Long Weekend Focus your energies on discovering San Juan: Visit Old San Juan’s colorful restaurants and shops; walk along Ashford Avenue to see the capital’s current renaissance first-hand; and spend an afternoon hiking El Yunque. Cap off your visit by buying and smoking a cigar in the lobby of the El San Juan, where salsa is played nightly, and drinking a Piña Colada in the Caribe Hilton, where the drink was invented.
One Week Combine a visit to San Juan with a spa getaway at one of the elaborate resorts on the northeast coast: the Gran Melia Puerto Rico, El Conquistador Resort & Golden Door Spa, and Rio Mar Beach Resort & Spa. Take a side-trip to Ponce, Puerto Rico’s second-largest city.
Two Weeks After taking in San Juan, get off the mainland for some bona fide beach time on quiet Vieques (a short ferry or plane from San Juan) with some night kayaking in its bioluminescent bay thrown in. Book two more nights than you plan to stay, because once you’re there, you won’t be able to tear yourself away.
