Puerto Rico with 13-year old granddaughter for Spring Break?
 

We are early 60's grandparents with only one granddaughter who turns 13 in March, and for her birthday we want to take her on a trip for her spring break from school in early April. By way of background, she lives in Ohio and we live in Massachusetts. She is an only child and our only grandchild. My husband has chronic pain, due to a back problem and a knee replacement that he has had numerous complications from, so he is limited in mobility in terms of walking for long distances and sitting for long periods of time which makes traveling and a "go-go" vacation a challenge. Given these constraints, we would appreciate your recommendations for where to go for spring break with our granddaughter that would be fun and manageable for all of us. We want her to be entertained and yet not exhaust ourselves. We also want to spend some quality time with her and not compete with the typical spring break venues where she might be so into wanting to spend time with kids her age that there might be conflict of interest with spending time with us. She doesn't have a passport so we were thinking of Puerto Rico. Would appreciate recommendations of where to stay, what to see and do. Thanks in advance for any help you can give us.

Your husband's limited mobility is going to present an obstacle no matter where you go, if you are land based so you might want to consider a cruise. You still have time to get your granddaughter a passport so that shouldn't be an issue. Cruising will give you the ability to select different tours in each port of call that will allow you to "see & do things" while still affording your husband the option of participating to the extent he can.

Since you've indicated your husband can't walk or sit for extended periods what exactly can he do??? How far can he walk? How long can he sit? I'm sure I don't have to tell you most tourist oriented activities involve either walking and/or riding on a bus for extended periods. Can your husband get around using a wheelchair or one of those electric scooters?? If so that my open up some possibilities. Have you given any thought to how your granddaughter will deal with not doing anything "too active" during this trip?

What are her interests? A 13YO may very much like to spend some time with her grandparents but she'll want to see/do things that interest her. She'll probably get very board if you aren't too active. That's why a cruise makes some good sense. There will be lots of different activities you can do together and others she can do on her own. Seriously, I doubt a 13YO wants to spend all her waking hours with you. I know my granddaughter is much too active to be with us all day long for a week or two.

You really should rethink your desire to have a trip where you won't have to compete with others her own age. It's only natural for teenagers to seek out their peers. But it's your vacation and your granddaughter so you know what's best.

Hi B & B, your granddaughter is very fortunate to have such thoughtful and wonderful grandparents! Our family is also headed to PR for the first time. Since we are not staying in San Juan we really don't plan to do "too" much. From my research it appears that renting a car is something we don't want to risk. We plan on lots of beach time, pool time, relaxing, a day trip to the rain forest and also hope to catch the bio bay.

By searching puerto rico on this sight you should find lots of information. Good Luck!

you might consider st. thomas. also no passport.
jet blue will fly you from boston in 4 hrs. 6 1/2 returning with 1 1/2hr stop in san juan. will granddaughter meet you in mass or at destination?
as you mention no price range i'll suggest 3 places.

www.bolongobay.com on good beach. youthful atmosphere. pretty much all on one level except rooms. don't think they have an elevator. most likely to have lots of young people.

www.sugarbayresortandspa.com beautiful resort on good beach. fun pool area that your gd would like a lot. resort is all inclusive so she can get a bite or soda anytime. pool/beach area is fairly condensed so you could be in loungers by pool while gd swam in pool or ocean. nearby is coralworldvi.com which she will love. biggest drawback is steps from hotel area to beach area, but they have oversized golf carts that make the trip every 15 mins - for your husband. hotel has elevators to rooms. even so some rooms are quite a hike so you'd need to request a room that's easy to get to.

or my favorite on st.t
www.secretharbourvi.com on wonderful beach with very good snorkeling. has restaurant. all units are condo style so have full kitchens, large decks. no elevator but if you explained your situation i think they'd give you a ground floor unit. units all have tv/dvd & cd players. this might work well at night if you had a 1 bdrm, gd could sleep on pull out couch & watch tv or movies after you've gone to bed.
hope this helps

Not related to your original question, but just a reminder to carry a notarized letter signed by both her parents giving you both permission to travel outside the US alone with her, plus permission to seek medical attention for her if needed.
Have fun -what a lucky girl to have you!!

In Puerto Rico, the Caribe Hilton is set off by itself, but close enough for a cab ride to other hotels, restaurants, downtown San Juan. It is a larger resort with several pools, a protected water area, (so no rough waves)(my DH did a scuba lesson there and went down only 10-15 feet and saw more fish than he has anywhere else, and we have been to a few islands. It has some shops and a few restaurants. This may be a good option where your DH could relax somewhere for a little while and then meet up with you at this area or that. We have stayed here several times. Since it is a resort on it's own, your granddaughter could run up to the room alone and you wouldn't feel like she was off on her own.
The area of the Condado has many hotels and restaurants, but the water is rough to swim in.

I agree with girlonthego's suggestion. I think the Caribe Hilton would be a good fit given your circumstances.

Thanks for all the PR info. I see that we can also go to US Virgin Islands without a passport, so any recommendations for St. John or St. Thomas. We love to snorkel and would like to introduce our granddaughter to that experience.

on st. john is the westin - ok, on manmade beach. or the incredible caneel bay resort - has 7 of it's own beaches with really good snorkeling.
for st. thomas see my post above.

Latest feedback from our GD is that she only cares about getting a tan and relaxing. Where we had planned a lot of side trips to entertain her (fun, cultural, historical, etc.) it seems she doesn't want to be on the go all the time. Also, she is a little afraid of snorkeling which she has never tried, but we would love to introduce her to it.

So other than those places already mentioned in the previous posts, where else do you recommend going for a nice beach vacation with access to snorkeling, even if it is a day trip elsewhere? Either an all inclusive or someplace reasonably priced knowing how teenagers want to snack all the time. Because of lack of passport we have narrowed it down to Florida, Puerto Rico, or somewhere in the US Virgin Islands (St. John, St. Thomas, St. Croix). Want somewhere clean, safe, with a nice beach on site.

wyndham sugar bay. st. thomas. is all inclusive. see my post above. has all you're looking for.

Virginia, thanks for the great suggestions. Secret Harbor on St. Thomas looks very inviting.

Anything like that on PR?

Doting grandparents? ( -: We are same though older. First off, good idea to plan alongside your grandchild, i.e., a sense of what she wants...and as you see she may not really want to be on the sightseeing trail that much. Maybe a beach and motel pool plus poking around in shops.

We've been to PR several times and last Thanksgiving a family gathering in the Keys. No matter where you'll enjoy. If PR you will enjoy El Morro and want to go east of San Juan to Luquillo Beach and also El Yunque rain forest. As we did you can book a day tour.

On the other hand some of our family found lots of snorkeling in the Keys plus butterfly shelter, fish aquarium and more in Key West.

Bill in Boston