Travailen

I was there recently. If you have children, they will have a blast. The property recently ( in the last 2 years I believe) opened its own on-property water-slide park -- the children love it.

Palomino Island is great, and while the ferry ride back and forth can be irksome (having to wait for paradise when it is so close at hand is torture!) the ride itself is wonderful and the children will love the upper deck.

The grownups will have a good time as well. The spa is magnificent (and if you are diamond, you enjoy free access to it), golf and casino are fun as well.

The pools throughout the resort are amazing (including the swim-up bar.)

I would also suggest you check out kayaking the bio-luminescent bay; also visit the nearby rainforest and national park, El Yunque. If you have the time and inclination, Old San Juan is a great day trip -- rent a car (Enterprise car rental is on site, adjacent to the concierge) and visit the two forts perched atop bluffs overlooking the Caribbean Sea -- truly awesome and great fun for adults and children alike. There are some tourist shops on narrow, winding cobblestone streets which I can take or leave, but the architecture, history, restaurants and street food are fantastic.

This last point brings me to my biggest beef I have at the property -- the dining. There are some fine restaurants on property (and yes they are over-priced) but do yourself a favor and venture outside the resort to sample authentic Puerto Rican fare (which, shockingly, is not available on property.)

I recommend La Estacion (2 minutes from the resort, an incredible Puerto Rican BBQ with great seafood and Churrasco), El Bohio (great for seafood and Lobster) and Pasion Por El Fogon (try Puerto Rico's national dish, mofongo -- and everything else is incredible too.)

Hope this helps.

OkieFlyer

Thank you so much for your replies. I've decided to stay at the El Con.

We've actually been to PR several times usually using it as a stop over on our way to somewhere else in the Caribbean, but have never stayed outside of San Juan. It sounds like the kiddos will love it and that's all that matters for this leg of the trip. I really do appreciate all the advice.

Sweet Willie

yes get out and actually see where you have traveled to:-:@:-):-:, or else big whoop, why not just book a Florida/Arizona trip for the warm weather & pool.

sorry to hear about the crappy food & thanks a bunch for the restaurant sugggestions^. Amazing that the resort doesn't feature some Puerto Rican fare.

--

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

Thanks for the reviews on the El conquistador.

I am staying in Puerto Rico for 7 nights in April ( 1-8th)

As I do not have a car I was planning on staying in San Juan for a few days ( probably the Carribe Hilton so that I can walk the Old San Juan area without a taxi from the El Con and do tours to El Yunique, the caves and Arecibo observatory before going to the El Con for 2 -3 nights for the beach/island before flying back ( probably use some points as I'm falling from HH diamond to Silver on 31st march )

Regards

TBS

PWMFlyer19

Any more recent reviews/trip reports out there by anyone since Hilton has taken over ?

jerry a. laska

Stayed there for a few days in May 2010 and had a great time. My companions enjoyed the spa and the services they booked. Golf course and tennis courts were immaculate. Resort certainly appeared clean and the staff was attentive. Pool area was clean although it was often easier to obtain drinks by going to the bar yourself. I had no problems connecting to the Internet in our room.

Only meals eaten at the facility were comp breakfasts by my companions, I just had starbucks coffee in the morning. Many fine restaurants in the area.

The drive from San Juan was easy and the access to El Yunque was simple.

You have to pay to self park which is about 100 - 200 yards from the main entrance. The hotel has golf carts and vans to shuttle you to and from the self parking area. We found it to be a pleasant walk.

While San Juan and most of the rest of the island was receiving rain the worst weather we received was partly sunny skies.

Notenut

That's interesting, I thought the W-A properties only comped a Starbucks and a muffin, or something similar for breakfast.

Sweet Willie

Self parking is available at $16.05 per day, I can understand if a resort/hotel is in an urban area but to charge this at an out of the way place
were the breakfasts due to your Hilton status? were the breakfasts a full buffet style or could one order off of the menu?

Does anyone know what the difference is between El Conquistador & Las Casitas? (a search didn't pull up a thread exclusive to Las Casitas)

--

jerry a. laska

It was included in the rate or my status, I don't remember which. They received a hot breakfast provided off a menu (not a buffet) at the cafe across from the casino.


Regarding the parking charge, I agree, I was merely commenting on the location and the shuttle service they provide.

OkieFlyer

I've done a lot of research on the difference between the Las Casitas and the El Conquistador. The Las Casitas seem to be much nicer. They are villas with access to private pools, butler service, and free complimentary bottled water. You also are supposed to receive complimentary parking for one vehicle. I have a 3 bedroom Ocean view villa reserved there for November and will report back after my stay.

PWMFlyer19

Thanks, a review of the villas would be much appreciated and anything you can throw in about the resort as a whole. We are going to PR next year for vacation and with 4 adults/3 children sometimes we have to weigh the benefit between 2 hotel room vs a 2br/3br condo - especially from a money/value perspective.

Cheers.

Sweet Willie

Thanks OkieFlyer for the view of the Casitas^, (I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed some other thread), I think I will reserve at the Casitas as well. IIRC, we'll be there around the same time in Nov.

jcard1971

Im staying on a rewards @ the El Conquistador Resort, The Waldorf Astoria in Puerto Rico on a rewards stay and I noticed there are many different types of rooms based on the hotel map.


(La Vista Wing)
(La Olas Wing)
(La Brisas Wing)
(La Marina Village)


Was wondering who's stayed and which one of these wings and if you recommend one over another?

Thanks!

gleff

Personally I prefer being down at the Marina. Certainly the views from the main hotel can be impressive, but the sound of the waves at night is quite blissful right up at the water. And you'll get the views when up in the main hotel, and taking the funicular down to the lower level. The pool by the marina is much quieter as well. I much enjoyed a junior suite at the edge of the property on the marina, near the marina pool, really quite lovely.

Now, it's an aging physical planty, I don't think it's worthy of its luxury designation. But the views are really quite stunning, the 'private island' beach is nice enough, it's a nice getaway while still in the US.

Sweet Willie

We did have a stay at Las Casitas, the thread on the property is here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...e-side-pr.html

Details of Las Casitas themselves are in the thread above, but seeing if one stays at Las Casitas, one has use of the El Conquistador (for breakfast, spa, dining, any of the facilities), the following is our experiences of how we used the El Conquistador so others staying can hopefully benefit.

Breakfast was free at the El Conquistador (due to Diamond status) where one has two choices of where to have breakfast. Las Brisas restaurant is the large restaurant that overlooks the ocean; it isn’t the greatest view and is JAMMED packed with everyone else. We far preferred taking our breakfast in the quiet fountain court inside of the El Conquistador. No view but sanity and we were getting better views when we were out on the beach or on our balcony so no loss IMO.

We took the resort boat out to Palomino Island a couple days. Lots of fun but holy crap expensive. The burger I’m very sure has TVP (textured vegetable protein) in it; it was NOT a good burger at all. A bucket of 5 beers (cans) on ice will run you $27.76 after tax, the cans are only 10oz (look closely). So do yourself a favor and bring in your own which we did after the first sticker shock day. A six of the same beer will cost you $7 at the nearby grocery store called Amigo (~3 miles from the resort). Amigo does not have a good champagne selection but does have some ok cavas, decent selection of beers and of course foodstuffs.

At the El Conquistador we dined at both the steakhouse restaurant and the Chinese restaurant. Steakhouse was meh but then again, I think I cook better steaks at home than a steakhouse does. The Chinese restaurant was surprisingly good. The duck and lobster with black bean sauce were satisfying. (As good as my local good places? No, but great for Puerto Rico).

One of the best meals we had in Puerto Rico was at a place ¼ mile from the resort entrance, a place called La Estacion www.laestacionpr.com TERRIFIC service and good food in an outdoor setting, well worthwhile. Kevin is owner and chef. We had a number of items: green papaya salad with ginger sofrito vinaigrette, Caribbean chicken wings with a spicy passion fruit sauce (I’m not a chicken wing guy, these were delicious), mofongo w/skirt steak, spare ribs w/guava BBQ sauce.

We did have a spa day; 80 minute massages ran $165. I didn’t have time but I’m sure if I asked around, there would be a spa nearby we could have driven to which would have been a better price and just as good. Massages were fine.