I am thinking of using my points and spending a week at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan during late October. Any feedback on the hotel would be great. Suggestions for things to do would be awesome too!

Me too and I specifically would like to know how it compares to Jalousie in St. Lucia as I have been previously on points. Thanks!

I wrote a review of the Caribe Hilton at Carbbean-on-line.com. When you get to this site, select Puerto Rico then go to Hotel Reviews. We stayed for one night at the Caribe en route to the Jalousie in St. Lucia where we stayed for a week for our honeymoon a couple of months ago. The Caribe is an older hotel that was once the outstanding hotel on PR in the 40's and 50's and many Hollywood stars stayed there. It has recently been refurbished and has a great pool with swim up bar, a lot of great shops on the lobby level and well kept grounds. We also enjoyed the Morton's Steakhouse that is just adjacent to the hotel. The spa services and workout facilities. Having said that, I thought the service at the Caribe was fair to poor. It is a large, noisy, bustling hotel and seems to be understaffed. We had long waits when we called housekeeping for things like an extra pillow. At check in, the staff didn't seem to have a clue about the Hilton Honors Program and almost turned us away even though we had all of our paperwork showing that we had our points and had redeemed them and had made the reservation well in advance. So, if you do use your Hilton points at the Caribe make sure and double check before you arive that they will be honored. We were assigned a very average room that overlooked the roof, even though we told the hotel in advance of our arrival that we would be there on our honeymoon. We had asked for a non-smoking room, but the check in staff put us in a smoking room. I don't know if this was a mistake or if they intentionally give guests using the Hilton points the less desirable rooms. Also, the Caribe promotes itself as having the only private beach in PR, but it's a tiny, unimpressive beach. Overall, the Caribe was OK for an overnight stay, but I wouldn't want to spend a week there. As far as a comparison to the Jalousie, I can tell you that the Jalousie is a magnifcent resort with great service, luxury rooms, unbelievably breathtaking scenery, and other great amenitites. The Jalousie is is of the very best resorts in the Caribbean; the Caribe is just another good to average hotel on PR.

Thank you for the input. You seem to be an active Honors member. What other Hilton's are comparable to the Jalousie? I easily obtain enough points each year now to get 7 free nites at their best hotels. I loved the Jalousie and would like something similar elsewhere. Thanks a bunch.

I'm not sure you will find another Hilton in the Caribbean that is comparable to the Jalousie. It is my understanding that the Jalousie was built in a cooperative effort between the St. Lucia government and the Hilton corporation, so it is quite a unique arrangement. Of course, my experience with the Hilton resorts in the Caribbean is limited to the Jalousie and the Caribe so I am not an authority on what other Hiltons have to offer. Sorry about that. Good luck!

Hilton did not build Jalousie. It was an existing AI hotel that Hilton took over the management of.<BR>It is the nicest Hilton in the Caribbean.

Well, OK, for the sake of technical precision, the government of St. Lucia and Hilton cooperatively worked together to refurbish and overhaul an existing hotel at the site where the Jalousie now stands. Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to flyspeck some other messages on this board to see how how many errors I can find.

Ok, so the Jalousie is the best in the caribbean. Is there another hilton in North America, South America, Mexico, etc. that is comparable. I do realize this is the carribean forum, I'm just trying to continue with this thread and am assuming that people here have travelled to other locations. Thanks !

You might want to look into the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki or Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island of Hawaii. I haven't been to either, but I've heard good things about them.

If you like the beach - the Caribe Hilton in San Juan is not the place to go. They have a rock sea wall around the hotel.<BR><BR>