Explore ancient worlds in one day at San Juan
- Claire Ottaviano
- May 11, 2016
- 2 min read
When the Brilliance of the Seas docked at Old San Juan at 8am we were among the first in line to disembark, and at one minute after our scheduled time to re-board we were with the last to return.
With seven days of sailing across the Atlantic ahead of us we stretched our day on land as far as we could with forts and castles to see and Spanish streets to roam.
Old San Juan’s two forts, Castillo de San Cristóbal and San Felipe del Morro are in walking distance from the port.
As usual ignore the tourist traps waiting for you at the dock offering ‘now discounted’ tours of the city. Everything in Old San Yuan is accessible on foot and only $5US gets you into both forts.
San Juan is Puerto Rico's capital City, the new part of town features a bustling resort strip, known for its bars, nightclubs and casinos. The old cobblestoned Old San Juan features colourful Spanish colonial buildings and 16th-century landmarks.
Just a 15-minute walk away we made it to Castillo de San Cristóbal, the largest fortification built by the Spanish in the New World. Finished in 1790 it was built to guard from enemy approaches by land.
Just another short walk away its sister fort, San Felipe del Morro, defended against sea attacks.
After conquering the castles we made our way into the narrow cobblestone streets framed by classically Spanish brightly coloured homes with cast iron balconies.
Cats act as doormen to each house, basking in the sun and laying about as if they own the place.
We wanted to see more of the New City so we asked information for the nearest bike hire and hopped onto peddle power. If you want to cycle San Juan there was only one bike hire we could tell of called Rent the Bicycle, turn left at the street before you hit Pier six out of Old San Juan. ($17US for three hours)
Old San Yuan itself, with its Cobblestone streets is not particularly bike friendly but once on the main road it is easy to navigate between the Cities using the green bike lanes. We only deviated to bypass construction works building more bike lanes!
Old San Yuan is joined to the main land by a bridge, school children were spending their afternoon jumping off the bridge into the bay.
Hotels line the Laguna Del Condado and it’s not hard to find a bar or restaurant to stop at. We however wanted to enjoy a cold Mexican beer by the beach.
Struggling to find a local brew we settled on a Margarita and made our way back towards Old Town and enjoyed it laying on the grass in front of San Felipe.
All up the round trip took us about two and a half hours at a leisurely pace.
I bought a $2 beer to scab the password for the WiFi to a bar outside the ship and we madly checked in on family and friends for 15 minutes and made it back on the ship with no minutes to spare.
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