There was a great JetBlue airfare sale a few months ago so we bought tickets for a week, Nov. 7 through Nov. 14, flying JFK-SJU. Neither of us has ever been there. We are open to staying outside San Juan (have been considering Vieques, Culebra, Fajardo, etc.)--pretty much anywhere--but only want to stay in one hotel for the entire week.

I've read through quite a few of the threads here on San Juan and other places over the last month. I've also talked to a coworker with family in Puerto Rico who travels there 5-6 times a year, as well as friends and colleagues who have lived there for years, or travel there frequently, or vacation there periodically and have opinions on the hotels. Despite all of this, I still don't have a hotel booked for our trip in November, so I figured I'd better create my own thread!

Here's what we want in a hotel:

*Right on the beach (wake up and walk out on to it--no ferries, or car trip needed to hit the sand).
*A beautiful, clear water beach (have heard from frequent travelers to PR that the beaches can differ wildly)--or close to that standard.
*Something approximating luxury (A/C, we do prefer high speed internet, etc.--i.e., not a shack on the beach, which would be great for some--I'm not that low maintenance!)--or as close to it as you would find in another country.
*No rental car needed - we want a full on beach only vacation. Bioluminescent bay, wave runners, snorkeling, beach volleyball, relaxing under an umbrella on the sand. That's all we want to do!
*The less kids, the better.

As I suspect many will recommend the El Conquistador: Several coworkers also recommended it, as it covers many of the bases above. However, you have to take a ferry to the beach (the resort is on a cliff and their beach is on a private island as many of you undoubtedly know). While it sounds fantastic, we have heard you often have to wait for the ferry--let alone just having to take one back and forth just to get to a beach--and again we want to just walk out onto the beach, so we need to count that one out.

Given all of the above, where would you recommend we stay?

Regards,
Katherine