Potential Puerto Rico planning with two kids ages 7-9 - exhausted after

[Anonymous]

Any Rincon fans?

[Anonymous]

Sometimes finding and working with a travel agency is more work. Here’s what I would do:

1) book a hotel. Just one. Wyndham Rio is great as is El conquistador but there are lots of great options.

2) book a car as those sell out. You can cancel if you decide later you don’t want one.

3) do these three excursions, only one of which I would book in advance—one day on a catamaran with snorkeling (book in advance — trip advirps has a ton of recommendations); do one day at el junque which does not need to be planned in advance and you can zip line if you want; do one day at the fort and old San Juan which does not need to be planned in advance. The old buildings and church are very cool and plan on buying an ice pop from a street vendor. The other days will be beach/pool. Any more will be exhausting and this will be the perfect combo of stuff and relaxing.

And PS don’t feel icky about using miles from your deceased loved one. They would love that you are using them to treat your kids to a special trip that they will love. What a great way to honor their memory—really. My grandfather left me a very small amount of money as a teen and I blew it all on a trip, with my parents encouragement. Death reminds us to live our lives with the people we have while we still can.

[Anonymous]

We are doing Rincon this spring break. Surfing lessons, snorkeling, going to Isabela, horseback riding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For now just book the flights and hotel. Don't try to overplan. We went there without a daily schedule and found plenty of things to do including doing nothing.

This is how I generally plan trips, I second this. Just book one hotel. Done.

[Anonymous]

OP. Thank you for all the suggestions. You guys are awesome. I guess an action-packed week can do us all good. DH sat with and shared an old txt file - lots of info. He had stayed with family in a 2 bedroom condo next to the el consquistador in san juan and they did san juan downtown 1 day, vieques - bio bay next, then snorkel and sail, then zipline and then beach one day for their 5 full day trip. They were older but both my kids love busy adventure-filled days.

Flight and car is done. There are 2 nights each for wyndham, ihg and hyatt. Pts expire sometime between sept and nov. I don't know if there will be another trip for our family in the next 6 mths (other than to grandparents and another to cousins this summer).

We are there 7 nights (arriving late night) 6 days. Which locations should I book hotels? Or should I just base in one place and supplement with cash and let the other nights go?

Suggestions for itinerary appreciated.

[Anonymous]

El Conquistador Hotel in Fajardo H’s the Coqui water park for kids overlooking the ocean. It’s great! So does the Rutz Carlton Dorado beach. Wyndham is ok. Nice beach. And with El Yunque rain forest in back. We’ve been to all of them.

Kite flying with kids at El Morro in Old San Juan was so much fun for us.

I’d stay at El Conquistador. If high end, do the Ritza in Dorado….it’s an amazing place to hang. Do the spa there while the kids are im the Jaqués Cousteau kids program.

[Anonymous]

OP you can stay two days in San Juan. Two days in Rincon and two days in Fajardo. Then do snorkel, rainforest, Zipline, fort activities from there. I think the bio bay has gone downhill from what I heard. I am sure those who went recently can chime in.

[Anonymous]

That doesn’t make sense. Why flit around. Make San Juan your base.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Wyndham Rio mar is great. Right on beach and fabulous pools. Food in property so you can treat it like an all inclusive. Rooms are beautiful. Beach seems private because the hotel is in a gated golf course community so really hard to get to. There is a car rental place on property (hertz) so you can do a one day rental and drive to el junque which is 15 minutes away and hike and zip line there. We also took an Uber into old San Juan to see the fort — the kids can do the NPS Junior ranger program and get badges—and walk around old town. It was all very easy. We booked through Costco and got a cabs card and free car service to resort as well as a lower room price. I’d try to reserve the car at Wyndham a bit in advance— we waited until last minute and they were booked but we lucked out with a cancellation.

If you let us know which hotel points you need to use, we can give some suggestions and basically plan for you.

So sorry for your loss. This could be really nice and relaxing.

We also loved the Rio Mar with elementary school kids. Several pools, you can eat casual food outdoors at patio restaurants, you can use the hotel chairs and umbrellas on the beach. It was easy. And conveniently located for other outings if you want to.

I’m so sorry for your loss.

[Anonymous]

We went to PR a few months after my father did and I have two young children so BTBD. I almost canceled the trip as well. Somehow, I managed to get the energy and planned out the 6 days. My children LOVED the beaches. They were too young to enjoy old San Juan so that day trip was stressful. Every day, we would drive to a different beach. It was lovely and low-key. The hotel we stayed at had a nice pool and nice breakfast. We didn't do any of the other excursions on the trip.

[Anonymous]

The real bio bay is in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Not Fajardo as most people think. Don’t mistake one for the other. You would have to fly or take a ferry to Vieques to see it. There are phosphorescent bays on the main island like in Fajardo, but they pale in comparison to the bioluminescent bay in Vieques. National Geographic named it the most stunning in the world at one time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real bio bay is in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Not Fajardo as most people think. Don’t mistake one for the other. You would have to fly or take a ferry to Vieques to see it. There are phosphorescent bays on the main island like in Fajardo, but they pale in comparison to the bioluminescent bay in Vieques. National Geographic named it the most stunning in the world at one time.

.So skip it if not i Vieques?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The real bio bay is in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Not Fajardo as most people think. Don’t mistake one for the other. You would have to fly or take a ferry to Vieques to see it. There are phosphorescent bays on the main island like in Fajardo, but they pale in comparison to the bioluminescent bay in Vieques. National Geographic named it the most stunning in the world at one time.

.So skip it if not i Vieques?

I would recommend skipping the bio bay tours in Fajardo. We went last summer and it was a zoo. There are so many kayak outfitters in fajardo, we literally were waiting in our kayak for 45 minutes to get to where the actual tour started. It felt like I was in traffic on the beltway. Thoroughly unenjoyable. We stayed most of our trip at the Wyndham Rio Mar and also recommend it. The onsite food options are pretty good, the pools are really nice, and the beach is beautiful. Just be careful not to swim out if the red flags are up b/c rip tides are very real there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any Rincon fans?

We went there over Winter Break and LOVED it. I would recommend it for OP as a place where she can just chill, but it takes more planning since you need to drive there and do an AirBnB. It was the first truly relaxing vacation we've done as a family.

[Anonymous]

Love Rincon. And loved the biobay in Vieques…for us when we did it that night it was stunning with the Milky Way up above us and the lights glowing below us. We got lucky.

Skip the phosphorescent tours in Fajardo. It’s just a nice Kathy’s tour through mangroves which is cool. But the “glow” just isn’t there.

Go to Vieques if you really want to see the stars above and below.