Top things to do in colorful Old San Juan

Colorful!

If there’s one word that captures the essence of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, that’s it.

The city is full of color.

Colorful buildings. Colorful food. Colorful people.

We spent a day in the city at the end of our Caribbean cruise on the Viking Sea.

Remembering the news about how Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, we weren’t sure there’d be too many things to do in Old San Juan.

So it was a big eye-opener to see the city full of life and bustling like normal. We had to look hard to spy remaining evidence of hurricane damage.

Indeed, visiting Old San Juan turned out to be one of the best days on our cruise!

Things to do in Old San Juan

What’s particularly convenient for cruise passengers is that the Old San Juan cruise port is right in Old San Juan.

Simply walk off your ship, and you have the old city right at your fingertips to explore.

Do you love exploring walled cities? Then you’ll get high walking the Dubrovnik city walls in Croatia!

Visit Castillo de San Cristobal

Most people have heard of the military fort, El Morro – probably the most famous of Old San Juan’s attractions.

But there are actually two impressive forts you should see.

Saint Christopher’s Castle (Castillo de San Cristobal) is the other younger fort.

It was built between 1765 and 1785 to protect the city from a land invasion.

The castle fortress is operated today by the U.S. National Park Service, so there’s a small entrance fee ($7 gets you into both this fort and El Morro).

Walk the parapets, take in the beautiful views of Old San Juan below, hold a bayonet in the soldier’s barracks and squeeze through dark tunnels burrowing below the fort.

One tunnel leads to a dungeon.

Oh, and can you see your cruise ship in the distance?

Stroll the colorful streets of Old San Juan

The Old City’s cobblestone streets, lined by colonial churches and buildings, are made for walking.

We joined a complimentary guided walking tour, organized by our ship, which helped orient us and fill us in on the city’s history.

But with a map (even without one), you can get around on your own.

Fortaleza Street is one of the prettiest streets.

You can’t help but notice all the pink, purple, green and yellow umbrellas floating above the street.

It’s an art installation, known as the Umbrella Sky Project, intended to bring color back into the lives of the people after the hurricane.

At the end of Fortaleza Street, you reach the 16th century governor’s mansion known as La Fortaleza (or Palacio de Santa Catalina).

The frothy blue-and-white confection, with its tiled roof and lots of wrought iron curlicues, has housed every Puerto Rican governor since Juan Ponce de Leon.

Be sure to look at the cobblestones on the streets themselves. Do you notice that they’re blue?

Called adoquines, these cobblestones were the blocks of ballast (made from the waste of iron smelting) placed in the early ships that sailed over from Spain.

When the ships reached San Juan, the ballast was dumped and replaced with gold, which was taken back to Spain.

And the streets of Old San Juan were paved with the ballast.

Walk to El Morro

In the late afternoon, we headed out into town again and walked along the seaside path that leads to El Morro (Castillo de San Felipe del Morro).

Perched on the northwest tip of Old San Juan, it was constructed to protect the city against attacks from the sea.

El Morro is the older of the city’s two forts – dating back to 1539. Divided into six levels, the imposing citadel includes dungeons, storerooms, barracks, ramps and towers.

One curious (and cute) thing we noticed on the grounds around El Morro was all the wild stray kitties.

It’s cat heaven there!

We read that the fur balls are lovingly looked after by a non-government cat rescue group (which helps to neuter and feed them).

Volunteers leave lots of kibble piles for the kitties to eat, and there are plenty of rocks for the felines to shelter under or sunbathe on.

But, we discovered, the kitties don’t like to be petted.

What to do in Old San Juan? More things

Old San Juan restaurants:

If we’d had more of an appetite, we would have sat down at one of the many inviting restaurants to try some Puerto Rican food.

(San Juan is dubbed the “Culinary Capital of the Caribbean.”

Related reading: Check out the 5 best Puerto Vallarta restaurants for foodies

Old San Juan shopping:

Old San Juan also has some lovely independent boutique shops. Jewelry, souvenirs, clothing, arts and crafts. You name it. You’ll find it.

We poked our heads into some stores. But without room in our suitcases (we packed light), we resisted the urge to buy, deciding only to collect memories of this trip.

Map of Old San Juan

See this interactive Google map. Zoom in or out for various Old San Juan attractions.

Here also is a good map of Old San Juan that you can print off as a PDF from your computer (courtesy Moon Travel Guides).

Where to stay in San Juan?

We unfortunately dithered about whether to stay on in San Juan after our cruise.

Had we known at the time that San Juan was so ready to receive visitors again, we definitely would have tacked on a few days in the city!