Touring Old San Juan

[Deb K.]

We are on a southern Caribbean cruise out of San Juan on Feb. 28/05 and DH and I want to do a tour of Old San Juan (couple of hours). What is the distance from the port and is it best to walk, take a taxi or get a guided tour?

Any advice????

[Rubia_Boricua_PR]

Most of the times you can just do it on your own but depending which pier your cruise will be docking. PanAm is the furthest so you will need to take a cab to get started at least. You can get info on one of the Tourism Booth and get started on your own, pretty much everything is walking distance. Enjoy!

[puertorican]

Most of the times you can just do it on your own but depending which pier your cruise will be docking. PanAm is the furthest so you will need to take a cab to get started at least. You can get info on one of the Tourism Booth and get started on your own, pretty much everything is walking distance. Enjoy!

 

 

Glory

 

Where you from???

[Rubia_Boricua_PR]

Arecibo

[hstrybuf]

You can easily do this on your own from the information booth near Pier #1. Get a good map for a walking tour from there or from travel guides in your bookstore. Wear good walking shoes as the streets are cobblestone. The Old City is a fascinating place to explore! Do your research well ahead of time because, despite the small area, you can't see it all in just a couple of hours.

[DiverDavid]

Two years ago when our ship docked in San Juan, we took the ship's walking excursion. The guide was excellent and we learned so much. Last year, our ship left from San Juan and we retraced the same path using the Frommer's guidebook. This let us linger longer at places we wanted to and cut short or skip the places we didn't. Either way, it is a beautiful area and you will enjoy your walk!

[Deb K.]

Thank you everyone for your info. I think we will do some homework before we get there and then do the walking tour on our own. Looking forward to being there.

Deb K.

[EuphoriaII]

My wife and I took the walking tour of Old San Juan based on a guidebook map and we were esentially following a large guided tour, but doing so at our pace. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower. It's up and down hills. I liked it a lot although my wife was ready to go back to the ship by our first mappoint. Although it was in July, very humid and 100+ degrees at the time.

[bostonlass]

I loved old San Juan!! We stopped there in the evening on our last cruise in October and it was awesome. I actually preferred it over St. Thomas and St. Martin. I had done some research beforehand and really wanted to see El Convento so my sister and I just grabbed a cab and told him that is where we wanted to go. The ride was about five minutes tops. We went into the hotel, took some pictures and then went across the street to a beautiful cathedral. It really was a site to see. Then we just walked down the old cobblestone roads and landed at the end in this park with tons of pigeons. I mean tons!!! They live there and I'm sure there's a story behind it all but we weren't on a professional tour at all. We would have stayed there longer and had a few drinks at this outdoor cafe that tons of people were at but we had reservations at the italian restaurant on the Caribbean Princess and didn't want to miss that so we just walked back to El Convento and grabbed a cab back to the ship. It was so cool to have a port stop in the evening!

[HockeyMom44]

I'll be in San Juan in about 2 weeks. I cannot wait to see everything during the day.THe last time it was in the evening,we walked uphill :eek: ,then back down. This time I'm taking a taxi to El Morro and working my way DOWN!!LOL The buildings are just incredible! We took this cruise just so we could be there during the day,and walk to our leisure.

Trudy

[Sheffie]

Trudy, I completely understand about the walk UP. Did that once in the heat of the day; didn't realize what a treck it would be. 2nd time we took the taxi up and walked down. What a difference!

 

Have a great cruise.

 

Michelle

[daveandsarah96]

I was just in San Juan on Saturday! It was awesome. Our cruise was over that morning. We went to the airport and checked our bags at the airport. It was 10:30 and our plane didn't leave until 4:00 pm. We took a taxi to OSJ ($16 total) and walked around the town and forts. We had a great time. We stopped at a great quaint deli, but have no idea what the name of it was! SORRY!

 

One word of caution: While we were at the forts, it started to drizzle and it was a windy day. A gust of wind came up and a lady lost her footing and broke her ankle. She was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. I saw her in the airport later and at the hospital, they took x-rays (it was broken) and wrapped it in an ace bandage. They did not put a splint on or anything. This lady was in a lot of pain, facing a squished five hour airplane ride. NOT a good way to end a cruise! Be careful.