I am SO glad my family decided to go to Puerto Rico this month! Totally needed a vacation before school starts up again! Puerto Rico is beautiful, even though it’s just as hot (if not hotter) than Florida. The flight was about 2 and a half hours. It got delayed which was a bummer because it cut into our plans but that’s okay. It was still an amazing trip nonetheless.

Day 1: Arrival

We rented a car and arrived to our hotel in San Juan at 5:00 pm. After we checked in and got ourselves settled we went to this restaurant called Jose Enrique’s.(Originally we planned to go the market place (El Mercado) and the mall on this day, but the delay in our flight pushed our already tight schedule back a bit.)

It was a cool experience. They open at 6:30 pm and allow approximately 7-8 parties to dine. When those parties and finished, then the next group will be allowed. You have to get there a little earlier than 6:30 pm if you want to be in the first set of people that dine in. They didn’t have menus! They wrote their dishes on a dry erase board and propped it up onto a chair. The chair was then moved around from table to table in the order that people were seated. The reason that they don’t have a menu is because they use whatever ingredients are sold in the market that day so their menu is always changing! It’s one of the best places that we ate at when we were there – there food is amazing and I totally recommend it if you’re going to PR in the future.

 

Day 2: A FULL DAY!

First stop: Cavernas de Camuy! These caves were so beautiful and breathtaking! I loved it! There wasn’t really too much of a hike so you don’t need to be super fit to go there. It does get packed in the afternoon so I’d recommend going in the morning as soon as it opens! A tram takes you down to where the cave is, so like I said, no need to be super fit. It IS a little slippery, so shoes with a grip were a must! I’ll admit, I did almost fall a couple of times (why am I so clumsy) but I didn’t!

Second Stop: Arecibo Observatory. They have a massive telescope there that we wanted to check out! They show you a video on the history of the telescope and it’s importance, which was pretty interesting. It’s not too packed so I wouldn’t rush to get there early.

Third Stop: Cueva Ventana. We really went there to see the window view. There was a nice hike to get there. I didn’t like that the cave had roaches and bat poop (guano) but that’s okay. Check out the magnificent view below!

Later that night we went to pinones. They typically have street food but we went to a restaurant that was recommended to us by one of the staff members at our hotel. It’s called El Nuevo Acuario. Not only was the food good, but the owner was so nice. He went above and beyond to make sure that we were taken of care. He even recommended GREAT places for us to check out in old San Juan which is where we went on day 3.

Day 3: Old City of San Juan

Another packed day! We started off by going to breakfast at Caficultura. Their pancakes and potatoes were really good, as was their passion fruit juice!

 

After breakfast we walked to El Morro, which is honestly a must see and totally breathtaking. It was a fort and it’s right by the ocean and the scenery is just unreal! Easily a MUST-SEE. It’s also great for pictures!

 

Our next stop was Paseo de la Princessa and we somehow ended up shopping (they had really good deals, btw!) I didn’t buy anything but I did see a lot of things that I liked!

We walked back to the main part of old San Juan so we could get to our next stop, which was . . . CHOCO BAR! This place is amazing. By the name, I bet you thought it was just a dessert place, but they actually sell food too! Everything has chocolate in it and it tastes soo good! For example they had grilled cheese with chocolate and fries with chocolate dipping sauce, which BTW is totally better than it sounds! The food was really good and not overly chocolatey. Also a MUST SEE!

We were pretty tired after all of this so we just called it a night!

Day 4: El Yunque

We explored El Yunque National Rainforest and this was my favorite part of the trip. For one, I love mountains and hiking! I wish I lived somewhere mountainous so I could go for hikes all the time.

The whole trail is 13 km. Sounds like a lot, but the way it works is that you drive up the mountains and they have parking spots at each trail as you drive through those 13 kilometers. So you can basically pick a few trails that you want to do.

We picked La Coca Falls which you can’t swim in but is beautiful to watch. It is a VERY short trail so I’d definitely recommend adding this if you’re thinking about it. Next we went to Juan Diego Falls. So much beauty! & you can actually swim in these falls. It wasn’t a long trail at all! After this we went to La Mina Falls which lots of people go to to swim in so get there early because it gets PACKED! The hike itself is 30 mins going and 30 mins coming. The falls are beautiful!

After this we left and went to El Cairo for Halal food because we were dying for some chicken at this point!

When we came back to the hotel we took a nap and then headed to the pool!

Day 5: Plaza Las Americas + back home!

Plaza Las Americas is such a huge and beautiful mall. Everyone told us that PR has really good deals and it’s true! I’m kind of sad that we put this off until the last day. We didn’t get to spend very much time there because we had to make it to the airport to catch our flight in time. & Of course, our flight was delayed for five hours! We so could’ve been at the mall for that time.

Overall this trip was so much fun and I loved it so much! I will probably post EVEN more picture on instagram later so follow me (@sayeedah_) if you want to see them. Or if you just want to be friends!

Have you been here before? Favorite spots? Where did you guys go this summer?! Comment below and let me know!!