Latest News
Please contact info@destinationpuertorico.com for more information on any of the following items.
<< Back ||
El Convento Receives Much Deserved Recognition
Condé Nast Traveler recently recognized Hotel El Convento (originally a 16th century Carmelite Convent) as one of the 700 best places to stay. And Travel and Leisure included it among the best 500 hotels in the world.
Sofo’s Trendy Restaurants a Great Draw
Increasingly we are seeing groups descend en masse on SoFo (for South Fortaleza), which is essentially the last block of Fortaleza Street, adjacent to Plaza Colon in old San Juan. Here you will find the vanguard that started it all, the Parrot Club, along with Tantra, Dragon Fly, AguaViva, Trois Cent Onze, and several other very trendy restaurants. Many groups opt out of even trying to make reservations, preferring to do a cash allowance and let their guests move from location to location, turning the evening into more of a party than a mere dinner. Transportation in large motorcoaches to Plaza Colon makes for very reasonable transfer costs.
Organized dining in SoFo with reservations and mini-menus can be arranged for groups of up to 200 persons.
Condado Area to Make a Comeback
Resembling a scenario familiar to players of Sim City in its early versions, the closing of the La Concha and Condado Beach Hotels in 1997 marked the acceleration of decay of the Ashford Avenue commercial enterprises. The situation is about to be reversed with the 2006 reopening of the old Condado Beach Hotel (originally opened in the 1920s and the first deluxe property on the island) as the Vanderbilt and the reopening of the La Concha as the island’s first Renaissance Hotel. The mastermind behind this bold move is none other than Hugh Andrews, the same tourism visionary who is largely responsible for taking tourism out of the closet in the early eighties, the man who took the Condado Holiday Inn and turned it into the popular Condado Plaza (now the Wyndham Condado Plaza), the man who took the beat-up bankrupt El San Juan Hotel and opened it as the island’s first non-union resort in 1985, and the fellow that took the dilapidated Conquistador Hotel after it had been trashed by a Maharishi and converted it into the finest major resort in the Caribbean when he reopened it in the early nineties. Hugh is President of International Hospitality Enterprises which is the managing partner in the restoration of the La Concha and Vanderbilt properties. His firm also operates the Marriot Courtyard, El Convento Hotel and the Best Western Pierre Hotel.
<< Back ||
|
