Summer travels: Cali, Provence, LON, MAD, Caribe Cruise, QR/AA/BA/IB F/J
Mar 5, 2016, 7:16 pm
#46
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Barbados
The day after – August 4th – was a day at sea, which we mostly spent sleeping and lazying around. I must say: a cruise was a great way to relax, after so many more stressful trips. Food, drinks, piano bar, a jump at the club and at the comedy club… and here we were in Bridgetown, Barbados the day after!
I am not sure about you, but I always think about Barbados as a very upscale destination, just like Grand Cayman or Turks and Caicos. I was expecting endless white sand beaches, lush scenery… but the island turned out to be quite different.
First of all, there is a lot of history on the island. After all, the Brits were here for a long time, and left behind a rich heritage. Not everything they did was good – in fact, most of their heritage is slavery-related, which is all but a honorable trait. Still, they influenced the captive African culture to create a very distinctive local vibe. Every island in the Caribbean, no matter how small, possesses its own heritage and traits; while most islands have a distinctive beach culture and laid back attitude, Barbados clearly has a more aristocratic, proud attitude. It’s no wonder then that Barbados is decidedly upscale – with lots of international festivals and endless golf courses all over the island.
But I digress. One day in the island wasn’t of course enough to explore it all, but it was enough to get a decent flavor of this Caribbean country.
After picking up our Hertz rental at the pier we set off through intricate and trafficked Bridgetown. Roads in Barbados are very windy and signage is scarce, so make sure you have some sort of working GPS system while visiting! Thankfully for us, KFC’s have free wifi here, and that enabled us to load our maps on our iPhones and to have directions all day.
Barbados is not a volcanic island – it’s coralline. This means few rivers, few mountains, not many trees, nice beaches.
As we had mostly explored beaches in St Thomas and as we wanted to know more about the history of this island, we set off for the Sunbury Greathouse, one of the great (and best preserved) sugarcane plantation houses on the island.
While visiting it’s easy to think you have been thrown back to a time of slavery and serfdom. The house was very nice (it’s still privately-owned today), with some original mahogany furniture and floors standing (this house was built in the early 1600s). Seeing how the families that lived here throughout the centuries was quite fascinating and instructive.
From Sunbury it’s a 20 minutes drive to Gun Hill Signal Station, our second stop. Barbados has plenty of paved roads, but they are very windy as they swirl around private properties. Literally, I have never seen more convoluted roads in my life. So, even a 5 km drive can take forever… especially when someone stops at a STOP sign and then decides to back up and hitting your rental car. Yes, that’s what happened to us. While I was very worried at first because of insurance, etc, everything turned out fine, and I must say that in a way I am grateful that this happened because it showed me how honest and nice Bajans are! The guy who hit my car did all he could to assist and help out, in a very honest way. He could have run away (and I would never have found him!), but he didn’t. It was a great experience that taught me a lot.
In any case, we eventually made it to Signal Hill. This is one of the 5/6 signal stations built on the island, so that different garrisons could quickly communicate with one another through flags and smoke signals. It was built in the early 1800s after a slave revolt, but became obsolete after telephones were invented.
Signal Hill is very well maintained, and it offers sweeping views of the valleys around it in central-south Barbados – the panorama was absolutely stunning. As said, the station is well maintained and it houses interesting information about the activities that were going on for the soldiers stationed here.
It was now time to check out some of the beaches that Barbados had to offer, and we decided to head to Bottom Bay Beach, one of the many picture-perfect beaches dotting the island (and one very renowned with photographers of all sort).
Getting there from Signal Hill station took us around half hour, driving through 9once again) very windy roads. But once we got there, we were rewarded with a great beach, very secluded yet easy to access. While strong waves pound it, the beach is idyllic, with high coralline reefs on both sides and picture-perfect palm trees.
After spending some time there, we headed back to Bridgetown through the southern shore; Bridgetown is a bustling little city, and its city center is a UNESCO World heritage site. But overall, we liked Charlotte Amalie better. The reason is that, while Bridgetown has a couple of great historical buildings along Broad St – including the Victorian and neo-Gothic Parliament and St Michael’s Cathedral – and the former careening area is now a cute marina with the nice Waterfront Café overlooking it, it’s mostly a collection of duty free shops offering, well, the usual things. Don’t get me wrong, the town is interesting and deserves a quick visit; but it’s not all that memorable in my opinion.
Back on the ship, we set sail for our next destination, St Lucia
So, Barbados. While it turned out to be not the idyllic Caribbean paradise I was expecting (I leave that honor to St Thomas and St Lucia), Barbados proved to be a very interesting island, with a lot of history, a beautiful landscape, and the friendliest people we would encounter throughout our cruise. I still suspect that the island has some beaches worth exploring (and that we missed on this time), so I do not rule going back in the future. Goodbye, Bajans! Our adventure will go on…
I am not sure about you, but I always think about Barbados as a very upscale destination, just like Grand Cayman or Turks and Caicos. I was expecting endless white sand beaches, lush scenery… but the island turned out to be quite different.
First of all, there is a lot of history on the island. After all, the Brits were here for a long time, and left behind a rich heritage. Not everything they did was good – in fact, most of their heritage is slavery-related, which is all but a honorable trait. Still, they influenced the captive African culture to create a very distinctive local vibe. Every island in the Caribbean, no matter how small, possesses its own heritage and traits; while most islands have a distinctive beach culture and laid back attitude, Barbados clearly has a more aristocratic, proud attitude. It’s no wonder then that Barbados is decidedly upscale – with lots of international festivals and endless golf courses all over the island.
But I digress. One day in the island wasn’t of course enough to explore it all, but it was enough to get a decent flavor of this Caribbean country.
After picking up our Hertz rental at the pier we set off through intricate and trafficked Bridgetown. Roads in Barbados are very windy and signage is scarce, so make sure you have some sort of working GPS system while visiting! Thankfully for us, KFC’s have free wifi here, and that enabled us to load our maps on our iPhones and to have directions all day.
Barbados is not a volcanic island – it’s coralline. This means few rivers, few mountains, not many trees, nice beaches.
As we had mostly explored beaches in St Thomas and as we wanted to know more about the history of this island, we set off for the Sunbury Greathouse, one of the great (and best preserved) sugarcane plantation houses on the island.
While visiting it’s easy to think you have been thrown back to a time of slavery and serfdom. The house was very nice (it’s still privately-owned today), with some original mahogany furniture and floors standing (this house was built in the early 1600s). Seeing how the families that lived here throughout the centuries was quite fascinating and instructive.
From Sunbury it’s a 20 minutes drive to Gun Hill Signal Station, our second stop. Barbados has plenty of paved roads, but they are very windy as they swirl around private properties. Literally, I have never seen more convoluted roads in my life. So, even a 5 km drive can take forever… especially when someone stops at a STOP sign and then decides to back up and hitting your rental car. Yes, that’s what happened to us. While I was very worried at first because of insurance, etc, everything turned out fine, and I must say that in a way I am grateful that this happened because it showed me how honest and nice Bajans are! The guy who hit my car did all he could to assist and help out, in a very honest way. He could have run away (and I would never have found him!), but he didn’t. It was a great experience that taught me a lot.
In any case, we eventually made it to Signal Hill. This is one of the 5/6 signal stations built on the island, so that different garrisons could quickly communicate with one another through flags and smoke signals. It was built in the early 1800s after a slave revolt, but became obsolete after telephones were invented.
Signal Hill is very well maintained, and it offers sweeping views of the valleys around it in central-south Barbados – the panorama was absolutely stunning. As said, the station is well maintained and it houses interesting information about the activities that were going on for the soldiers stationed here.
It was now time to check out some of the beaches that Barbados had to offer, and we decided to head to Bottom Bay Beach, one of the many picture-perfect beaches dotting the island (and one very renowned with photographers of all sort).
Getting there from Signal Hill station took us around half hour, driving through 9once again) very windy roads. But once we got there, we were rewarded with a great beach, very secluded yet easy to access. While strong waves pound it, the beach is idyllic, with high coralline reefs on both sides and picture-perfect palm trees.
After spending some time there, we headed back to Bridgetown through the southern shore; Bridgetown is a bustling little city, and its city center is a UNESCO World heritage site. But overall, we liked Charlotte Amalie better. The reason is that, while Bridgetown has a couple of great historical buildings along Broad St – including the Victorian and neo-Gothic Parliament and St Michael’s Cathedral – and the former careening area is now a cute marina with the nice Waterfront Café overlooking it, it’s mostly a collection of duty free shops offering, well, the usual things. Don’t get me wrong, the town is interesting and deserves a quick visit; but it’s not all that memorable in my opinion.
Back on the ship, we set sail for our next destination, St Lucia
So, Barbados. While it turned out to be not the idyllic Caribbean paradise I was expecting (I leave that honor to St Thomas and St Lucia), Barbados proved to be a very interesting island, with a lot of history, a beautiful landscape, and the friendliest people we would encounter throughout our cruise. I still suspect that the island has some beaches worth exploring (and that we missed on this time), so I do not rule going back in the future. Goodbye, Bajans! Our adventure will go on…
Mar 6, 2016, 4:26 pm
#47
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Honeymoon, Part VI – Scenic St Lucia is truly Heaven on Earth!
We debarked at Castries, the capital city, and we boarded our tour that would bring us to the town of Soufriere, from where we’d take a catamaran all the way back to Castries.
Our tour guide, a friendly and informative local woman, explained in details what we were seeing along the way, and was very happy to answer all of our questions.
We started the tour driving through Castries. The city has a few notable features – especially the Catholic cathedral and Parliament building, but overall looks more like an overgrown village than anything else. It’s quite interesting to think that this is the seat of power of a nation, and that embassies seat here.
Driving out of town we stopped on a hilly road to catch a spectacular panorama of Castries and its harbor. Panoramas are definitely a defining feature of the island, as winding roads climb up and down volcanic mountains granting beautiful views of valleys, forest, and the sea.
St Lucia is the most amazing of all the islands we visited, in part because of its lush rainforest that covers literally 90% of the island. And as mountains go all the way to the sea, you have sandy coves surrounded by tropical rainforest everywhere – you can imagine how spectacular this is. We stopped by some local vendors, and for $1 we bought some super-sweet tamarind balls – a local treat.
We drove through banana plantations and mountain passes until we arrived at the town of Anse-La-Ray, a sleepy village of a few thousands perfectly nestled in a rare valley between green mountains. Here the beach is neither touristy nor particularly pretty, but it was a nice spot to spend a few minutes to observe fishermen working on the catch of the day, and to see all the boats on the shore – a sign that life is still business as usual (and as it was years ago) here.
After buying the cutest doll at a local (tourist) market, we headed up the hills and mountains once more, until we reached the town of Soufriere. Soufriere is the second biggest town on the island, and it probably has 5000 souls calling this place home. An interesting feature of the town: its botanical gardens – where we stopped for about half a hour to learn more about local flora and where we saw some beautiful falls. Interesting fact: the gardens are part of a private residence, that the owner lets tourist visit for a nominal fee. Not bad as a backyard.
After the gardens we drove to the local pier, and we boarded the catamaran for our journey back to Castries. Lunch was served aboard – a tasty mix of local favorites including breadfruit and taro. Overall, everything was good.
The Pitons are the most striking natural feature of Soufriere. This pair of steep volcanos – so steep and close to each other to look like straight out of a sci-fi movie set – is a sight to behold, from both land and sea. Truly awe-inspiring.
And stunning is most of the island’s coast back to Castries. Forest and coves dot the hills falling deep into the sea, creating some amazing beaches, where we stopped for so,e balmy swims. Luxury hotels are perched on the hills surrounding the various coves – they reminded me of mountain goats skillfully standing on steep mountain sides.
Believe it or not, that's how my wife looked 4 months pregnant!
After thirty more minutes we reached Castries and our ship. We enjoyed our time in St Lucia a lot, as we got a good flavor of how this stunning country is like. If I have to pick one island among all the ones visited where I would go back, that’s surely St Lucia.
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Our tour guide, a friendly and informative local woman, explained in details what we were seeing along the way, and was very happy to answer all of our questions.
We started the tour driving through Castries. The city has a few notable features – especially the Catholic cathedral and Parliament building, but overall looks more like an overgrown village than anything else. It’s quite interesting to think that this is the seat of power of a nation, and that embassies seat here.
Driving out of town we stopped on a hilly road to catch a spectacular panorama of Castries and its harbor. Panoramas are definitely a defining feature of the island, as winding roads climb up and down volcanic mountains granting beautiful views of valleys, forest, and the sea.
St Lucia is the most amazing of all the islands we visited, in part because of its lush rainforest that covers literally 90% of the island. And as mountains go all the way to the sea, you have sandy coves surrounded by tropical rainforest everywhere – you can imagine how spectacular this is. We stopped by some local vendors, and for $1 we bought some super-sweet tamarind balls – a local treat.
We drove through banana plantations and mountain passes until we arrived at the town of Anse-La-Ray, a sleepy village of a few thousands perfectly nestled in a rare valley between green mountains. Here the beach is neither touristy nor particularly pretty, but it was a nice spot to spend a few minutes to observe fishermen working on the catch of the day, and to see all the boats on the shore – a sign that life is still business as usual (and as it was years ago) here.
After buying the cutest doll at a local (tourist) market, we headed up the hills and mountains once more, until we reached the town of Soufriere. Soufriere is the second biggest town on the island, and it probably has 5000 souls calling this place home. An interesting feature of the town: its botanical gardens – where we stopped for about half a hour to learn more about local flora and where we saw some beautiful falls. Interesting fact: the gardens are part of a private residence, that the owner lets tourist visit for a nominal fee. Not bad as a backyard.
After the gardens we drove to the local pier, and we boarded the catamaran for our journey back to Castries. Lunch was served aboard – a tasty mix of local favorites including breadfruit and taro. Overall, everything was good.
The Pitons are the most striking natural feature of Soufriere. This pair of steep volcanos – so steep and close to each other to look like straight out of a sci-fi movie set – is a sight to behold, from both land and sea. Truly awe-inspiring.
And stunning is most of the island’s coast back to Castries. Forest and coves dot the hills falling deep into the sea, creating some amazing beaches, where we stopped for so,e balmy swims. Luxury hotels are perched on the hills surrounding the various coves – they reminded me of mountain goats skillfully standing on steep mountain sides.
Believe it or not, that's how my wife looked 4 months pregnant!
After thirty more minutes we reached Castries and our ship. We enjoyed our time in St Lucia a lot, as we got a good flavor of how this stunning country is like. If I have to pick one island among all the ones visited where I would go back, that’s surely St Lucia.
FOLLOW MY BLOG ON AIRLINES AND TRAVELS!!
May 14, 2016, 3:19 pm
#50
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St Kitts
After sailing all night we reached St Kitts the morning after. St Kitts and Nevis is a small country comprised of the islands of St Kitts and Nevis. St Kitts is the largest of the two, and a strong competition goes constantly on between the two islands, which are run autonomously; the islands are in fact semi-independent, and at the highest moments of tension between them talks of independence arose.
Today we were set to explore the northern part of the island, all the way to the … fortress. Our guide was very informative (he literally knew the history of every town in the island), and gave us a good overview of Basseterre, the colonial, well-preserved capital. As the island went back and forth between the French and the British, part of the island is Anglican and part is Catholic, and the two respective cathedrals are the main feature of an overall quaint capital.
After driving through the capital, we stopped at the edge of town to visit some famous gardens (and private residence and home to the Italian and German honorary consulates) and enjoy a great view over Basseterre.
The view from the gardens where we stopped was simply sensational – picture perfect by all means.
The morning was unbearably hot – a feature we noticed on every island we visited – but the day tended to get better. Afterwards, we started driving north, up to the Brimstone Hill Fortress. This majestic fort, sitting atop a steep hill, overlooks the coast all the way to Sint Eustachius, only miles away.
Sint Eustachius
St Kitts features mountains and hills all over, and the scenery was very nice. We toured the well-preserved fort, and got an idea of how life used to be up there, at a time when this small island was divided between France and Great Britain. Life here must not have been easy, surrounded by enemies and far away by pretty much everything. At least, the soldiers could enjoy a spectacular view over the Caribbean Sea😉
After the fortress, we drove back to a batik factory, where we enjoyed a nice view over the surrounding forest. Close to the gardens we were visiting there were the ruins of an old distillery – a pretty cool sight considering the lush environment – any sign of human activity seemed out of place, and nature reclaiming its lot ground seemed only natural.
The old distillery building
St Kitts main production used to be sugar can, and rail track of the railway shuttling sugarcane to the main processing factory near Basseterre still stand. The batik factory had lovely gardens, but overall it was the usual and disappointing tourist trap found in organized tours.
Our last stop of the day was a vista point over the ocean and the Caribbean sea. The coast is beautiful – the Atlantic one has dark, volcanic sand while the Caribbean one has whiter sands. We took some great photos up there, and we then headed back to our ship for some relaxation before heading to Sint Maarten.
Today we were set to explore the northern part of the island, all the way to the … fortress. Our guide was very informative (he literally knew the history of every town in the island), and gave us a good overview of Basseterre, the colonial, well-preserved capital. As the island went back and forth between the French and the British, part of the island is Anglican and part is Catholic, and the two respective cathedrals are the main feature of an overall quaint capital.
After driving through the capital, we stopped at the edge of town to visit some famous gardens (and private residence and home to the Italian and German honorary consulates) and enjoy a great view over Basseterre.
The view from the gardens where we stopped was simply sensational – picture perfect by all means.
The morning was unbearably hot – a feature we noticed on every island we visited – but the day tended to get better. Afterwards, we started driving north, up to the Brimstone Hill Fortress. This majestic fort, sitting atop a steep hill, overlooks the coast all the way to Sint Eustachius, only miles away.
Sint Eustachius
St Kitts features mountains and hills all over, and the scenery was very nice. We toured the well-preserved fort, and got an idea of how life used to be up there, at a time when this small island was divided between France and Great Britain. Life here must not have been easy, surrounded by enemies and far away by pretty much everything. At least, the soldiers could enjoy a spectacular view over the Caribbean Sea😉
After the fortress, we drove back to a batik factory, where we enjoyed a nice view over the surrounding forest. Close to the gardens we were visiting there were the ruins of an old distillery – a pretty cool sight considering the lush environment – any sign of human activity seemed out of place, and nature reclaiming its lot ground seemed only natural.
The old distillery building
St Kitts main production used to be sugar can, and rail track of the railway shuttling sugarcane to the main processing factory near Basseterre still stand. The batik factory had lovely gardens, but overall it was the usual and disappointing tourist trap found in organized tours.
Our last stop of the day was a vista point over the ocean and the Caribbean sea. The coast is beautiful – the Atlantic one has dark, volcanic sand while the Caribbean one has whiter sands. We took some great photos up there, and we then headed back to our ship for some relaxation before heading to Sint Maarten.
May 30, 2016, 8:32 pm
#51
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Sint Maarten
Sint Maarten is the smallest island in the World to be shared among two countries: the southern part is Dutch, while the northern part – Saint Martin – is French. Free movement is allowed between the two sides, which do feel though very different culturally, as the south speaks Dutch and the north, French.
Our tour today brought us through the island to the French capital of Marigot. To get there, you need to cross into the French part of the island – St Martin; crossing is unregulated, and the border is simply marked by this milestone:
Unfortunately it did not include a stop to Orient Bay – probably the best beach on the island, but it did include a fair amount of time in Marigot, a charming little town with great croissants and a nice Saturday market. The way to Marigot is very scenic, dotted by hills, traditional houses, endless beaches, and rum shacks everywhere.
The marina here was very nice, dotted by shops and restaurants and reminiscent of the French Riviera. There are a lot of French eateries, serving delicious croissants and eclairs (among others!). The feeling that the town gave us was markedly French – what a corner of Heaven they created here!
A couple of hours later, we were ready to board our catamaran to start the lagoon tour. The lagoon is pretty large (considering the size of the island), and it’s dotted by houseboats, sailboats, container vessels… The trip was very enjoyable, thanks to an excellent crew. All along we could see the developments along the coast – as you can imagine, both the French and the Dutch sides are a favorite place to retire for Europeans!
After landing back in Sint Maarten and enjoying some planes taking off and landing (unfortunately not from its famous beach), we headed back to Philipsburg – the Dutch capital (Sint Maarten is one of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of The Netherlands, together with Aruba, Curacao, and Holland).
Philipsburg is really nice – it has a long, sandy beach with a lively boardwalk dotted by restaurants and bar – definitely worth a visit. The center is well preserved and features some Dutch-looking buildings – overall it was a very charming town with very good shopping (after all, how could I leave he Caribbean without buying some rhum??).
Like I said, we didn’t see all the most famous spots on the island – but nevertheless we enjoyed our day in Sint Maarten/Saint Martin a lot. This was decidedly the most European of all the islands we visited, and overall the landscape was gorgeous and the people very nice.
It was now time to go back to San Juan to end our fun cruise. While I do not recommend cruises to everyone, this worked out perfectly for us, as we just wanted something easy and relaxing to make sure we wouldn’t stress out too much during our preganncy.
Our tour today brought us through the island to the French capital of Marigot. To get there, you need to cross into the French part of the island – St Martin; crossing is unregulated, and the border is simply marked by this milestone:
Unfortunately it did not include a stop to Orient Bay – probably the best beach on the island, but it did include a fair amount of time in Marigot, a charming little town with great croissants and a nice Saturday market. The way to Marigot is very scenic, dotted by hills, traditional houses, endless beaches, and rum shacks everywhere.
The marina here was very nice, dotted by shops and restaurants and reminiscent of the French Riviera. There are a lot of French eateries, serving delicious croissants and eclairs (among others!). The feeling that the town gave us was markedly French – what a corner of Heaven they created here!
A couple of hours later, we were ready to board our catamaran to start the lagoon tour. The lagoon is pretty large (considering the size of the island), and it’s dotted by houseboats, sailboats, container vessels… The trip was very enjoyable, thanks to an excellent crew. All along we could see the developments along the coast – as you can imagine, both the French and the Dutch sides are a favorite place to retire for Europeans!
After landing back in Sint Maarten and enjoying some planes taking off and landing (unfortunately not from its famous beach), we headed back to Philipsburg – the Dutch capital (Sint Maarten is one of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of The Netherlands, together with Aruba, Curacao, and Holland).
Philipsburg is really nice – it has a long, sandy beach with a lively boardwalk dotted by restaurants and bar – definitely worth a visit. The center is well preserved and features some Dutch-looking buildings – overall it was a very charming town with very good shopping (after all, how could I leave he Caribbean without buying some rhum??).
Like I said, we didn’t see all the most famous spots on the island – but nevertheless we enjoyed our day in Sint Maarten/Saint Martin a lot. This was decidedly the most European of all the islands we visited, and overall the landscape was gorgeous and the people very nice.
It was now time to go back to San Juan to end our fun cruise. While I do not recommend cruises to everyone, this worked out perfectly for us, as we just wanted something easy and relaxing to make sure we wouldn’t stress out too much during our preganncy.
Aug 8, 2016, 4:21 pm
#52
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Ritz-Carlton San Juan
The last night of our vacation was spent in pure relax at the Ritz-Carlton San Juan, before taking our flight back to New York City. We were planning to, originally, flying back to Gotham City on Saturday evening (same day the cruise ended), but given how nice San Juan was (and given the great weather!) we quickly looked at hotels and saw a great, under-$200 rate for the Ritz-Carlton, and so we quickly decided to stay one more night and to move our award flight to the night after.
We took a cab for the pier to Isla Verde, the biggest and nicest slice of sand in San Juan, close to the airport and totally beautiful. While not the most beautiful beach in the Caribbean, it's absolutely great as a city beach - and while very popular with locals and tourists alike it's big enough not to feel crowded.
We were quickly checked in, but our room wasn't ready yet (it was only 11am) and so we took the chance to explore the resort first. The lobby and common areas were very well-kept and overall quite nice - what you would expect from a Ritz-Carlton property. The hotel has a steakhouse (which, if I am not mistaken, is well-regarded) as well as another, more casual restaurant; it also features a fine-dining Italian place and a casino.
The nicest area of the hotel was the swimming pool, as it was big and very nicely landscaped. There were a lot of people here for the weekend, but finding a lounging chair was not an issue. Also, the hotel has a lots of chairs by the beach - a great option if you like the ocean like we do and if you like shallow water to play in!
The hotel gym is small-ish but well-equipped and offers a range of classes throughout the day.
Our room was a classic room with city view. It was spacious and well-appointed, and generally very comfortable. The only issue we had was the floor - parts of it were soaking wet and no one bothered drying it. But the restroom was nice and big, and the bed comfortable, and since we were staying only one night we did not bother complaining.
Overall, the hotel was great for our short stay and we'd definitely stay again when back in San Juan. Leaving the Caribbean after this wonderful honeymoon was hard (especially going back to the hustle and bustle of NYC), but it was surely a great time we enjoyed a lot!
We took a cab for the pier to Isla Verde, the biggest and nicest slice of sand in San Juan, close to the airport and totally beautiful. While not the most beautiful beach in the Caribbean, it's absolutely great as a city beach - and while very popular with locals and tourists alike it's big enough not to feel crowded.
We were quickly checked in, but our room wasn't ready yet (it was only 11am) and so we took the chance to explore the resort first. The lobby and common areas were very well-kept and overall quite nice - what you would expect from a Ritz-Carlton property. The hotel has a steakhouse (which, if I am not mistaken, is well-regarded) as well as another, more casual restaurant; it also features a fine-dining Italian place and a casino.
The nicest area of the hotel was the swimming pool, as it was big and very nicely landscaped. There were a lot of people here for the weekend, but finding a lounging chair was not an issue. Also, the hotel has a lots of chairs by the beach - a great option if you like the ocean like we do and if you like shallow water to play in!
The hotel gym is small-ish but well-equipped and offers a range of classes throughout the day.
Our room was a classic room with city view. It was spacious and well-appointed, and generally very comfortable. The only issue we had was the floor - parts of it were soaking wet and no one bothered drying it. But the restroom was nice and big, and the bed comfortable, and since we were staying only one night we did not bother complaining.
Overall, the hotel was great for our short stay and we'd definitely stay again when back in San Juan. Leaving the Caribbean after this wonderful honeymoon was hard (especially going back to the hustle and bustle of NYC), but it was surely a great time we enjoyed a lot!