Spectacular San Juan, Puerto Rico

The historical elegance and beauty of San Juan, Puerto Rico makes this cruise port a spectacular destination! Once you debark your cruise ship you can catch one of the free trolleys in front of piers three and four. http://sanjuanpuertorico.com/trolley-old-san-juan/ is a great resource for discovering the exact routes the trolley service runs and the corresponding colors for each trolley. Our experience was that the trolley did not actually come until almost 10am.- so even though the times indicate an earlier arrival at the cruise piers this may not necessarily be the case! Island time is common in San Juan! You can also start walking right into town to visit the forts and quaint city. The trolley is a hop on/hop off vehicle that you can utilize at many locations throughout San Juan. Be sure to visit the forts- both the El Morro Fort and the San Cristobal Fort are open daily 9am to 6pm with the exception of Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Years Day. The cost to go inside these forts is $3 per person and it is well worth it. There are guides in areas around the forts to answer any questions you may have, and you can pay extra to embark on a small group guided tour if one is available when you visit. 

We stopped for lunch at Raices-http://www.restauranteraices.com/ which offered traditional Puerto Rican dishes at reasonable prices. My son loved the Mofungo, which is a dish he always wanted to try. We had a bit of a wait for a table getting there after noon but it was well worth it! 

After lunch we decided to make our way to the Bacardi Rum Factory. We underestimated the amount of time it would take to get there via a ferry and a cab ride once we got off the ferry. This made for a rushed visit that had us walking around and seeing the grounds, enjoying two free cocktails of our choice from the bar and visiting the gift shop. Anyone underage or non drinkers received two coupons for juice or soda. Now, this was 2014 and when I looked to see how long the open air trolley tour would be (which we didn't have time to do) I saw that the tour and cocktails are now for a fee. The details are here:

http://www.visitcasabacardi.com/. It looks like there are now several paid tour options and you can even make reservations. Don't forget to factor in the travel time from the cruise pier- and have cash ready for the ferry tickets (a few dollars per person) and the cab ride to and from Casa Bacardi. We paid $1.25 per person for the ferry round trip and $5 per person for a cab ride round trip. As this was 2014 I am sure prices have changed so do check! You can take the

Catano Ferry from Pier 2- but check when you get off the ship to be certain of the pier area. It is within walking distance to the cruise port and free trolley service. We had a 20 minute wait for the next ferry to come before the Bacardi factory visit, a 15 minute ferry ride, a 5 minute walk to the cabs and about a 5 minute cab ride to Bacardi without traffic. Plus you need to account for time the ferry/cab waits for more passengers- no one is in a big hurry! Our shortened time frame did not give us the chance to enjoy the 45 minute tour-good thing we are returning to San Juan in December!

 A visit to San Juan is a lovely cruise stop that is fun for all ages!