San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico

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San Juan, the capital and largest city of Puerto Rico, is located on the island's Atlantic coast. Its larger beaches are located in front of the Isla Verde strip of resorts, known for its bars, nightclubs and casinos. Old San Juan, with its cobblestones, has colorful Spanish colonial buildings and iconic 16th century sites. These include El Morro and La Fortaleza, huge fortresses with panoramic ocean views, and the Paseo de la Princesa, on the waterfront.

You can't visit San Juan without strolling through the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan, a walled city within a city whose seven square blocks house more than 400 restored 16th- and 17th-century buildings. Very attractive is the visit to the Paseo de la Princesa, full of statues, fountains and street vendors, where you can exchange with local artists and buy their products or also have a good time in any bar, restaurant or museum.

The unique neighborhoods include the coastal areas of Condado, Isla Verde and Ocean Park which are the most popular tourist destinations, with beautiful beaches, elegant hotels and inns, trendy restaurants, discos and designer shops. The neighborhood of Santurce is a modern paradise with a thriving art scene, and in the financial district of Hato Rey is the Luis Muñoz Marín Park and Plaza Las Américas, the largest shopping center in the Caribbean. But also, when going to San Juan you can participate in the adventure in Sleepy Vieques with a weekend getaway to that place where mass tourism has not yet reached that island off the east coast of Puerto Rico, which even has wild horses. During the day, visitors come to the almost deserted beaches or dive right into the water for snorkeling, swimming, jumping, kayaking and fishing trips.

On moonless nights, you can kayak along Bioluminescent Bay, where the water sparkles with the glow of a billion tiny dinoflagellates. Also of interest in San Juan is the San Felipe del Morro Castle, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1983, the Las Americas Museum which offers a panoramic view of the development of the culture of the New World. It occupies the second floor of the historic Cuartel de Ballajá, the largest building built by the Spanish in the New World, restored in 1992.

Also visited by tourists arriving in San Juan, El Arsenal, built in 1800, houses the headquarters of the Plastic Arts Office of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, the Museums and Parks Program and the Underwater Archaeological Council. It has three rooms for traveling plastic arts exhibits. Likewise, La Factoría, one of the two Latin American bars on the list of the 50 best bars in the world in 2015 and one of the stages where the music video for the song Despacito was recorded.