I’ll be taking my gf to San Juan, arriving this Thursday afternoon and coming back on Sunday afternoon. I’ll be staying at the La Concha Resort. The only thing that I have lined up is the beach from around 9am to 2pm on Friday and Saturday. So what else should I do? All suggestions are welcome!
El Yunque is very nice, if you are into tropical rainforests with waterfalls to frolic in, and so forth.
I walked around in Old San Juan when I was there, but be careful to keep your bearings. I would walk into a bar on street level and it would be crowded, so I’d go to the upstairs bar. After a few drinks I’d walk right out onto a different street than I’d entered from.A few hours later I was very lost. I was traveling alone. It was a little scary, in a funny way.
El Yunque is not in San Juan, though. So, in San Juan proper, go to Old San Juan, visit the Spanish forts (I’m partial to the smaller one, San Cristobal), visit the Capitol building, etc. You can also walk around the hotel area (IIRC, it is a touristy area).
But the best advise is “get out of San Juan”. 
I’ll cop to assuming a rental car that may not, in fact, exist.
Go to Old San Juan and have breakfast at Cafeteria Mallorca. Good, Old School San Juan Diner where the locals go before heading out to work. The guys behind the counter still wear soda jerk hats 
I probably won’t rent one. If I venture away from San Juan, I’ll probably just pay for a tour.
I know a boat you can get on…
This is my recommendation as well. Had a brief time there on a cruise a couple of years ago, and the fort I visited was cool. The neighborhood around it (Between the fort and the cruise ship docks) is pretty good for walking, as well, and I found some cool places to have lunch and beers.
Right!
But yes, with just two useful days, JJ may not have that much of a range; OTOH it would keep him out of traffic. I’d maybe cut the beach bumming a little to give me more time for daytime Old SJ activities on at least one of the days (I endorse the Capitol visit, of course). Maybe take in also a tour of the Bacardi plant on the other side of the bay on pone of the days. For El Yunque there are morning/afternoon tours available but even so it may be a tight fit it into the day if the goal is to take it chill.
OTOH what’s wrong with lounging on the beach while sipping drinks…
La Concha is in Condado, a classic tourist strip with hip (and not-so-hip) eateries and shops (e.g. Cartier a mere short block away across the street); nightlife is of course all all over OSJ, Condado and Isla Verde (kayaker, getting out of a San Juan bar not quite sure if you’re in the same street is not that unusual; ya gotta watch out for them fruity drinks, they’re the treacherous ones 
). The beach at the hotel is not that great IIRC but probably will do for a couple of days.
BTW, re: the Renaissance La Concha itself, very good property, nice 50s/60s architecture in the old tower, but be warned they will sock it to ya with a hefty daily “Resort fee” at bill-settling time. That cursed practice has made it here and the hoteliers have taken to it like crack, I had some words on that on Tripadvisor.
Welcome and I hope you enjoy it!
IIRC, the Museo de Arte Contempóraneo (Modern Art Museum) is relatively walkable, or at least, in a continuous neighborhood, if you don’t mind walking through slightly less touristy areas than Condado.
If you had access to some transportation, the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico is in San Juan, a few neighborhoods away from Condado.
In Santurce, actually, the Minillas neighborhood – In daytime good weather the Contemporáneo, at the former Labra School on Todd Ave. is reasonably walkable from la Concha (but watch while going under the overpass, drivers at that exit tend to disregard pedestrians). The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico is in, a very short cab ride further.
FWIW, I was extremely disappointed in the Bacardi tour. You don’t really get to see anything other than a bit of the outside of the actual factory, you get a mock-up of how they made things a hundred years ago then a chance to see some videos of the current process–probably a lot more impressive before YouTube. The only halfway-neat part was a bartender guy telling you how to properly make popular rum drinks, but it’s just not that hard to figure out a rum and coke.
A what? Oh, a cuba libre.
Thanks for the advice so far. I will definitely cab it over to Old San Juan once or twice. Is OSJ good both during the daytime and nighttime? I’ll talk to my gf about whether to do the rainforest tour. If not I’m perfectly happy with pool, beach, food and drinks.
For the historic/cultural sites you definitely want daytime. Shoppingwise many OSJ retailers are unexpectedly smalltownish about business hours but there are galleries that open into the evening. It’s good both day and night for dining, barhopping, strolling the main historic streets, but when we get to nightlife-type activities you can then choose around Condado itself as well.
Being the tropic, be aware of the probability of a heavy rainstorm hitting out of nowhere in the middle of your day! We’ve been getting a near-clockwork 2pm torrential downpour for the last 3 days.
Great, will follow-up with what we actually did for those interested.
Take a Segway tour of Old San Juan.
The Mrs. and I did it, lotsa fun!!
So, we got back last night from San Juan and we’re missing it already. La Concha is a very nice resort and we spent most of our time there. We got there on Thursday afternoon, got some drinks, went to an Italian restaurant on Ashford, and ended the late night with some drinks at one of the pools and hot tub. Luckily we had a nice private nightswim until about 3am.
On Friday, we spent all day at the pool. All day, with lots of drinks. At night we ate at Perla, which is in the famous conch shell of the resort. It was kind of expensive, but was one of the best meals of my life.
On Saturday, we spent the morning and early afternoon at the pool and beach. The beach was sort of rough, but I was mostly disappointed with how oily the water was. I expect much better water in the Caribbean, so we spent most of our time at the pool. But the view of the water from the balcony of our oceanfront room was spectacular. In the afternoon, we walked around Old San Juan, visited El Morro, and stopped at a few spots for drinks and shopping. We ended the night at Marmalade for another one of the best meals of my life. Luckily the concierge at La Concha has a connection there and was able to get us one of the best tables in the house at the last minute. If Perla and Marmalade are representative of the fine dining in Puerto Rico, I have to say that it is vastly under-rated.
All in all, it was a very nice, very short but very expensive trip. Thank you for the of the advice.
Hmm. About a month ago my wife and I booked a vacation package in PR in early December also staying at La Concha. I got 8 days/7 nights w/non-stop flight and rental car for $793.16 per including all taxes and fees. I just looked it up and that package is already going for $1300 each. So I’m thinking I scored. Sounds like I’ll be spending the real money when we actually get there.