Seeking an apartment/house to rent for a week in June.

try airbnb.com

Another site with a bunch of nice nightly (as well as long-term) rentals is vidaurbanapr.com. June is the low season so you should find that your budget of $90/night is more than reasonable for a rental apt. Have you been here before? Do you know different parts of the metro area?

I appreciate the suggestion Reyp.

Anolis. This is my first time to the island of PR. I been to the region a few times. $90 per night is the max rate. If I could find a cheaper good deal, that frees up more money to spend having more fun.

Anolis wrote:

Another site with a bunch of nice nightly (as well as long-term) rentals is vidaurbanapr.com. June is the low season so you should find that your budget of $90/night is more than reasonable for a rental apt. Have you been here before? Do you know different parts of the metro area?

This is my first stay on the island. I have been looking at places on the map. I really don't know much about one neighborhood over another.

I appreciate any advice you can give.

vagantem wrote:

This is my first stay on the island. I have been looking at places on the map. I really don't know much about one neighborhood over another. I appreciate any advice you can give.

Obviously, one should exercise caution everywhere with regards to safety. Consider the following a rule-of-thumb with regard to the tourist neighborhoods of the San Juan metropolitan area.

All of Old San Juan is safe & very touristy. A beautiful place to visit. Up to 15,000 cruise ship passengers disembark to OSJ every day, which means it can get a little busy (& touristy!) depending on the time of day & year. If you have a car or rental car, parking is a pain in the butt - although there are several parking garages and the rates are not too bad by U.S. standards. One of the few highly walkable neighborhoods on the island. Rental apartments abound. Some are reasonable in price. There are also a range of smaller boutique hotels, and a couple of large hotels on the fringes.

Puerta de Tierra is the stretch of land connecting Old San Juan to the rest of the city. Most parts are safe during the day, but should be avoided at night. There are some apartment buildings in this area that probably have tourist rentals - but I'm not aware of any hotels. Not particularly walkable.

Paseo Caribe is a small commercial area with hotels (such as the Caribe Hilton), a few restaurants & stores, and some high-end condominium apartments. Safe night or day due to lots of security around the hotels.

Condado is extremely popular with tourists & also extremely safe. Reminiscent of Miami Beach in some ways. Also quite walkable. Also somewhat difficult to park without paying for it. Mostly high-rise apartment buildings. I'm sure that there are lots of short-term tourist rentals there, and there are a number of major hotels (but these are quite expensive).

Ocean Park (which consists of one gated beach neighborhood called 'Ocean Park' and the surrounding area) is quite safe, although one should be cautious at night particularly south of Avenida McCleary / Ashford. There is a housing project (caserio) called Llorens south of Parque Barbosa towards the east end of Ocean Park that is extremely dangerous (evidently - I, of course, have never been there). Ocean Park is mostly houses & small apartment buildings. I bet there are lots of short-term rentals here, although I have not investigated it. Parking is easy as you can park on the street on gated streets & many houses have driveways.

Punta las Marias is kind of between Ocean Park & Isla Verde (part of the metro area, but technically part of Carolina, not San Juan). This area consists of a few gated streets by the ocean. I understand that the gated streets are relatively safe, but this neighborhood is also very close to the Llorens housing project, so one should be careful in this area.

Isla Verde, actually part of Carolina, this is the stretch of coast immediately west of the international airport. This is a safe touristy area with many large beachside high-rise condominium apartment buildings. Most of Isla Verde is safe to walk night or day. I don't find this area particularly interesting, but it is another quite walkable area as there is even supermarkets that can be walked to easily from most of Isla Verde. There are also a number of high & mid-range hotels in Isla Verde.

Miramar is actually on the south side of the lagoon from Condado. This area has a few hotels and probably also has some short-term vacation rental apartments as well. This is a safe & walkable neighborhood - but the area that is safe & walkable is somewhat small, and if you stray beyond it you are in an area of Santurce that is not particularly safe (especially not at night). Parking here on the street is not too bad - and relatively safe (for your car).

Thanks for the information about the San Juan area.  I am a 'country girl' and do not get to San Juan very often.

Yes, Anolis, great information on San Juan area.  I'm with you, Frogrock, and don't like big cities

Anolis nailed it on the description of the SJ area.  It'll be interesting to see the development of Puerta de Tierra.  They are starting to demolish some of the abandoned buildings and plans are to have a walkable waterfront area with shops, restaurants, and high-end condos between the main cruise ship pier and the Pan American pier.  If you are interested, look up 'Bahia Urbana' and look at the master development plan - looks interesting!

frogrock wrote:

Thanks for the information about the San Juan area.

There are other neighborhoods in San Juan that are relatively infrequently visited by tourists, but that have some hotels and may have some short-term rentals.

Hato Rey is the business district & includes the "milla de oro" (golden mile) consisting of the PR headquarters of banks, investment firms, and the like. There are also a number of luxury high-rise apartment buildings and the coliseum of Puerto Rico (nicknamed the 'Choliseo'). This area is safe, but because it is primarily a business district the streets at night are quiet & thus should be avoided for this reason.

Rio Piedras is the area containing the main campus of the University of Puerto Rico. The campus is beautiful and there is at least one museum on campus that is open the general public. There are also events at the the Teatro de UPR which is also very beautiful. Rio Piedras as a whole, however, is not particularly safe (although the area around the university during the day is completely fine).

Santurce is the area east of Miramar & south of Ocean Park & Condado. Santurce contains the Art Museum of PR, the Contemporary Art Museum of PR, the Plaza del Mercado (an outdoor market), many historic buildings, some cool restaurants, and lots of street art including many amazing murals. (Look up Santurce murals on Google and you will find many examples.) Santurce is fine to drive through, and the main roads such as Avenida Ponce de Leon are fine to walk down during the day; however Santurce is generally considered to be unsafe at night.

Thank you, thank you. That was quite useful. I have been studying the metropolitan bus map, to save money on getting around. I would also ask for help with...

1. Where and how would I take the inter-city bus to Arecibo? I would like to see the observatory. Hopefully catch a bus to the next town, then a cab to the observatory. I am not interested in paying $100 for a tour. After a few days, I am renting car.

2. Where and how would I take a bus or buses to the waterfall at El Yungue National Forest?

3. Is it possible to take a bus to Ponce in the morning and return in the afternoon or evening?

4. Where are the best places to find the Salsa dance crowed? It is never enjoyable being at a typical club where people are only sitting and drinking.

5. Is it safe to take the toll road from San Juan to Ponce?

The busses and train (Tren Urbano) are limited to the metro San Juan area unfortunately.  To explore the island, a car is pretty much a necessity.  I guess if you really want to take a bus to El Yunque, you can go to OSJ and try and get on one of the cruise ship excursions, but it's so much easier renting a car and exploring the rainforest on your own schedule. 

It's safe to drive throughout PR.  Road signs are in Spanish (they aren't difficult to interpret), speed limits are in MPH, but distances are in KM.

The Tren Urbano is super-reliable for getting anywhere on the Tren Urbano route. I use it often. Regular fare is $1.50 per ride. The buses in the metro area are safe, but don't have a great reputation for timeliness (i.e., you may have to wait a long time.)

There are intercity buses called 'guaguas' that basically will take you from the center of one town to another. I have seen these but never used one. Going to Ponce & back in a day is totally possible, but will depend on the bus schedule (if that is the route you choose). Going to the observatory at Arecibo - I suspect you would spend more with the guagua fare plus the taxi ride to & from the town center than it would cost to just rent a car from the day. Daily car rental here is comparable to the U.S. - probably starting as low as $35/day for a single day rental, or cheaper. If you drive in the States, your insurance will probably also cover you here (check) so you don't necessarily need to buy the insurance. The drive to the observatory is a bit of an adventure, but it is reasonable well-marked from PR-22.