Puerto Rico for Couples

I was down to my last ten days of my six month sabbatical and had planned a Caribbean getaway.  Originally, we hoped to travel to one of our favorite islands, Antigua.  We made an open invitation to all of our friends to join us.  Due to flight availability, cost and everyone's vacation schedules, we couldn't fit in a week in Antigua so we compromised with a long weekend in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

We decided on the El San Juan Hotel on Isla Verde Beach which is a Hilton property.  It is near the airport, on a  lively beach, and has the best lobby bar in town where all the locals come out for salsa dancing on Friday nights.  With two swimming pools, hot tubs, shopping promenade, rooftop barbecue joint and lobby casino, this hotel offers something for everyone.  We had our own newly renovated casita by the tropical gardens and our casita patio was a great spot for the gang to converge.

We've stayed on Isla Verde several times and enjoyed being able to take our friends to our favorite beachfront restaurant, the Intercontinental's Mediterranean.   It is a short walk along the beach from the El San Juan and Friday night we had 14 people gathered for Happy Hour on the beach.

 After lounging by the pool all day Saturday, we all climbed into cabs for the ride into enchanting Old San Juan for dinner at a traditional Puerto Rican restaurant, La Raices.  After dinner,  we strolled the narrow cobblestone streets of what is considered the oldest continuously inhabited U.S. city… stopping for a Pina Colada at the place that invented them, La Barrachina.

While in San Juan, we also made time to see Castillo de San Felipe del Morro aka El Morro with its breathtaking ocean views.   Of course, like all of the cruise ship passengers that pass through each day, we couldn't resist the urge to window shop the numerous boutiques in town.

Our group included several couples from our hometown, my husband's fraternity brother and his wife, and our brother and sister-in-law (a happy surprise for me.)  We left home on what was the coldest day of the season, with temperature readings of -11° and a windchill even lower.  Our local newspaper, the Observer-Reporter, publishes photos of readers that take the newspaper with them.  We snapped a photo of our group holding a paper that headlined the arctic temperatures while we were missing.  It was a great weekend with family and friends, but the fact that our timing was perfect to miss the arctic blast made the trip even more worthwhile.