I had a conference at sea that ended in San Juan last month, and since my Mom had never been to Puerto Rico, we decided to add on a few extra days to check it out. It turns out that it was my Mom’s favorite stop on the trip, and I know I was so glad to see how well-recovered San Juan is post hurricane Maria (which was not the case for all of the islands we saw). Since we had limited time, but still wanted to have some relaxation by the water, we decided to stay at the Condado Vanderbilt, which turned out to be a great decision! Here are my thoughts about the hotel.
Location – Condado beach is a little like what South Beach is to Miami – it’s just about 10 minutes across a bridge from Old Town San Juan, and was one of the first beach destinations to be developed in the city. There’s a lovely lagoon on the back side of the island, and a string of hotels & restaurants along the beach, which deals with lots of erosion & storm changes, apparently. Some of it is rocky, some does have sandy parts, but all of it is on the Atlantic and apparently prone to some strong riptides. The Vanderbilt is not quite the first hotel you get to on your way back from town, but it was the first one built out there, in 1919. Here are some views from the hotel, both back towards Old Town (and the cruise port), and looking east (which, to me, is the prettier view).
Looking east, down Condado. 
Looking back towards Old Town (you can see at least one cruise ship back there!) 
Looking down from our room.
Rooms & Style – The hotel is a bit of a mix, from the central and historic main building to the two modern room towers. As you enter, it definitely tries to keep to it’s original character – the lobby and lobby lounge are both pretty roaring-20’s chic, with lots of art deco touches and dark woods. As you head into either of the room wings, you get a much more modern feeling. Our room, located in the West wing, was quite spacious and lovely. Two VERY comfortable queen beds (I seriously would purchase that bed happily) on marble tile floors with an all-marble bathroom. No tub in the bathroom, but a nice large shower with a rain shower AND a hand-held shower head for your choice. The one critique I have on the bathroom is that there’s not a ton of storage around the sink, and that the towel rods were slightly oddly placed. GREAT bathrobes though (another thing I considered purchasing!). For whatever reason, I didn’t get any photos of my room or the bathroom (SORRY), but I grabbed one off their site which is exactly what ours looked like.
The main lobby has this cool dual, spiral staircase. 
Overlooking the lobby. 
How GORGEOUS is this ladies room off the lobby? 
From their site, an example of what my room looked like.
Amenities & Food – The hotel really shines when you start talking about the amenities and food on-site. They have about 5 different restaurants, and it’s not even that huge of a hotel! There are two casual restaurants by the pools at the bases of either tower (Ola, which is the main restaurant with an awesome breakfast buffet and decent lunch options, and Tequila & Tacos, which is on the adult-only east side of the hotel for some pretty tasty Mexican food in a fun, open-air environment), and then they have two fancy restaurants too (1919 which is fine dining and STK which is a steak house – we didn’t try either of those b/c, in case you didn’t know, San Juan is a TOTAL foodie town!). The hotel is surrounded on 3 sides with a fabulous ocean-front deck. On the main, family-friendly, west side there are two pools by Ola – one of which is a dreamy little infinity plunge pool that was always popular. On the east side, tucked away under some trees is a small & quiet adults-only pool, with a hot tub stuck off on it’s own outside of the taco restaurant (I’m not sure the point of it, really – who needs a hot tub in the tropics??). ALL along the ocean there are lounge chairs and umbrellas, and on the east side there is direct access to the sandy beach just off the side of the hotel. (Our waitress explained that there used to be their own little sandy beach directly in front of the adult pool, but a big storm changed the sand distribution this summer, so now the hotel only has a tiny beach of their own…) There was a dj & bar over on the west side, but it never got to be too much of a party place – and if it did I could have retreated to the quiet east side, no problem. REALLY gorgeous setting over some really gorgeous water!
The main pool on the west side, by Ola. 
Enjoying the little infinity pool! 
The lobby bar. 
The lobby lounge – very 20’s chic! 
Tacos & Tequila, on the east side of the hotel. 
The teeny bit of sand beach on the east side. (There’s a larger, public beach to the right.) 
The small adult-only pool on the east side. 
The random hot tub!
To conclude- we were super happy with our choice of hotel for our last two nights in the Caribbean. The Vanderbilt is a really great choice for a compromise hotel. It’s not directly IN Old Town, but only a ~10 minute drive away, and it’s not a true beach resort like you find farther from town, but you still get plenty of beach vibes. Plus, the champagne upon arrival and subsequent welcome amenity thanks to my Virtuoso affiliation are nice touches! More soon on San Juan, because it is READY for visitors!