San Juan Airport Hotel?

[crasherino]

Does anyone have the low down on the Best Western at the San Juan Airport? In an effort to economiz days off and time on island, we are thinking about flying down to SJU at night, staying over and catching an early flight to STT.

Has anyone stayed at this place? Is it really convenient or do you end up dragging yourself all over the airport making a quick cab ride to another hotel just as easy?

Also, I got a rate of $175 on their website...that seems pretty high considering its just a bed....is that the normal rate?

If anyone has other viable alternatives, I'd love to hear them.

TIA

[mfaughey]

It's very convenient, stayed there one night because of a flight mishap. Since the airline put us up, I can't comment on the price but seems high...

[msgcolleen]

It is just fine for an overnight stay. They have a casino and sushi restaurant and it is great to wake up and walk straight to your gate.
Good Luck!

[b-as-u-r]

I'm sure you've already done your homework on this, but there's an American flight out of JFK at 7:00 a.m. that gets you to STT by 11:00 a.m., which I usually do and think it's pretty decent. I don't feel like I've lost the whole day. (It may vary depending on your time of travel??) Also, there's a Cape Air flight from San Juan to STT that departs at 8:50 p.m. and arrives at 9:23 p.m. You could do that and stay at one of the hotels near the STT airport, which is less than $175.00 per night. Good luck. Ali~

[mrscaptainjay]

just stayed there last night due to mechanical plane problems and like everyone else said it was decent, clean, and very convenient. Didn't have to pay so can't comment on price. The sushi at the bar/restaurant was good but no one else liked their food. We took the American 8:15 am flight which was a little late. But overall was a decent experience.

[SoulvilleUSA]

We just returned from a 1 day San Juan, 8 day St. Thomas, 1 day San Juan trip and we stayed at the Beach House hotel on the beach on Isla Verde (a 5 min cab ride from the airport...$14). The room was clean, the staff was very nice and the best part was being on the beach! Thier continental breakfast was nothing to brag about, but their dinner (return stay) was great! Get the lamb chops... unbelievable! The room was $135 a night...if that answers any of your questions about how much rooms are down there....some of the nicer hotels were over $200. Christine and I are a couple in our early 40s and we loved it. It wouldn't be the greatest thing if you have kids and due to construction on the street, it looks like hell from the front, but the back view is the beach!!!! I highly reccomend it if you aren't going to be extremely pressed for time at the airport. San Juan airport, in my opinion, was well-run and we didn't have any trouble there at all making any flights.

As an added bonus, since we were there on weekend nights... there were weddings both nights we were there and those folks in San Juan know how to have a good time at a wedding...we were having a good time just watching.

Mind you, this is a "bisro-sized" hotel and the beds aren't king size... we were on a full size bed. (I'm 6'6" and 300+lbs and I was comfortable sleeping with my bride) If you go in looking for the Ritz, this ain't it. But it was clean, safe (good part of San Juan), and had charachter. If you value charachter on your trips, stay here... if you value things to be just so, don't... just a matter of what you want.

Just a tip on flight from SJU to STT...if you are taking Seaborne Airlines.... you only get 30lbs each allowance for your luggage and other bags! Any thing over is something like $1.50 a pound!!! (learned this the hard way, shipped everything back on the return trip...still got stuck because we had our duty-free liqour box.) Also, know that if you are flying Seaborne, they fly out of the old airport over by Old San Juan, a 20 min cab ride from the international airport...and from the Beach House Hotel. Let me just put it this way, if you don't have to fly on Seaborne, don't.... they constantly changed our flights, sometimes without even notifying us. The seats on the plane are sized for anorexic midgets as well. (no offense to either, please)

Also, the staff will be glad to call a cab for you, but I found it much faster to just walk to the street and wave one down... be careful not to get run over by one...it was like times square with cabs on that street! Be sure to bring a piece of paper with the street address of the hotel on it... not much english spoken by cabbies there.

Here are some pics of the hotel... BEACH!!!

[crasherino]

I'm sure you've already done your homework on this, but there's an American flight out of JFK at 7:00 a.m. that gets you to STT by 11:00 a.m., which I usually do and think it's pretty decent. I don't feel like I've lost the whole day. (It may vary depending on your time of travel??) Also, there's a Cape Air flight from San Juan to STT that departs at 8:50 p.m. and arrives at 9:23 p.m. You could do that and stay at one of the hotels near the STT airport, which is less than $175.00 per night. Good luck. Ali~

I'm probably over thinking the whole scenario and perhaps I should just stick to the direct flights from JFK, but the issues I'm looking at are that the AA flight at the time of year I'm looking at don't land til after 1pm (takes off at 8am), which means we won't get On STJ until after 3pm.

If we fly down the night before, we can get on the first flight out and have a whole day on island. Being that we will only be there for 3 days, its a big difference. Just not sure if its worth the extra price and hassle.

Your evening suggestion on Cape Air is a good one....I'm going to check into flights that could get us into SJU in time to make that connection.