After a morning of surfing on La Pared Beach, we decided to spend the afternoon in San Juan, focusing on the two main fortresses – Castillo San Felipe del Morro and Castillo San Cristóbal. Given that these are on opposite ends of Old San Juan, we also spent some time wandering through the most exciting parts of the city.

Our Experience

Parking

Traffic right next to Old San Juan was really horrendous, though the rest of the island was mostly fine. We were originally going to park at a garage next to the old city entrance, though slightly changed our plans to another parking lot given the backed up roads.

Self-Guided Walking Tour

From there, we followed the suggested walking path from our guidebook. It took us through some pretty squares, a couple of churches, and both fortresses. We really should have budgeted more time for this. Due to closing times, we didn’t see the second fortresses in as much detail as we would have liked, but we still got a reasonable overview.

Paseo de la Princesa

We parked near the Paseo de la Princesa promenade, so it was only natural to begin our walk there. It started with a lovely walk along the water. Although the temperatures were quite warm and there was very little shade, it was still quite pleasant. Plan to wear lots of sunscreen and bring a hat and/or sunglasses!

San Juan Gate

This brought us to the San Juan gate, which was named for John the Baptist and is where we entered the city. As you enter, really take a look at how hard it would have been to invade this city. As this was the first fortress people would have encountered when traveling from Europe, it was vital for the Spanish to maintain control over this fort.

Catedral de San Juan Bautista

The most well known cathedral in San Juan is the Catedral de San Juan Bautista. As the second oldest church in the Western Hemisphere and the oldest church in America, it is definitely worth a visit.

We also went into another church, the name of which I don’t remember, but it was interesting to note that Puerto Rican national pride was evident even in the nativity scene displayed on this alter.

Castillo San Felipe del Morro

Our first big stop was the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, also known as El Morro.

Built in 1539, this fortress was spectacular at defending one of the best harbors in all of the Caribbean. It is notable that Sir Francis Drake tried to invade San Juan and was surprisingly thwarted, sealing the Spanish gateway to the Americas.

While there were a few hiccups, Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule until the United States took control in 1898 through the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War.

We found the grounds to be quite pleasant, although entering the interior of the fortress seemed to require many flights of stairs and didn’t seem to promise much at the bottom of them. Given the heat and our time constraints, we decided not to expend the energy.

A Walk Through Old San Juan

From here, we took a walk through Old San Juan to the next fortress. One of the most interesting aspects of the city are the brightly colored building and the Spanish architecture. If we would have had more time, there were several museums and historic buildings that we would have liked to visit.

Castillo San Cristóbal

After walking to the other end of Old San Juan, we made it to the Castillo San Cristóbal, which was included in our ticket to El Morro.

Unfortunately, they were just getting ready to close most of the interior tunnels and we only had a few minutes to explore. I think this part of the fortress would have been really neat to spend more time.

Even so, we still had fun exploring the grounds. Finished in 1783, this fortress was built due to the English invasion in 1598 and the Dutch invasion in 1625. While El Morro was excellent at preventing attach by sea, Old San Juan’s weakness was invasion by land, so Castillo San Cristóbal was the Spanish solution to this problem.

Columbus Square

As we walked back to our car, the last stop of the day was to visit the monument to Christopher Columbus in Columbus Square. While my husband and I enjoyed learning about Columbus in schools, it now appears that the kids learn about more of the unsavory side of his legacy. If you can get past the negative side of his character, he really did a lot for opening the new world.

Dinner at Distrito T-Mobile

It was slightly early to get dinner, so we decided to drive to a restaurant mall, Distrito T-Mobile, near the Convention Center. The places in Old San Juan probably would have had more character, though they were crowded on the holiday week.

We checked out the restaurants and wandered the nearby park for a bit, then, since the boys really wanted tacos, decided to eat at Lupe Reyes, which was somewhat better than the Yelp reviews seem to indicate.

All in all, it was a great day trip. While in Puerto Rico, try to set aside some time for some of San Juan’s most important sites.

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