We returned last night from our trip to Puerto Rico and I thought I'd share some of my favorite bits with you all. I have already posted an extensive review of the property in the Members Only review section, so I'll leave most of my comments from there out of this thread. From the descriptions in the old reviews versus the two most recent, the resort has obviously had extensive improvements, while at the same time, there are still a few issues they could improve. But it is a nice place to stay if you want to explore the eastern half of the island while not being in San Juan.
A note about images: There are many pictures below. My dh specializes in food photography, but there are many others as well. I've just posted representative pics here, feel free to click them for many more on our Flickr pages. Also, since we are limited on the amount of images per post, and it may take me more than a day to write this report, I'll divide this up into several posts. I'd love your comments and questions.
We only cooked breakfast in our unit, going out for lunch and dinner every day. We got in early and could not check in until 4 PM, so we did a little San Juan exploring on Saturday. We had lunch at Metropol [caution, music in link], a popular Cuban chain in the San Juan area, they have 4 locations. I recommend whatever the soup of the day is and sticking to the other daily specials as well. The lechon was rather dry. This was at the Isla Verde location. Later in the week, we also ate at the Fajardo location, and we thought it was much better.
The soups are a meal at Metropol
Then we stopped at the Plaza del Mercado de Santurce, which is a semi-indoors produce market. We picked up some fruits (including a massive mango) and vegetables to have with our breakfasts. There are 3-4 produce vendors, they all have similar stuff, but you have to inspect carefully for quality. This is a rather local place, so some Spanish is helpful. When dh, who is fluent, was not next to me, I was mostly able to communicate with hand gestures and my few spanish words, but another shopper helped translate for me when there was an item I was unfamiliar with (what to do with breadfruit). There is a batidas vendor, where we had a delicious multi-fruited milkshake. DH ordered 1 large one for $3.50. They handed him an almost full blender full of the drink, so he got two cups and we shared and left some over! There is also a meat vendor, but we skipped that, and one that seemed to specialize in Goya products. Oh, and we picked up some homemade, frozen, sofrito (a Puerto Rican mixture of onions, garlic and herbs added to most everything), to use to flavor our morning omelets.
Shopping for produce at a local market in San Juan
We then headed south and picked up some more supplies at the Costco in Caguas. I was curious to see if it was any different from my local Costco. The answer is, not really, it's just Costco en espaniol. So, I was able to get my Egg Starts (Kirkland brand of Egg Beaters), some whole grain bread, 2 cases of bottled water and a few other necessities. By then we headed straight to Humacao and we arrived just after check in had started.
Club Cala de Palmas, Palmas del Mar, Humacao, Puerto Rico
We headed to Punta Santiago for dinner (about 25 minutes from the TS). Intending to go to Trulio's Seafood, which was recommended in Frommer's and the New York Times, but it has closed. A local recommended we try Paradise Seafood, which was just up the road (Rt 3 on the right when heading north through "town"). We did and it was really great. I highly recommend it. I had a simple fillet of snapper in creole sauce (tomatoes, onions, peppers) and it was perfectly cooked. DH had some seafood asopao (soup with rice) which he loved. We also had side of mofongo (mashed plantains with garlic), and it was amazing. For dessert we had a flan topped with candied cocount and amaretto. The flan was delicious, but the candy made it too sweet. But all week I was comparing that mofongo and the flan to others and Paradise's was always judged the best. In fact, after a disappointing meal later in the week, we headed back to Paradise just to get dessert. The plain vanilla flan was perfection.
Paradise Seafood, Punta Santiago
A note here about food in Puerto Rico. For the most part, especially in restaurants that specialize in Puerto Rican food, it is very protein and starch heavy. Cooked vegetables, other than rice, beans, plantains, potatoes and the occasional stewed tomato and onion, are non-existent. Ensalada Verde is invariably shredded iceberg lettuce, with pink tomato slices, and the occasional bit of white onion, with Russian dressing. Get your vegetables in by making veggie omelets for breakfast or having a salad lunch at your TS.
A note about images: There are many pictures below. My dh specializes in food photography, but there are many others as well. I've just posted representative pics here, feel free to click them for many more on our Flickr pages. Also, since we are limited on the amount of images per post, and it may take me more than a day to write this report, I'll divide this up into several posts. I'd love your comments and questions.
We only cooked breakfast in our unit, going out for lunch and dinner every day. We got in early and could not check in until 4 PM, so we did a little San Juan exploring on Saturday. We had lunch at Metropol [caution, music in link], a popular Cuban chain in the San Juan area, they have 4 locations. I recommend whatever the soup of the day is and sticking to the other daily specials as well. The lechon was rather dry. This was at the Isla Verde location. Later in the week, we also ate at the Fajardo location, and we thought it was much better.
The soups are a meal at Metropol
Then we stopped at the Plaza del Mercado de Santurce, which is a semi-indoors produce market. We picked up some fruits (including a massive mango) and vegetables to have with our breakfasts. There are 3-4 produce vendors, they all have similar stuff, but you have to inspect carefully for quality. This is a rather local place, so some Spanish is helpful. When dh, who is fluent, was not next to me, I was mostly able to communicate with hand gestures and my few spanish words, but another shopper helped translate for me when there was an item I was unfamiliar with (what to do with breadfruit). There is a batidas vendor, where we had a delicious multi-fruited milkshake. DH ordered 1 large one for $3.50. They handed him an almost full blender full of the drink, so he got two cups and we shared and left some over! There is also a meat vendor, but we skipped that, and one that seemed to specialize in Goya products. Oh, and we picked up some homemade, frozen, sofrito (a Puerto Rican mixture of onions, garlic and herbs added to most everything), to use to flavor our morning omelets.
Shopping for produce at a local market in San Juan
We then headed south and picked up some more supplies at the Costco in Caguas. I was curious to see if it was any different from my local Costco. The answer is, not really, it's just Costco en espaniol. So, I was able to get my Egg Starts (Kirkland brand of Egg Beaters), some whole grain bread, 2 cases of bottled water and a few other necessities. By then we headed straight to Humacao and we arrived just after check in had started.
Club Cala de Palmas, Palmas del Mar, Humacao, Puerto Rico
We headed to Punta Santiago for dinner (about 25 minutes from the TS). Intending to go to Trulio's Seafood, which was recommended in Frommer's and the New York Times, but it has closed. A local recommended we try Paradise Seafood, which was just up the road (Rt 3 on the right when heading north through "town"). We did and it was really great. I highly recommend it. I had a simple fillet of snapper in creole sauce (tomatoes, onions, peppers) and it was perfectly cooked. DH had some seafood asopao (soup with rice) which he loved. We also had side of mofongo (mashed plantains with garlic), and it was amazing. For dessert we had a flan topped with candied cocount and amaretto. The flan was delicious, but the candy made it too sweet. But all week I was comparing that mofongo and the flan to others and Paradise's was always judged the best. In fact, after a disappointing meal later in the week, we headed back to Paradise just to get dessert. The plain vanilla flan was perfection.
Paradise Seafood, Punta Santiago
A note here about food in Puerto Rico. For the most part, especially in restaurants that specialize in Puerto Rican food, it is very protein and starch heavy. Cooked vegetables, other than rice, beans, plantains, potatoes and the occasional stewed tomato and onion, are non-existent. Ensalada Verde is invariably shredded iceberg lettuce, with pink tomato slices, and the occasional bit of white onion, with Russian dressing. Get your vegetables in by making veggie omelets for breakfast or having a salad lunch at your TS.
The living room and dining room is very much like the picture on the TUG resort database images. The bedrooms were of adequate size. Not too small for the king sized (MB) and 2 twin (2 BR), but not overly large. The lighting in the bedrooms was bad. 1 lamp in the 2nd br, 2 in the master, but all operated with switch on the lamp itself, not with a wall switch. And there were wall switches, but I couldn't figure out what they did. Ample closet & drawer space. The kitchen is small, functional, not glamorous, but it has full sized appliances, which is a plus if you plan to do a lot of cooking.
