Puerto Rico vacation

[DVC'96]

We are in the early stages of planning a trip to celebrate all 3 of the kids graduating- high school, college and grad school. One suggestion was Puerto Rico since my DH's dad was from there. DH is the only one who has ever been before. Since we will be 5 or 6 adults (son's girlfriend may come), I was thinking an all-inclusive resort would be more cost effective for us but I haven't been able to find any. Just wondering if anyone here has vacationed there or has any leads on nice places to stay. We are hoping to go in June of this year. And then I can get back to my DVC trips!
Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Judique]

The Copamarina may have an all inclusive package.

 

[2kidsForMe]

Finding an all inclusive beach style vacation in PR is tough. The Ritz Carlton in Sam Juan is lovely, but pricey, and it's not all inclusive, and meals and activities can add up fast. The location is good, near the airport, and on a nice beach in Isla Verde. The Cancun/Playa del Carmen area in Mexico has tons of options, and we love it there. Maybe that would work? If you want to stay in town, within walking distance to Old Town San Juan, look at the Sheraton Old Town.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I really liked it at the El Conquistador, it is set up like an all inclusive in that it's a big private resort which is nice. The beach is a ferry ride away on your own private island and while they do have a small lazy river pool they call it a water park & charge for it which is totally not worth it. I was fine eating in the little coffee shop which wasn't too expensive. According to other guests, you can walk down the beach a bit and get food from a collection of carts to the side of the resort. They made it sound like you have to be a little bit heads up for safety so I didn't go but maybe if you are in a big group it might be fine. I'd go back and probably will when we go back to take a cruise out of Puerto Rico in a few years. Check out the property reviews on Tripadvisor, have lots of pictures and the reviews are accurate.

Have fun

 

[DVC'96]

Thank you for the suggestions. I'm going to start checking these places out!

 

[blondietink]

We rented a condo in Isla Verde near the airport in April. It was fabulous, right on the beach and close to a grocery store. I found it on VRBO.com. The people of Puerto Rico are very friendly.We had a car rental and went to the rain forest and other places. It was a very safe area. The rental we had also had beach chairs, etc. for use. With a family your size I would check out the condo rentals as there are 2 and 3 bedrooms available. I would definitely also go into old San Juan for a day and do a walking tour to the forts. We combined our condo stay with a cruise of the southern Caribbean, which also might be a great way to celebrate all of your family's achievements.

 

[hsmamato2]

we rented a condo right on Playa Azul,(NE corner of island near Rainforest) and it was both cheap and amazing! The beach was incredible, and our view out the front of the condo was that blue water, and out the opposite side was the rainforest and it's clouds and mist...LOVED it. We rented for 5 days, (vrbo or Homeaway) and then got a small hotel right near San Juan to sightsee for 3 days... while San Juan was cool, I MUCH preferred the quiet area of beaches and relaxing at Playa Azul and surrounding area....it was less than 100 bucks a night!We also had lots of fun eating local beach stand foods...kind of the opposite of all inclusive vacationing, but we loved it and want to go back.... we took a boat tour out to Culebra for snorkeling....that was the BEST.

 

[tinan]

We liked staying away from all of the hustle and bustle so we opted to stay in Dorado at the Embassy Suites. They have a beautiful 3 or 4 tier swimming pool overlooking the ocean with their own private beach area. Although it is not all inclusive, they do offer a full breakfast buffet every morning and a managers reception every evening from 5-7. They open a separate bar area in which the alcohol is free and they usually have a different featured drink every evening with they have light snacks. The onsite restaurant is reasonable and the food is good. While there we visited the National Rain Forest, took a snorkeling trip on one of the Catamaran's out of Farajdo, visited the Barcardi plant and took a mixology class, went to Arecibo to see the largest radiotelescope, visited San Juan and Old San Juan, etc. If you go to Old San Juan be careful not to wander into La Perla as that is a high crime rate with a lot of drug activity. You may look it up online and there are several videos on YouTube regarding it as well. There was so much more of the island that we had wanted to explore that will have to wait for another trip! If you can definitely make time to catch the ferry to go over to Culebra Island! That is one of those items that we added to our bucket list! Have a great time!

 

[hodad]

While not all-inclusive, the Caribe Hilton is another wonderful place to stay and incredibly convenient to San Juan, but I've only stayed there as a family of 3. I'm curious to hear what multi-bedroom suites you find around the island.