Just make the commitment to PR 70.3 this year and I was wondering where I should be looking to stay. I haven’t looked at hotels since I’m going to be there for 9 nights/10 days. I’ve mostly been looking on homeaway and flipkey. I just want to make sure I end up in an area that is fairly quiet and/or safe.
Anything around Condado Beach or Old San Juan is good. If you don’t want a hotel, then check out AirBnb
In case anyone else is reading this thread looking for hotel feedback, we did the race this year, and stayed at the Caribe Hilton (the host hotel). The hotel was fine for the stay - not a dive, not swanky - comfortable, in good condition, friendly staff. 5 minutes to swim to bike transition and 1500 meters or less from the swim start. I thought it was just fine. We’re about to sign up for the race again and that’s where we’ll stay the second time.
Also did the race in 2014. We stayed at the host hotel as well. It was very nice and great for the family. We then left San Juan for Culebra where we rented a house for five days. If this is within your budget I cannot recommend it highly enough. Culebra quite simply is one of the best places that we have been in the Caribbean and we have been to a LOT of places down there.
Cheers
Stayed here last year (link below). Gated, kitchen, had 1 parking spot, and walking distance to shops, eats, rental car… Beach was empty in front of condo, so no crowds. Would recommend. Wife really liked it. Used the pool next door (Marriott) to swim laps and had a bike trainer to cycle (roads too busy to cycle on). Host hotel was over priced and crowded.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ioiuRHLz88
http://www.vrbo.com/395981
I have some friends who have stayed in the Caribe Hilton the past couple years and agreed with the previous comment that its fine for the price, and very convenient as is the other host hotel. I am actually looking for a place myself now and saw that the Caribe IM rate is sold out and it is much more expensive now. Please let me know if anyone hears of someone with an extra room at the Caribe with the Ironman rate. Thanks
I stayed for a week while I was down here last year and rented a condo from VRBO that was in the Condado area. I could walk to swim start and transition from there and it was nice to have the extra space. Price was barely more than a room at the Caribe.
I have some friends who have stayed in the Caribe Hilton the past couple years and agreed with the previous comment that its fine for the price, and very convenient as is the other host hotel. I am actually looking for a place myself now and saw that the Caribe IM rate is sold out and it is much more expensive now. Please let me know if anyone hears of someone with an extra room at the Caribe with the Ironman rate. Thanks
I reluctantly booked at the Condado Hilton last night after dealing with the people at the Carible Hilton and swearing I wouldn’t.
It was showing sold out online, there is a marathon event with cheaper rates still open for similar days but not the friday, and I figured maybe there were cancellations and the site was not updated might as well call. So I call monday and speak to someone who says that there are rooms, the rate is still good, they can fudge the dates on the marathon for me but it was after normal hours and to call back tuesday so someone with override could do it.
I call back tuesday, the woman first claims there is no ironman rate period only to then go on and on about how the race is great and they start bookings the day after the race every year! I then say the guy yesterday said we could do something with the marathon rate (which is 205 vs 215 before 18% resort fee) pushing it for a check in on friday, she again then claims there is no marathon! Then she says she can’t do anything with the price (its 1pm local time) because no managers are in due to it being a huge holiday for them. She then proceeds to keep indirectly calling me a liar for calling the day before or I would have just booked it because anyone could have done it, while she tells me that she can’t do it.
I fully accept that I was calling about something showing sold out, had the first person just told me nope sorry sold out I wouldn’t have cared but he didn’t he specifically said there were openings and to call back.
A little further away but well reviewed is the Sheraton casino something, hotels.com has get the third night free so the average nightly is 193 I think. We were going to do that but decided to just do the Condado Hilton for convenience, against my wishes to not give hilton a dime on this trip.
The Conrad is very nice. Very close to the swim start and not far from the expo.
We stayed at the Condado last year after waiting too long to book and finding the Caribe sold out. I don’t think it really mattered much. Both urban hotels without much in the way of resort offerings for the fees you pay. We had planned a longer vacation with half the stay in the west part of the island, but had to cut the trip short and only stayed at the hotel. We just decided to not focus on the high cost of accommodations and dining, and instead just focus on the race.
With these hotels you’re either near transition or near the swim start so you’ll be walking between them on race morning anyway. Depending on when your wave goes, the Condado makes it a little easier because you can set your stuff up in transition and then head back to the Condado before your swim wave goes.
As others have mentioned, there are a lot of condos just north of the Condado/swim start. You can always take a look for options. We were surprised at the lack of dining choices within walking distance. We ate too many meals at the Condado. The Caribe has more food choices, but this is all hotel dining. More options in Old San Juan if you have the energy to get down there and back regularly.
Overall the race is pretty cool. Enjoy your trip!
The Conrad is very nice. Very close to the swim start and not far from the expo.
My bad, I guess the Conrad is now called the Condado Plaza Hilton. It was nice when it was the Conrad. I’m assuming it is still nice. I’m not sure why Hilton decided to change the name.
As others have mentioned, there are a lot of condos just north of the Condado/swim start. You can always take a look for options. We were surprised at the lack of dining choices within walking distance. We ate too many meals at the Condado. The Caribe has more food choices, but this is all hotel dining. More options in Old San Juan if you have the energy to get down there and back regularly.
I was pushing for a rental house/condo but since this is a compromise trip with the GF who wanted to go backpacking around mexico we won’t be staying on one place.
Right now 3 nights in san juan, then we are doing 2-3 days in the southwest corner, and then another 2-3 nights however that ends up working out at some tree hugger yoga type place with no internet :(… Nothing confirmed on which of those other two is coming first or last.
I actually have never stayed in a host hotel at all I usually end up 20 minutes away or so as I can be cheap when it comes to hotels. Since we’ll be traveling around the island should have a car all week meaning getting food outside of the “Resort” shouldn’t be an issue. We were going to skip it seeing as parking is like 16 bucks at the hotel but once you lose the week discount on the car and factor in taxi from the airport it seems to just be worth paying for parking and then being able to get to places easier.
and seriously those resort fees… I don’t need a pool concierge!
Sounds like you normally approach races the way we do it. With the venue location for PR70.3 we were worried about staying too far away and which roads would be shut down. I think we would have been ok accessing from through Condado and the east on race morning. Most other times of the day, getting in or out that direction is interesting with the combination of one way streets and old city meets freeways! West of the bay the roads in the area all get pinched down to access Old San Juan and the bike route runs right through there and onto the freeways heading south.
You can find grocery stores in Condado to skip some meals out. With the car you can get to OSJ easily. Even with the car we only ventured down there one time. We would have liked to explore more of the old city, but it is pretty touristy and I like to avoid that when possible. We had the same choke on the parking costs. PSA. Parking is under the Condado. Fairly easy access during the week, but Fri and Saturday the space is limited.
I won’t offer much on the pool concierge side of things. Best thing we did was not spend much time there. We made the mistake of having lunch out there one day. The only thing worse than paying resort prices for food is the bonus of terrible service:(
We did a bit of exploring east of SJ hiking in the El Yunque and along the coast near Vieques. The beaches stretch for miles. We spent one day west of SJ giving the bike course a short recon and then relaxing on a beach. The SW part of the island should be great. We were booked out there before cutting the trip short.
The most unusual part of PR was that we could find very little info on places to ride. One of the only areas mentioned was the old AF base in the NW corner of the island. So we just wrote off any riding except for a shakedown ride in Condado. I think you could ride the western portion of the bike course on the 165 along the coast, and where it heads south, in relative safety if you feel the need to spin your legs.