Part 1 Flight

Recently, JetBlue ran a fare sale where you could travel to San Juan for under $200 from New York City. I took the opportunity to travel to a place where we are bombarded with sad news on a daily basis.






In case you don't fly JetBlue often, JetBlue has a very neat print-at-home boarding pass that highlights where your seat will be as you walk down the aisle.



As an American Airlines Executive Platinum, I am quite used to flying on extended leg room seats, but JetBlue's regular seat felt about as the big as any other airline's extended leg room seat (actually - it turns out JetBlue's regular seat has 34" pitch. AA's 737MAX's Main Cabin Extra has 33" pitch lol)




One ding I will give JetBlue is the location of their IFE controller which is on your arm rest. It causes uncontrollable flickering if your neighbor decides to put his/her arm down on top of your controller.



Part 2 - OK, I am in Puerto Rico. Now what?

I won't comment much on the hotel that I stayed. I am cheap as **** and I went with Holiday Day Inn Express Condado that has very tiny pool and is not a beach-front resort just because it was on IHG's PointBreak list.

However, they partner with local beach club where you will have an access to beach chair & towels as a guest of the hotel



But I do want to share you some vibrant pictures of San Juan & its surroundings and their recovery.




Old San Juan is known for its vibrant colored buildings that provide picture perfect opportunity no matter where you are.


As you walk down the street, you will see buildings that will make you feel like that you are not in the U.S.




The city is also known for many "peaceful" co-existing cats who call this city their home.






Many people visit Japan's Cat Island - but if you are living in the U.S., you have a cat island that's much closer to home.

San Juan still has abundant amount of fine dining





Mofongo is a Puerto Rican dish with fried plantains as its main ingredient





If you adventure a bit out of San Juan (to be fair - San Juan's Condado & Isla Verde area have beautiful beach as well, but I wanted to go away from the crowd a bit), you will see plenty world class beaches.






Part 3 - Lastly...

You will still find scars of the storm everywhere as you walk down San Juan or drive its surroundings.





I spoke with many Puerto Ricans during my trip who have told me that they were finally returning to routine and normalcy after Hurricane Maria hit the island hard last fall.
But business that have closed will never open because people who moved to New York & Florida out of desperation may never be coming back. I've also heard from tour operators & restaurant owners who told me that they've had almost zero income between September and March / April, but things were slowly getting better.

Puerto Rico is a beautiful place with really good food that many will enjoy. If you haven't visited or haven't thought about visiting since the storm, you should try when you see a deal next time.

Because right now, it's ready to welcome tourists from around the world, but the only thing that's missing here.... is you.