Frommer's Puerto Rico [Paperback]

Darwin Porter (Author), Danforth Prince (Author)

Book Description

Series: Frommer's Complete Guides | Publication Date: July 15, 2002

You'll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with Frommer's. It's like having a friend show you around, taking you to the places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone everywhere you might go--they've done the legwork for you, and they're not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in all price ranges. Every Frommer's Travel Guide is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps, and exciting coverage of sports, shopping, and nightlife. You'd be lost without us!

Come along with Frommer's to one of the hottest destinations in the Caribbean, starting off with the historic sights, casinos, shopping, and nightlife of San Juan. Then we'll explore the rest of the island: its most inviting beach resorts, sleepy fishing villages, El Yunque rain forest, and, just offshore, Vieques and Culebrea islands, which boast some of the most pristine beaches in the Caribbean.

Inside you'll find in-depth, honest reviews of lavish honeymoon resorts, intimate inns, family-friendly condos, and more, with selections in every price category. We'll point you to gorgeous white-sand beaches, and send you to the best places for snorkeling, diving, golf, sailing, deep-sea fishing, and more. You'll also get a complete shopper's guide, and up-to-date coverage of the hottest nightlife in the region, from glittering casinos and sizzling salsa clubs to funky beach bars. Look for tips on finding the best package deals, plus a color fold-out map!

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Frommer's offers you all the information you need on:

The Best Beaches
The Best Scuba Diving
The Best Golf & Tennis
The Best Hikes
The Best Natural Wonders
The Best Family Resorts
The Best Honeymoon Resorts
The Best Big Resort Hotels
The Best Moderately Priced Hotels
The Best Attractions
The Best Restaurants
The Best Offbeat Travel Experiences --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Experience a place the way the locals do. Enjoy the best it has to offer. And avoid tourist traps. At Frommer’s, we use 150 outspoken travel experts around the world to help you make the right choices. Frommer’s. Your guide to a world of travel experience.

Choose the Only Guide That Gives You:

• Outspoken opinions on what’s worth your time and what’s not.
• Exact prices, so you can plan the perfect trip no matter what your budget.
• Off-the-beaten-path experiences and undiscovered gems, plus new takes on top attractions.
• The best hotels and restaurants in every price range, with candid reviews.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 262 pages
• Publisher: Frommers; 6 edition (July 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764566458
• ISBN-13: 978-0764566455
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,481,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #98 in Books > Travel > Caribbean > Puerto Rico

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Why doesn't someone write a decent travel guide to PR?, October 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Frommer's Puerto Rico, 4th Edition (Paperback)

I've used this guide for three PR vacations, and each time I want to throw it across the hotel room. But I can't because the other guides are even worse or even less comprehensive. What's the problem with this one? The lack of description: it gives you no feel as to what makes each beach/hotel unique. Invariably every second beach is summed up vaguely as 'one of the best beaches on the island,' even if one has brownish sand and no snorkling while another "best" beach is pristine white, loaded with fish, and secluded. It's the same with hotels, too, except there's no explanation of what the mood is like there, what kind of people stay there, what the view is like, what the rooms are like, if there's a bar to hang out in after dinner, how close the beach is.... It's almost comic, except when you're trying to figure out where to spend your precious time and money.

Another frustrating problem is that no one took the time to edit this guide. One beach or hotel will be mentioned in two (or three) places in entirely different tones, so it's hard to guess whether a place is just wacky or dirty (or, in the instance of La Parguera, too polluted to swim in one mention; just fine in another). Also, uninspired writing means a breathtaking mountain retreat like the Casa Grande Hotel in Utuado comes across as completely unremarkable and possibly worth skipping. Can't the writers come out and say "This place is great" or, if necessary, "This place is a dump?" A reader might wonder if these guys visited anything but bloated resorts at all. PR deserves better and I certainly expected better from Frommer's.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book had few redeeming qualities., June 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Frommer's Puerto Rico (Paperback)

My husband and I purchased this book to go on our honeymoon and were sorely disappointed. The descriptions were vague and often downright incorrect. Luquillo beach, which the authors described as one of the best beaches in the Carribean, had dingy grey water and was filled with garbage. This is only one example of many many misrepresentations. The guide leaned almost exclusively to very expensive restaurants, and even these were nothing to write home about. We had more luck after we ditched the guide and started exploring on our own. Its one good point was some interesting background on the history of Puerto Rico. However, this was not enough to make me buy another Frommer's guide.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Cultural Tour of Puerto Rico for Mid-Income Tourists, January 11, 2003

By 

D. R. Ransdell (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frommer's Puerto Rico (Paperback)

This is a good guide for seeing the cultural sights of Puerto Rico, especially in San Juan. The book is geared towards travellers only moderately concerned with budget. A few pieces of information are outdated, such as bus numbers and changes in price, but the numbering system (up to three stars) is useful for the first-time traveller with little knowledge of the country. Detailed descriptions of the sights in San Juan help visitors get a sense of the city's history while the walking tour takes them around to key spots. There is a comparable walking tour of Ponce, along with a description of the Museo de Arte de Ponce which prevented me from missing out on this fine museum. Ponce is the only place where we tried one of the listed hotels. Although the book described Hotel Belgica as "roughing it," we thought the accommodations were fine and enjoyed the unusual atmosphere of an old-style hotel. The book is full of useful tidbits. For example, en route to Parguera (which should get two stars, not one), the name of the road changes several times along the way (101, 116, 315, 305, 304). No wonder people get confused. Additional information: The book should include a warning that the $5 boat trip to the Phosphorescent Bay near Parguera doesn't let you see much, so it's best to go with the friendly folks at Paradise Scuba Center (the address is listed). Additionally, the Rio Camuy Cave Park sometimes sells out of tickets by 9am (especially on weekends), so it's best to get there early. Finally, good snorkeling is available in San Juan on the west side of the Wyndham Hotel (Condado).