors by the prospect of air conditioning—and two-for-one mojitos. But though the two-for-one mojitos sign drew us to the Princesa Cocina Cultura, the cocktail menu looked interesting enough that we opted for some undiscounted specialty cocktails instead.
I went for the bartender’s own rum-based take on an Old Fashioned, which showed me I was dealing with a true mixology expert. So I felt in good hands when I made my next request: I told him that we were only in Puerto Rico for 24 hours and wanted to taste the “best” Puerto Rican rums, however he chose to define that. He chose quite well and introduced us to Ron del Barrilito (my friend’s preference) and Don Q (my preference). He also told us this story about Ron del Barrilito’s the Freedom Barrel, which will only be opened when Puerto Rico gains its independence. Both were so good that we bought bottles of our favorites at duty free the next morning.
After that we headed back to check in to our hotel, a boutique hotel called La Terraza de San Juan on the quiet Calle Sol. Much like the city itself, there was something to see in nearly every square inch of the common areas of La Terraza—delightful murals, frescos, tiles, upholstery. In contrast, our room was fairly spare, but it did have the one feature we most valued—air conditioning! (I truly could not recall if the room I booked had air conditioning before we stepped foot in it, so this was a moment of bliss.)
En route to dinner, we did a mini pub crawl, stopping for bad mojitos at one bar (made with Sprite, really?), before stumbling upon some excellent live music and cervezas at a brew pub called Cervercería del Callejón.
Dinner was at El Asador, which was situated in a lovely old hacienda-style building that felt a bit fancier than the food proved to be. Following up on my friend’s three must-dos in San Juan, I was hoping for a seafood feast. We had ceviche as an appetizer and dulce de leche crêpe for dessert, both of which were excellent. None of the seafood entrees really called to me, so I ended up with a lobster risotto. I’ve had better. On the plus side, we witnessed the real-life start of some joke when two parrots walked into a bar.
Before turning in, we stopped for one more drink at a speakeasy called La Grieta, which served exclusively tequila- and mezcal-based drinks, including a spicy drink whose name I unfortunately do not recall. I am always on the hunt for good spicy drinks, and this one packed delightful amount of heat.
For all intents and purposes, that last drink was the end of our time in San Juan—because some of us are over 40 and no longer up for raging all night like the freshly minted 21-year-olds with whom we shared that final bar.
So that’s 24 hours in San Juan. Verdict: would definitely go back! It would be a fun place to spend a few days for a girl’s weekend, bachelorette party, or as a launch of the more comprehensive exploration of Puerto Rico.