ICMYI on my Instagram and YouTube, I spent five days in Puerto Rico with three of my best girl friends a few weeks ago, and had the time of our lives! We stayed in San Juan and spent all of our time there, minus an excursion to a beach about an hour away one of the days. We had made plans to take an excursion to Vieques and/or El Yunque National Forest, but for several reasons were not able to go to either. If you want to know what we DID end up doing, keep on reading, and if you are looking for some recommendations, stay tuned for the travel guide!
Day 1
Day 1 was just giving STRESS! The night before, at 11:30 pm, my friends Tiff and Vy received an email from Spirit that their flight the next morning was cancelled. No explanation as to why, no option to rebook, nothing – just cancelled! Although only two of my friends were on that flight, I was at my friends apartment with them both the night before all of our flights, so I was up for an hour trying to book a new flight for them, around the same time as me and Cyrenna’s flight (we had booked on JetBlue), and managed to find one that was the exact same time as ours and also affordable.
Long story short, Tiff and Vy did NOT make it there, but Cyrenna and I arrived right on time with no stress whatsoever! Naturally, I was SUPER excited to be in Puerto Rico after MULTIPLE failed attempts to go there over the last few years (Tiff and I had literally booked a flight and AirBnb to PR in April 2020 and had to cancel cuz of Covid 🥲). It was also my first time leaving the country in THREE AND A HALF years, which is wayyy too long for me! Yes I know PR is a U.S. territory, but we all know it’s not really part of the U.S. just because it’s colonized by it!
Anyway, the first day was super chill and consisted of getting lunch at a super cute beach cafe, checking into our (adorable) AirBnb, going BACK to the beach, then showering and heading to dinner (which sucked. It was everything the first day needed to be! We also found out in the afternoon that both of our friends had booked flights for the next morning, so we would all be reunited at last and girl’s trip was BACK on!
Day 2
Cyrenna and I slept like BABIES in our own beds after our long and stressful travel day! Tiff and Vy both arrived by around noon, and quickly got ready to head out to Old San Juan with us. We had planned a lunch and photoshoot at Hotel Palacio Provincial, and then planned to walk around Old San Juan after. Although the lunch didn’t quite go according to plan (their restaurant had to be shut down because the gas broke, but they still provided us with several appetizers and some sangria), but we ended up having a great time and getting TONSSS of great content! 🤩
We got to spend a couple hours exploring Old San Juan after – and of course taking more pics and videos – which was so much fun! I have seen so many pictures of Old San Juan and was so excited to see it in person. All the cobblestone streets and colorful houses were just adorable! This was probably my favorite day of the trip overall.
Day 3
This was supposed to be our excursion day, but like I said our original plans did not work out, so we ended up going to Mar Chiquita. The beach was only an hour away, and the Uber only cost us about $50. The beach was STUNNING, and of course we got even more great content! The sun decided to disappear right after we stopped taking pics, so it didn’t turn out to be the greatest beach day for tanning, and it was kind of rocky going into the water, so we didn’t spend much time in it either. However, it was still a nice day and I am glad we went!
We all decided we were ready to go home around 3:30/4, but had no idea how much of a struggle it would be. We didn’t even consider the fact that there would be no Ubers available in that area to take us back, and there were no taxis either! I asked a guy selling drinks on the beach for help, and he gave me a number for a tour guide, who told me they had no cars available in that area.
I saw a cop car chilling in the parking lot, but he drove away as I was walking over to ask for help! After I walked back to my friends, this guy drove up to us in his jeep asking if we needed help. I couldn’t quite make out his Spanish (I was the translator on the trip lol), but gathered that he was offering us a ride to the nearest town.
Completely out of options, we reluctantly agreed, and THANK GOD he actually dropped us off at a hotel in town without being weird or creepy! We peeped during the ride that he had no legs (he was driving with illegally installed handles instead of foot pedals), so we rationalized that he couldn’t do much to us anyway 😂
We eventually made it home, feeling dirty and exhausted and also thoroughly amused by our hitchhiking experience! Luckily we got home earlier than we were anticipating and had plenty of time to all shower, have some coffee and get ready for dinner. We all were in desperate need of a drink after that!
I found a cute Mexican restaurant in an area called Miramar, where we had a dinner that was TO DIE FOR! For some reason the restaurant was totally empty, but the food was amazing! We had decided that would be my birthday dinner, so we ordered a birthday dessert, and the restaurant put 50 Cent “In Da Club” on while they brought it out, which cracked us all up!
After that, we checked out a cute “piano bar” in Old San Juan, where we got another drink and had girl talk. We ended the night walking around Old San Juan a bit, grabbing some gelato, and just being silly and enjoying the night! It was a great end to a crazy day.
Day 4
By day 4, we were very ready to relax and have a stress free day! First, we decided to get the content we needed at the AirBnb, which had so many cute corners and walls to get colorful pics and tap into our retro vibes!
We all decided to get brunch at the beachfront cafe that Cyrenna and I ate lunch on day 1, and it was even better this time around. They played all the good afrobeats songs I love, which totally made the vibe for me! I got another piña colada and the poke bowl, both of which were DELICIOUS! Everyone else loved their food as well, and we just had a great time there overall.
The only plan we had the rest of the day was hanging out at the beach, but we went to the one in San Juan this time, since it was only two blocks away. Unfortunately, that day it decided to be SUPER windy, so laying out wasn’t really an option! We did spend a lot of time in the water though, just enjoying the ocean and watching all the wind surfers.
After that, we all showered and got ready to head back to the beach for a sunset photo shoot. We kind of messed up and got there too late, but somehow Vy’s phone came in CLUTCH and captured gorgeous photos with BOMB lighting! We were all shook at how great they came out, and felt lucky that it worked out despite our mistake.
We had such a struggle finding a place to eat that night – we all wanted sushi, but somehow ended up at two places – with very small menus and just a whack vibe – before ending up at a no frills sushi restaurant that had INCREDIBLE sushi. We all ate and ate until we were stuffed, and were so happy we didn’t settle for crappy overpriced food!
For our last night, we got all dressed up and headed to La Placita, an area in a random part of San Juan that has several blocks of bars, restaurants and clubs and is very lively on the weekend. We stopped at several places, got the BEST mojito of my life at one place, and then went to a hookah lounge. Once they closed around midnight, we walked back toward the rest of the bars to see what else was opened. We ended up making friends with a couple guys on the way, and went into a lounge and hung out with them the rest of the night. We all had a great time and got home late, with many funny stories to tell! This was definitely my favorite night of the trip.
Day 5
Our last day was somewhat busy but also very relaxed. We had to check out by 11, and spent all morning packing and cleaning up. We had already got all of our content in the AirBnb, but Vy popped in one last time after we got all of our stuff out so that she could take some videos and pics of the AirBnb itself (and she did a great job!). The host told us we could leave our stuff at a sister hotel nearby, so we got an Uber over there to do just that.
The hotel was SUPER cute and boho, and had a very zen vibe! We dropped our stuff, took a few pics, then headed back to the beachfront cafe (our fave!) for lunch. Vy had to bounce before our food came (the service was super slow that day), but the rest of us had a later flight, so we had time to wait. After eating, we took a little stroll on the beach, hung out and relaxed at the hotel for a bit, then grabbed an Uber to the airport.
We got there SUPER early, but it was nice not having to rush or stress about missing our flight. Aside from an hour delay, we made it home with no drama and no stress! I was happy to be home after a fun filled week, but definitely eager to go back again! I probably will not go back anytime soon – my travel bucket list is SO long – but once I move to Miami, I am sure it will be easier to take short spontaneous trips there.
Ta la proxima, Puerto Rico! 💘
