San Juan for Lunch on Debarkation Day

[Elusive_Cruiser]

Hello! We are going to request late debarkation as our flight out of San Juan is not until 3:30pm. There is not enough time to do an excursion to pass the time, so my thought is to grab a cab, and go and have a 'special' long lunch at somewhere with an outdoor patio, somewhere on the way to the airport. We are looking for a place that we can hang out without too much pressure to leave, with great food and great staff (and good drinks!!)

 

Any suggestions?

[TNVolTD]

There are not a lot of options that would seem to meet your needs that are truly between the port (assuming you are at Pan American pier) and the airport - a Sizzler at the pier entrance and then mostly some older strip mall and fast food options heading to the airport.

 

We have sailed out of San Juan several times and, like you, often had an afternoon flight. We have typically taken a cab into Old San Juan to walk around for a while before grabbing lunch some where. There are several restuarant options there. A couple of our favorites are La Bombanera and La Mallorrquina. Both are longstanding operations (100+ years) in OSJ. You mention a patio. Both are indoor but La Mallorquina is open air. It would be my suggestion as it has "drinks." Plus, La Bombanera is certainly good but I think is more known for its breakfast.

 

If you can do the luggage valet option off the boat (not sure current status of that program), that is great and you don't have to worry about toting luggage with you. If not, when we were there last year, Barrachina (a restuarant / jewelry store - and I believe claimed birthplace of the Pina Colada) was still holding luggage while you walk around.

 

Hope this helps, but you may want to check on the San Juan board too.

[BOB AND PINKIE]

While classic (old) the El San Juan is still a beautiful property and has been well maintained. We had dinner there are few years ago before boarding the Galaxy.

Near the airport .

Has a number of nice dining venues

 

http://www.elsanjuanhotel.com/

[hockeyboy]

Barrachina. Inside but open air area.

 

They say they invented the Pina Colada. Is that correct? I don't know, but I do know their Pina Coladas are huge and excellent.

 

http://www.barrachina.com/

 

Mike

[Lsimon]

Once we went to the El San Juan Hotel. We had used luggage valet so we had only our carry-on bags with us. We'd hoped we could check those with the bellman and hang out around the pool or beach area. Unfortunately they wouldn't check the bags and we were told non-guests were not allowed by the pool or beach, but we did hang out for a couple of hours at a nice windowless restaurant next to the pool area and had ate at a brunch they had. Much nicer than hanging around the airport.

 

On our last trip luggage valet didn't go through for one of us so we went to the airport and checked our bags. Fortunately they let us check our luggage when we got there, don't know if they always do that or if our elite freq. flier status helped. We had very limited carry-ons (backpack and my DW's large travel handbag). We took a cab back to Old San Juan and walked around for a couple hours and had lunch there before returning to the airport for a late afternoon flight. If they wouldn't take our luggage I guess we either would have hung out at the airport or taken it all back to town and checked it at Barrachina in Old san Juan where they have a luggage check for cruisers.

 

I

[sasquitch]

I agree Barrachina's Pina Colada was good. The baggage check was convienent also. Left bags and walked around for a couple of hours. The fried pork chunks are awesome.

[Elusive_Cruiser]

Thank you Everyone!! We have made a reservation at the Barrachina - it looks like the perfect place for us!!