Puerto Rico
 

We're taking our first trip to san juan over memorial day weekend and would like to know what areas are good for nightlife (ie quality, non-tourist restaurants) that is also relatively close to places we can have a cocktail. is new san juan preferable to old san juan? we are staying at the caribe hilton.
also, if anyone has any information on how to rent bikes please share!

Staying at the Caribe Hilton, you are a very short cab ride away from Old San Juan. There are many good restaurants and places to have drinks in OSJ. The Parrot Club (modern Puerto Rican fare) is very good, as is DragonFly (Asian-Latin fusion). Aquaviva also gets good reviews, although I have only had drinks there. A cool place to have a drink is Kudeta (pronounced like "coup d'etat").

If you make it to Condado, which also is a very short cab ride from the Caribe, I would recommend Alliji Mojilli (upscale Puerto Rican fare).

Also, if you want to venture a little further away - about a 15 minute cab ride - the Wyndham El San Juan in Isla Verde is a great place to have a drink and people watch, especially on a weekend. It has a huge, ornate lobby bar, live music, sushi bar and cigar bar. It gets very crowded on weekend nights, with local Puerto Ricans, as well as tourists.

Thanks! have you heard anything about atlantica?

The Condado neighborhood is always hopping, and not as touristy as OSJ.

Sorry, I am not familiar with that restaurant.

Thats ok, you gave plenty of insight! thanks

I second the recommendations for the Parrot Club and Alliji Mojilli. Both were excellent. We stayed at the Caribe Hilton a few years ago. Liked it very much, stop in at the lobby bar for a nightcap. The bartenders are a trip! If you have the time, rent a car for the day and go see the countryside. We had a great hike at the rainforest which is only 30 minutes or so from the Caribe Hilton.

Yes, definitely both those restaurants. Also Aguaviva and Dragonfly are wonderful. Have fun!

Im actually a little concerned about the hotel - i keep seeing mixed reviews - some people say its wonderful and others say the service is terrible, the rooms have a musty odor, and the lobby is in need of renovation. I hope you are right! Hiking through the rainforest sounds amazing, Im assuming the hotel will have all the information on that...

Stayed at Caribe last year and was a wreck due to the reviews I had read. In fact - even when we checked in we TOLD to guy we were worried becasue of the reviews.
It was lovely. The lobby and pool were great.
I totally reccomend upgrading to the Exec. Floor. It was a little extra money and the cocktail hour was a nice treat.
The rooms were FINE, regular Marriott. Clean and not smelly.