An overall trip review

I was really happy with the trip, and I think the rest of the family were, too! We stayed at the Caribe Hilton hotel in San Juan, which touts itself as the only beachfront resort in San Juan proper, and also the place the Pina Colada was invented 50-something years ago.

We stayed in a one-bedroom garden-view suite. Even though it was technically garden-view, we were on the 5th floor and we had a view of the ocean over the tree tops. Pretty neat! We were also at the very end of the hall with only one neighbor (whose room was adjacent only to the grown-ups' bedroom), so I didn't feel like I had to keep Char quiet the whole time. The first day or two I'm pretty sure no one was even in that room, and after that there was a little boy about Char's age, so it's not like he was perfectly quiet either. So that helped, too. The room was pretty big, like a decent-sized one-bedroom city apartment. One bedroom with a queen bed, a living room with a pull-out sofa, a big dining room table, a small kitchenette with mini-fridge and microwave and more cabinets than we needed for sure, and 1 1/2 bathrooms. Also a balcony leading out from the living room and bedroom, but we kept the doors closed and locked (and in the living room, blocked) just in case. We only used it to dry our swimsuits (which didn't really work because of the humidity). I wouldn't change a thing about our room (except maybe the windows in the dining room which let in too much light and made poor Char wake at 6:30 every day).

The rest of the hotel was really nice, too. They had all the things you'd expect a resort to have, including several very nice pools, swim-up bar, fitness room, playground and kids' room, protected beach, boardwalk, sea walk, spa, and even an old fort! There were several restaurants on-site, but I must say none of them that we tried were very good, and they were all EXTREMELY overpriced. Think $22 for an individual pizza! So, instead we ordered Domino's. It took a whole hour on the internet to find a phone number, plus a phone call to somewhere in the middle of Puerto Rico at least 100 miles from San Juan (whoopsies!), but we got pizza! We had Subway another night, which was around the corner. Leftover Domino's another night, and Sofia's in OSJ the last night. Breakfast and lunch were a combination of Starbucks and in-room food (DH took a taxi to Walgreen's one night, LMAO).

Which begs my only other criticism of the hotel; it's not very close to any restaurants or stores. It's pretty much right next to a big park, which is kind of cool, but it's just the other half of the protected beach from the hotel, so we didn't really see a point in going there. There's a Subway, a bodega, and that's about it.