Mainlanders might have a hard time figuring out Puerto Rico: Is it a U.S. colony or a commonwealth? (For the record, it’s the latter.) But to Puerto Ricans, their island’s identity is clear--it’s a place to let loose and party into the wee hours.
The following suggestions are based on arriving in San Juan, early Friday evening and departing around the same time on Sunday. This will give you around 48 hours to sample the sights, sounds and tastes of Puerto Rico.
For a two night stay, there are several hotels in the Condado and Isla Verde area that overlook the beach, with several more close by. Check out hotels such as: Condado Plaza Hotel, 787-721-1000 La Concha Hotel, 787 721 8500 The Ritz-Carlton, 787-253-1700 San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, 787-722-7000 El San Juan Hotel and Casino, 787-791-1000 The Intercontinental, 787-791-6100 Note: You could also try sites like priceline.com and hotwire.com if you are looking for a deal on a hotel in San Juan. The only downside to these sites is the fact that you will not know the hotels name until you have made the booking.
Getting to your hotel
After landing at the San Juan airport, you will find a taxi stand immediately outside the terminal building. Here you will obtain a ticket with your destination and the price of the trip. Taxi rates in the various tourist zones are fixed based on your starting and ending points.
If you are staying in Isla Verde a taxi will cost $10 and for Condado $15. You need to add to this price the following for your luggage. $0.50 per each piece of luggage, excluding hand pieces, and an additional charge of $1.00 per piece, after three pieces
Friday Evening
After checking in to your room, unpack, change and head to one of the many great restaurants located in Isla Verde / Condado. Suggestions include: Miro’s (if you love seafood), 787-723-9593 Ajili Mojili (Puerto Rican), 787-725-9195 Ropa Vieja Grill (Cuban / Puerto Rican) Metropol (Cuban / Puerto Rican) Pamela’s (Caribbean – possible to dine on the beach), 787-726-5010 Tangerine (Latin American), 787-728-3610
If you are looking to extend the evening then San Juan is the place to be. You could head to one of the larger hotels where you will find live music and dancing as well as casinos or head to one of San Juan’s many hotpots: Brava at the El San Juan, 787-791-2781 Milk Disco and Lounge, 787-405-2475 Mijani, 787-722-3522 Blend, 787-977-7777 are just a few options.
Saturday
If you are able to get up early, pick up a rental car and head to the El Yunque rainforest. This is an easy 45 minute drive (either take route 66 toll road or hwy 3), and it is better to get there early so that you can find a decent parking spot and hit the trails before the crowds arrive.
El Yunque has several trails for all fitness levels and the La Mina and Big Tree trails have the added bonus of an opportunity to swim by a waterfall.
For lunch head to Luquillo beach and have lunch at one of the roadside kiosks there. Here you will find tasty local food at great prices. The beach at Luquillo is one of the best on the mainland. For the evening either head back to San Juan or consider extending the day by driving further east to Fajardo and taking a trip to the Bio Bay in Fajardo or a night time cruise to the Vieques Bio Bay.
If you head back to San Juan for the evening, consider heading into Old San Juan for dinner. Take a taxi from your hotel and ask to be dropped off close to the La Casita (tourist office), which is located close to the cruise ship piers. Usually on a weekend, this area is busy with local musicians and artisan stalls and is a great place to start your evening in Old San Juan. For dinner consider: Raices(Puerto Rican), 787-289-2121 Parrot Club (Caribbean), 787-725-7370 Dragonfly (Asian Mix), 787-977-3886 Tantra (Asian mix), 787-977-8141 Al Dente (Italian), 787-723-7303 Amadeus (Caribbean), 787-722-8635 Carli’s. (Caribbean, International), 787-725-4927
Sunday
Head into Old San Juan and store your luggage at the Barrachina Restaurant (close to the cruise ship piers). After storing your luggage head up to La Bombonera located on Calle San Francisco for a typical Puerto Rican breakfast. The restaurant is one of the oldest in Old San Juan and is extremely popular.
There are many attractions in Old San Juan depending on what you are interested in. Some of the major attractions are:
After breakfast head up to El Morro fort and take a tour of this impressive fort. Further along from El Morro is the fort San Cristobel which is also worth visiting if you have time. After the forts head back into Old San Juan and visit the San Juan Cathedral, the Governors Mansion and gardens, Christo Chapel and the San Juan Cathedral. Grab lunch at the tapas bar in the hotel El Convento, which is located just opposite the cathedral.
If you still have time, head to the San Juan Gate and take a stroll along the Paseo La Princesa. This promenade will take you back towards the Barrachina Restaurant, where you can pick up your luggage before heading back to the airport.
The stylish and super-luxury “six-star” setup sits in the heart of the chic Victoria & Albert Waterfront and boasts magnificent views, impeccable service, an enchanting full service spa and two of the most thrilling restaurants in Cape Town, Nobu and Reuben’s. Leave it to hotelier Sol Kerzner, whose properties–from Dubai to the Maldives–include an impressive roster of hotels, to give the majestic Cape Grace Hotel (just next door) a run for her money.
Designed by Capetonian architects Ruben Reddy and Dennis Fabian Berman, the 130-room behemoth is kitty corner to the Two Oceans Aquarium and is rumored to have cost over $100 million!
Vista One & Only Cape TownOnce inside, you’re confronted with the hotel’s magnificent lobby lounge and bar, Vista, bookended with a restaurant on each side and a triple-story soaring glass wall revealing the full grandeur of Table Mountain.
Who needs wall art when Table Mountain is viewed from every floor-to-ceiling window?
For the privacy challenged, two artificial islands house the hotel’s spa, pool and 40 huge “resort” rooms and suites with a subtle Caribbean feel.
For dining, experience Nobu, with its vast ebony rings and translucent origami lights separating an upper-level saké bar and lower-level dining area with sushi bar. Master chef Nobuyuki ‘Nobu’ Matsuhisa debuts his first restaurant on the continent with classical Japanese cuisine and a contemporary African twist. Diners can indulge in novel dishes like succulent scallops, yellow fin tuna under jalapeño pepper, exotic sushi and “beef new-style sashimi,” seared and coated in sesame seeds.
For spa aficionados, One & Only Spa Cape Town boasts a slew of African-influenced treatments like Essence of Earth and Ocean Experience, inspired by South Africa’s San people, using native Baobab Tree Oil and herbs. At over two hours of indulgence, this is sure to satisfy your inner sybarite. For those in a hurry, they also offer traditional Swedish massage tailored to every individual. Located on its own private island, One&Only Spa Cape Town is an oasis of serenity surrounded by water and lush vegetation. Designed by Bangkok-based landscape designer Bensley Design, the gardens lead to the peaceful Chi Studio yoga pavilion where calming asanas and pranayama can be practiced alone or during one-to-one private sessions. And if you’d prefer to train hard, there’s a 200-square meter Fitness Centre, featuring state-of-the-art equipment from Technogym.
A luxe gateway to the rare adventures of South Africa, the One & Only is an idyllic venue for those wanting a platinum-level experience in one of travel’s most coveted destinations .
For more information please visit www.oneandonlyresorts.com.
Robert Ellsworth
The joy of visiting the gleaming white Taj Mahal has always been undermined by the polluted Yamuna river just beyond and by Agra’s crumbling infrastructure. That’s slowly changing. In 1999, the Uttar Pradesh Department of Tourism asked Amita Sinha, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Illinois, to create a Taj Heritage Corridor. Though Sinha’s vision of visitor centres, a tree-lined promenade and a clean river is not yet a reality, some changes are apparent. Today, tourists have to walk or take a horse-cart over the last stretch so their first glimpse of the Taj isn’t marred by a huge parking lot.
In Bhuleshwar, said Mehta, wadis and chawls are being replaced with apartment blocks that lack common areas like verandahs and courtyards. Traditionally verandahs were used by children to play and study. “I’m not saying not to make a new building,” said Mehta, “but when you do make a new building, you cannot forget that there has been a structure of living.”
In 1999, conservation architect Abha Narain Lambah created heritage guidelines for Khotachiwadi for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority to ensure that new buildings blend in with the area’s Indo-Portuguese-style bungalows. Her plan called for capping new structures to one or two storeys, and mandating verandahs and sloping tiled roofs. Since then, her guidelines have been shuttling between departments even as multi-storey structures have come up in the area. Khotachiwadi residents like fashion designer James Ferreira are disillusioned. “Nobody is willing to take the initiative because the builders are so powerful and are throwing money at everybody,” he said.
If these localities are preserved, it will be because of the initiative of residents and city groups, not government laws. While working on the Taj Heritage Corridor, Sinha struggled to convince the Archaeological Survey of India to expand their responsibility beyond the monument. “It’s not a question of funds,” said Sinha, explaining that the Taj brings in millions of rupees in entrance fees. “It’s a mindset.”
Nonetheless, the effect of strict laws for cultural landscapes can be astonishing. In Assisi, a world heritage town in Italy, nothing can be changed in the entire region. Lambah explained that this policy impacts everything from agriculture and traffic to “the setting up of electrical cables and high-tension wires that would cut through the visual landscape”.
Lambah admits that this might not be possible or desirable in a city like Mumbai. “A city needs to be constantly reconfigured otherwise it stops growing,” she said, “but it is equally important to pick areas that should not be tampered with.”
-Ken Stern
10 STUPID THINGS TO DO IN MUMBAI:
1. Take S.V road near Andheri or Tulsi pipe road on a weekday between 8.30 am to 10.30 pm. One summer afternoon, I took an autorickshaw from andheri Station to my college at SP via S.V. Road. It took me 30 minutes to cover 200 meters on S.V. road. I got down from the rickshaw after 30 minutes, walked 600 more meters and reached my college.
There will be a day when people will meet on S.V. Road, get married, have children and die all on S.V. Road.
2. Take the Virar fast from Dadar when you have to get down at Andheri.
I once took it, and repented it for the rest of my life. When I wanted to get out at Andheri, I asked a bhaiyya standing in front of me -
"Bhaiyya, Andheri utarna hai kya?"
"Arre yeh Virar train hai, ismein Andheri mein utarna mana hai..."
When girls in germany would ask me if I ever got in a fight, I would think about that day and say - yes.
And yes, I did get down at Andheri.
3. Call any marathi guy a "bhaiyya". All around India, "bhaiyya" stands for big brother. It is respectful way of addressing someone. But not in Mumbai. Not in Mumbai.
4. Riding a bike without a helmet. YOU.WILL.GET.CAUGHT.
5. Not stopping at a red signal. While all over India, it's accepted to break traffic rules, they are taken very seriously here in Mumbai. Dont do it.
6. Going to see Lalbaug's Raja on the 10th day of Ganpati. The line outside is so long it goes on for miles. It is crazy. Children get lost, some get interchanged, it's all good.
7. Say bad things about Sachin Tendulkar while travelling in a local train. You will get BASHED, thrown out of the train etc.
8. Asking a cabbie or a rickshaw - "Bandra jaaneka hai.. kitna lega?" He wont charge you more but you might get a curt reply - "Mumbai mein naya aayela hai kya?"
This is the only city in India in which the cabs run on the meter. THE ONLY CITY.
9. Asking - "What is that smell?"
Well, every area here smells of something. The air here is composed of 50% Nitrogen, 15% Oxygen and rest 25% is the smell. It can be anything from rock salt, burning tyres, decaying vegetables, or just good old body odour. Mostly it is a mixture of it all. So dont ask "What is that smell?" There is no right answer to it.
10. Not bargaining with the guys at hill road and fashion street. You HAVE to bargain. If you dont want to bargain, go to a mall to buy stuff. Or, get ready to pay 900 Rupees (15 Euros) for a pair of boxer shorts.
| The O2 London mela 2011 will be held on Sunday 4th September. |
