Tag: Puerto Rico Hotel Reviews
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Hotel Video Tours: El Conquistador Is Easy On The Eyes
El Conquistador Hotel in Puerto Rico is an extremely pretty cliffside resort that is set up as five villages full of villas (there are also 750 rooms, but the villas are where it's at), set around a good size indoor outdoor lobby, a casino, and a sprawling pool area.
If you stay here, and don't rent a car, you are going to be tied to the resort grounds for most of your stay. Don't fret though, there is a steakhouse and a Starbucks on-site, as well as plenty of other shops and restaurants.
Remember, while this highly-touted Puerto Rico resort it is old, and shows its wear in spots. Furthermore, if you want to spend your time away on a Puerto Rico beach, you will need to ride the funicular then hop on a boat to Palomino Island, which is just off sure. If this short trip to the beach sounds like a fun adventure to you, this is probably your kind of resort, if it sounds like a pain in the ass to you, you will be better off at the Ritz.
Either way, you can't deny this resorts stunning beauty, take a look at the photos we snapped below.
Puerto Rico Hotel Reviews / Island Hotels / Old San Juan Hotels / → All Tags
Old San Juan's Most Famous Hotel Use To Be Run By Nuns
If you have your heart set on staying the night inside the walls of Old San Juan you will no doubt consider El Convento Hotel, which is a former convent in the middle of the historic walled town.
Be prepared, there are no ocean front rooms here, nor any beach or sprawling pool area to speak of. This is a charming old Spanish Colonial property with some updates (flat screen television and wireless access). However, the maze of terraces and quiet sitting areas, some offering day-long complimentary beverage service, along with the impossible to beat location are reasons why folks choose to stay here.
If you are looking to stay in a quiet location that is still in the midst of the Old San Juan action -- this is your place, if you are looking for ocean views and beach access, move along.
Rooms can be scored for under $200 depending on availability and the season.
Puerto Rico Hotel Reviews / Hotel Video Tours / Island Hotels / → All Tags
Hotel Video Tours: Gran Melia Puerto Rico
The Gran Melia Puerto Rico is a bit isolated, but hey, that is what many island goers are looking for. While you won't find the all night antics of San Juan right outside your door, you will find ping pong, pool, kid size chess, beautiful. Oh, and forgive us for the shaky walking, no, no one was drinking.
Location:
Northeast of the island, between San Juan and Fujardo. You are going to need a car if you stay here and want to explore the island. Coco Beach is nearby, but for everything else you will have to drive down to the highway and drive the 45 minutes to San Juan, or points beyond.
Neighborhood:
Golf course and ocean.
Pool:
Not extremely crowded, very spread out. There is a swim up bar, pool side games, and island music playing. Yes, there were kids in the pool, but not an overwhelming amount of kids. Besides, the pool leads into the rocky beach, and further down you will find a sandy beach, point being, there is plenty of space to find a quiet spot on the grounds.
What are they reading poolside?
Into The Wild
What is the crowd like?
Honeymooners. The all-inclusive crowd. Family travelers and leisure travelers.
Rates
This is typically an all-inclusive resort but you can stay just one night starting at $300. However, beware as extras like internet will cost more.
Be sure to check out our growing hotel video tours channel and all our hotel video reviews.
Puerto Rico Hotel Reviews / Island Hotels / Marriott Hotels / → All Tags
Bonus Killer View: San Juan Marriott Penthouse
The best part of the The San Juan Marriott and Stellaris Casino? For us that would have to be the penthouse -- yes, yes, as always we are suckers for clear views of the norther and southern skies -- blame DirecTV.
In any event, this penthouse is not just for high rollers, and no you can not actually make a reservation to stay in the penthouse, there are no beds. If however, you are a Marriott Rewardie, or someone that has made a reservation in one of the hotels Ocean View rooms (and paid the resort fee), you get key access to this sky box, of sorts.
Up here you can have a continental breakfast, inside or al fresco, and take in the the sights and sounds of San Juan. On a clear day you can easily see all the way to Old Town San Juan, or scout out your beach spot from above.
Puerto Rico Hotel Reviews / Island Hotels / Marriott Hotels / Hotel Video Tours / → All Tags
Hotel Video Tours: San Juan Marriott and Stellaris Casino
Take a look inside room number 605 at The San Juan Marriott and Stellaris Casino.
What we found inside...
Bad Rate / Puerto Rico Hotel Reviews / Caribbean Hotel Reviews / → All Tags
Bad Rate :: $509 Escape Package at the Westin Rio Mar
[Ed. Note: This is the Bad Rate in our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature. This rate was valid on January 23, 2007 and is subject to change. Enjoy.]
There's a little secret in the lodging industry that when a hotel announces the completion of some multi-million dollar renovation, you'll soon be paying for that fancy new "Balinese-inspired spa" whether you use it or not. Apparently guests of the renovated Westin Rio Mar in Puerto Rico will really be paying for it--to the tune of $509 per night.
If you thought an escape to Puerto Rico would be a way to get a Caribbean deal without getting a passport, well, let's say you'd be better off going to a Westin in Florida than the one here. We thought something must be amiss when we saw rates of $429 for a "resort view" room and $499 for an "ocean view" room in March on a popular hotel booking site--no meals included. It was just a shade less than the rate for the island's Ritz-Carlton.
So we visited the hotel's own site to look for a package. The best we could do there was this screen shot: a tad less for the bad view rooms, but $509 for the ones with a glimpse of sea. Apparently the rooms look good enough to eat though. "Recalling the golden glow of beautifully tanned skin, the rooms' color palette includes a blend of chili, cinnamon and mahogany, with accent shades of olive and amber."
You don't get much out of this package besides breakfast, but at least the taxes and resort fee are folded into the room rate (as the latter should be anyway). So unless you can surf around and find a better nightly rate elsewhere, this is probably the best you're going to be able to do at the Westin. Add in another $450 to $700 each for a flight and you may be better off hitting Miami or the Keys instead--or finally getting your butt in gear to apply for a passport!
Cubicle Dreamin' / Puerto Rico Hotel Reviews / Warm Weather Hotels / → All Tags
Cubicle Dreamin': Hix Island House
Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.
In this episode, Hotel Maven Annie007 let's us know what city girls dream of, when they dream about destination hotels. Enjoy.
Commotion. Pollution. Exhaustion. Agitation. Noise. Frenzy. Crowds. Lines. Insanity. And that's just getting to the cubicle.
New York City has it all. But it can get old, really fast. Thus - the perfect hotel has to have it all, too. Just the opposite qualities. Like tranquility, transparency, cleanliness, intimacy, comfort and ease of access.
My pick would have to be a Hix Island House on the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico. It's close enough so we can fly out of the little strip on the water known as LaGuardia and be there in just a few hours. After all, living in New York City gives you Attention Deficit Disorder, and we tend to get so easily distracted. So...what were we talking about, again?
The rooms are decidedly modern, the architecture spare, clean and empty - just like I want my mind to be after months of over-stimulation. The rooms have no windows, they open right onto the outside. The breezes blow in, so do the butterflies and hummingbirds. In New York, I have to shoo the filthy soot-covered pigeons off the window ledges.
There are no phones and no televisions in the rooms. They use solar panels and recycled water to feed the guava, banana, lemon and papaya trees. Now that's a heck of a lot nicer than spying cigarette butts and used condoms in the street as you dodge 18-wheelers and sanitation trucks.
It's not a major chain but a boutique hotel, so we won't have late-night parties and screaming kids (and couples) but rather a mellow atmosphere of massages, yoga, and meditation. You certainly can't get that on 37th Street.
In the afternoons, we can drive our rented jeep around the island and check out one beach after another. In New York, it takes an afternoon just to get across town on the bus.
[Photo: BrennanNYC]
Related Stories:
· Hix Island House reviews [TripAdvisor]
Puerto Rico Hotel Reviews / Hotel Renovations / → All Tags
Despite Sneaky Surcharges, GQ recommends El San Juan Hotel for its Havana 1959 Vibe
Everyone's already on the lookout for their winter getaway and winter isn't even here yet. That's how much we either hate winter or just love going to warm-weather locales.
At Men.Style.com, aka GQ's website, they suggest the El San Juan Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico if you want to feel like you're in Havana circa 1959 (hasn't everyone always wanted to feel like that?):
Havana 1959: El San Juan Hotel, San Juan. Channel your inner Latin playboy at this grand old modernist masterpiece, which has recently received a pricey makeover that its new owners flag as fifties Cuba-meets-nineties South Beach.
Sounds like a hotspot of cocaine and cigars if you ask us but in truth, staying here does guarantee warm weather, beautiful beaches, a spa and casino.
Rooms are high quality and include luxury linens and WiFi. But forget not, we wrote this place up back in February to alert you to their sneaky surcharges. Two bucks will be added to your bill a day for maid gratuity here. Maybe that's just how it was done in 1950s Cuba?
Related Stories:
· Sneaky Hotel Charges [HotelChatter]
· MEN.STYLE.COM Finds the Hottest Getways When the Weather Gets Cool
[Press Wire]
· El San Juan Hotel Reviews [TripAdvisor]
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