Puerto Rico Rio Mar or Intercontinental?? Or Something Else?
 

Hi All, Ok so I narrowed my hotel choices we are making for a quick trip to Puerto Rico for 4 days on July 4th wkend. Basically we are deciding on either the Rio Mar Wyndham Resort or the Intercontinental. I know they are vastly different in location but hopefully someone can help. We are primarily looking for a place to spend time at the beach as well as do some shopping, visit Old San Juan and hit the common tourist sites. I will have a rental car, but is the Rio Mar to secluded to get back and forth from Old San Juan, is it more convenient to stay in Intercontinental to get to any tourist sites? How does the beach compare at the Intercontinental vs. Rio Mar? I am guessing I probably do not need a rental car if I am @ the Intercontinental, correct?
Can anyone else recommend a better hotel of similar price range and area that I am looking in?
Thank you!

I will be at the Rio Mar in July, according to all the readings from postings to books, RIo Mar seemed away from everybody. There is a Wal-Mart somewhere near there. Do a search on this forum for RIO MAR, and you will find a lot of answers on Rio Mar and EL Yunque.

When you get back, please tell me how far is Rio MAr from El Yunque and if you can walk to it.


thanks.

The Intercontinental is definitely more convenient to Old San Juan than is the Rio Mar. You can either take the bus or taxi from the hotel. You will need a car to get to Old San Juan from the Rio Mar. I'm not sure what else you want to do. The rainforest may be closer to Rio Mar than the Intercontinental but I am not sure. The beach in front of the Intercontintal is the best in the San Juan area. However, it is very developed with lots of hotels and condos lining the strip. It's a good walking and people watching beach. The beach at the Rio Mar will be less developed and probably less crowded.

I'm splitting my time between San Juan (Ritz) and the Rio Mar. The Rio Mar intrigues me as it seems to be set at the base of the rainforest, next to the sea, and there is a river that runs down from the mountains to the sea, with some wonderful walks, it seems. So, the natural aspect seems lovely. I will write a report when back, but it seems from what I have researched that it is a long walk up a road from the entrance to El Yunque until you get to trails, and it is twisty and could be dangerous if you wanted to walk. Car or cab or tour, I would think.

snorkelluvn, thanks. Are you doing any tours?

We are not planning on any packaged tours. If you have a car, it sounds very easy to get to El Yunque yourself and arrive before the tour crowds get there. Then I want to check out kiosks for dining at Luquillo Beach. We are also spending a night on Vieques, which sounds like a great island.If I were to do a tour, I'd probably check out the Erin Go Bragh sail/snorkel trip, which gets rave reviews and sounds fantastic.

For shopping, beaches and just walking around you should stay at the Intercontinental, it's closer to everything. The Rio Mar is about 50 minutes by car from San Juan and is a good place to stay if you plan to relax and stay within the resort or go to El Yunque or other tours. Please be carefull of driving around, the traffic is not bad but the signage of the roads is not very friendly and many places are not ideally marked. Down here we usually do not know streets and roads by their numbers, they usually have nicknames or we refer to "take a right after the bakery" or something similar. It would be good to get a map from Google Earth or Google maps and plan before time so you do not waste time getting lost.