Hotel in San Juan for Feb/2008

[oratihsus]

My husband and I are going down there for our cruise. We plan to leave a day before so we don't need to worry that we will miss the cruise. Just wondering if anybody knows any decent hotel w/ good price down there. We are looking for a place to stay for one night. If you know any website that would allow us to search for hotels, that'd be great.

Thank you in advance for your help.

[Neb]

We were down there for a cruise last March. We stayed in San Juan for 2 extra nights. All the hotels are pricey, and I woul dstay in a more touristy area, there are some areas to avoid esp at night. We stayed at the hampton inn, i think it was ~130US / night, but it was right along a busy strip with lots of restaurants and other hotel. Check that area out, you can also use hotels.ca to find other options.

[oratihsus]

Thanks Neb for your help. Just another question, which cruise line were you on? We are going on the Princess. I want to ask around to see which excursions are good since this is our first time going. Thanks.

[Neb]

I went on the Royal Carribean - Serenade of the sea, it was a 5 night southern carribean, we stopped at Antigua, St. Thomas, St. martin. and 1 day at sea.

In Anitigua we did a kayak and hike, it was really good, you row in the ocean to this small island, with nothing but birds and snakes, and you hike up to the peak, and snorkel a bit on the beach. it's about 4.5hrs.. and St. martin you can just take taxi to french or dutch side, and tour around urself, we didn't join any excursions. And St. thomas is all about shopping, if you are not into that you can find a quiet beach again didn't join any excursions.

[girlstar]

I've stayed at the Sheraton Old San Juan one night prior to Adventure of the Seas. Hotel was decent. Had a good view of the water and saw Jewel of the Seas sail by at night - so pretty! It was a good hotel to walk around Old San Juan and to El Morro.

[Arrgh]

We did a S. Caribbean cruise (Carnival Destiny) out of San Juan this past summer. Used priceline to get the only resort category hotel in the area - Caribe Hilton, at $65/n for two nights. It was a great hotel.

In SJ, they add a big fee/tax to each night, so be prepared for that.

San Juan, especially OSJ is expensive. The most convenient hotel for cruise would be Sheraton OS. Walking distance to the piers for checking into cruises.

If you have enough time, look into an evening trip with East Wind (http://www.eastwindcats.com/pages/group_planner.html)out of Farjado to Vieques Island to see the bio bay (http://www.biobay.com/). It was not cheap, but quiet an experience to swim in the bay and see it light up. Bring a mask and if you snap your finger it looks like fireworks as the

[malbadon]

just use priceline/etc to pick your hotel, easiest way.
We just got back from our Princes cruise out of San Juan.

Princess docks right in Old San Juan, so if you want close, a few options are the Sheraton($$$), a Howard Johnson ($$), the SJ Suites($$), Hotel Milano($$), and Da House($).

We stayed at Condado Plaza before the cruise, its undergoing renos and looks like it will be a very nice place once they are done (its nice now, just not done). Its in the Condado area, so you are taxi/busing it if you plan to go anywhere, we never left the street the hotel was on.

After the cruise we stayed at Da House in Old San Juan, but its definitely not a place for everyone. Right above a salsa club, on a side alley, windowless rooms, its basically a place to crash after you've exhausted yourself wandering and partying your way around Old San Juan till 4 in the morning.

Here is a good map of the Old San Juan area. http://www.travelmaps.com/OldSanJuan.html

and a good site we found for random San Juan info
http://www.langland.org/cruises/sanjuan.asp

[Sct4]

I also stayed at the Sheraton Old San Juan for one night after our Royal of the Caribbean cruise. The hotel was good for the price and great location.

Spent some time at the rooftop pool which had some nice waterfront views. You could also walk around Old San Juan there was a free bus too.

Really enjoyed the place and was totally worth adding a day or two to tour around.

[oratihsus]

just use priceline/etc to pick your hotel, easiest way.
We just got back from our Princes cruise out of San Juan.

Princess docks right in Old San Juan, so if you want close, a few options are the Sheraton($$$), a Howard Johnson ($$), the SJ Suites($$), Hotel Milano($$), and Da House($).

We stayed at Condado Plaza before the cruise, its undergoing renos and looks like it will be a very nice place once they are done (its nice now, just not done). Its in the Condado area, so you are taxi/busing it if you plan to go anywhere, we never left the street the hotel was on.

After the cruise we stayed at Da House in Old San Juan, but its definitely not a place for everyone. Right above a salsa club, on a side alley, windowless rooms, its basically a place to crash after you've exhausted yourself wandering and partying your way around Old San Juan till 4 in the morning.

Here is a good map of the Old San Juan area. http://www.travelmaps.com/OldSanJuan.html

and a good site we found for random San Juan info
http://www.langland.org/cruises/sanjuan.asp

what's your iternary for the cruise? would you mind letting me know? Thanks........we are wondering if we should ask the local or sign up w/ ship excursion.

[malbadon]

We did the Crown Princess on Dec 15th
1 San Juan -- 11:00 PM
2 At Sea -- --
3 Barbados 07:00 AM 06:00 PM
4 St Lucia 07:00 AM 05:00 PM
5 Antigua 08:00 AM 06:00 PM
6 Tortola 07:00 AM 05:00 PM
7 St Thomas 07:00 AM 06:00 PM
8 San Juan 06:00 AM

For a 7 day, it was a very busy cruise. We've done a 10 day in the past that had 3 at sea days and I have to honestly say I would have preferred a second sea day on this one (I'm the type of person who just can't stay on the boat if its stopped at an island) It started to seem like work having to get off the boat every day to look around.

If you are interested in getting serious about the cruise portion of your trip, head over to www.cruisecritic.com, sign up, and spend the next two weeks devouring their forums. There is a ridiculous amount of information there about your cruise (there should even be a subforum specifically for your ship and cruise date where people who will be with you can babble).
There are sections for each island and reviews/discussions about the various excursions and their worth/value.
Basically *any* ship sponsored excursion you sign up for is more expensive than if you just did some grunt work and booked it yourself, but its a hell of a lot easier to just book it through the ship (the easiest example are the distillery tours, 30-60 bucks through your ship, but in all likelihood its free-$10 bucks for the tour itself plus a 5-10 dollar taxi ride if you do the grunt work yourself. Or the beaches, 30 bucks a person to go to a free beach when you could just jump in a 10 buck taxi and go on your own)

[FunkyLady94]

Just make sure you are on the beach side of the island. I was a bit inland in San Juan and it was not so pretty. Old San Juan is great too, soo pretty and so much fun. ENJOY