Hello,
My girlfriend and I are traveling to Puerto Rico in March. I was wondering if I could get some input from people who have been.

My plan is the following:
Arrive in San Juan around 2pm, rent a car and spend the night there. The next morning around 7am, drive to El Yunque and do some hiking. Then, drive to Fajardo and arrive around 2:30pm to drop off the car, and make the 4:30pm ferry to Vieques. We'll be spending the rest of the trip there.

The questions I have:
- Can anyone recommend an ok, cheap hotel in San Juan (< $125/night)? We want to be close to Old San Juan to do some shopping/exploring, so location is far more important than how 'nice' it is, especially since we'll only be there 1 night. I've heard that some of the hotels aren't in 'safe' locations, so we'd rather avoid those places. Also, do most hotels provide parking?
- Is it feasible to do El Yunque in the time we'll have? (about 7 hours including travel time)
- Is it safe to rely on getting on the Ferry? This will be Mon March 27th, I've read a couple reports saying that the ferry can be very crowded and you aren't guaranteed a spot. Would it be better to just fly from Fajardo?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Sorry to bump myself, still looking for any input on any part of my post. Thanks!

Why don't you just fly from San Juan? You could easily do a half-day trip to El Yunque from San Juan so you never have to rent a car there (it's a nuisance to have to drive in San Juan, in my opinion), and then take a late-afternoon flight to Vieques. Of course, if you want the freedom of a car, then you can certainly do that and drop it off in San Juan before your Vieques flight. I don't think you'll have a problem with the ferry on a Monday. The problem is usually when you want to take your car to Vieques, though the ferries may be crowded on weekends, when more Puerto Ricans go to Vieques for the day.

For lodging, you could stay in Numero Uno (a bit isolated but with a very good restaurant on premises), EL Consulado (in the heart of Condado) or At Wind Chimes (at the edge of Condado and within walking distance of restaurants there); I think all of these are around your price range. You can easily and safely walk around the Condado area day and night. None of these places is directly on the beach but all are close by.

Thanks for the great info! El Consulado looks like it would be perfect for us, thanks for the suggestion!

The reason I wasn't going to fly to Vieques from San Juan was mostly for the cost, but also so we could have the freedom to explore El Yunque. And since we would be near Fajardo already, I thought the ferry would work. We are going to fly back the following Saturday so I thought it would also be fun to try both methods (as long as there wouldn't be a problem catching the ferry).

Can you recommend any good tour companies for a day trip to El Yunque? My oly real nconcern is if we did a day trip, we would have to check out of the hotel before it left, and then we'd have to worry about our bags.

A good hotel right in Old San Juan is the Hotel Milano. We have stayed there twice. It is walking distance to anything you want to see in Old San Juan.
You can fly to Vieques or drive to Fajardo and take the ferry. At times the ferry is "down" or definately not on schedule.
the last timewe were there it was down and we had to wait a little longer, no problem, we are on island time! it is a $2 ferry! We have not found it overcrowded, but it can be inconsistent.
We have also taken the plane in, fun experience. I think everyone shouldstart with the ferry for the first time, then spend a few $$$ for the plane.
Have fun and make time for BioBay. You will not be disappointed!