Adventures in Luxury Travel

Mimi Lichtenstein 0:01
If you're a traveler that believes luxury and adventure are not mutually exclusive, then you're in the right place. Every week I take you to a new destination with one of my partners, sharing the hidden gems over the top experiences and active adventures to inspire your next family vacation. I'm Mimi Lichtenstein, an experienced Travel Advisor who has also traveled with my three teenagers and my husband around the world. Let's get started. Welcome to Episode 46 of adventures in luxury travel. Today, Anastasia and I talk about Puerto Rico and easy to get to island that is full of history, culture, active adventures and opportunities to luxuriate. We'll talk about the highlights of experiences on land and in water, introduce you to local cultural activities, and share a few of our personal favorite places. Of course, we'll talk about the best resorts and hotels to a reminder before we begin, if you love the content of this podcast, then you'll love what we share in our weekly newsletter. Every Wednesday, we send out inspiring travel ideas for your next trip. Go to true a travel.com/subscribe to sign up. Visit Survey travel.com/ 46 for a video of today's show and additional resources. Hello, everyone. I'm Mimi Lichtenstein. And today I am here with Anastasia kissel, and we are going to be talking all about Puerto Rico, Anastasia, welcome to the show.

Anastasia 1:30
Thank you very much nanny for having me here.

Mimi Lichtenstein 1:33
Well, I'm delighted to have you here. And I think it's a fun show to do. Because as you know, I was in Puerto Rico just last week. And we got to meet in person, which was so terrific. And there was just so many, you know, active adventurous, cultural, historical, culinary things that we did that I definitely want to share a lot of those things with everybody today. So I'm excited to have you here to join me tell us a little bit about you want to start with an overview of Puerto Rico, like the different areas that people like to go to and you know, some of your favorite areas to go to.

Anastasia 2:06
Yes, I'm based on the northern coast as we speak in the city of San Juan, which is the capital of Puerto Rico, and harder was cultural life. As I say that I'm very aware that the other capital of Puerto Rico, which is sponsored right across from us on the south, were very much subjected to me saying that the most interesting things happen in San Juan because Kwanzaa historically has been a capital commercial capital of Puerto Rico at the height of the sugar production. So it has a lot of lovely places to visit family estate ICMS that are really beautiful, and also has some amazing nature around it. I love the drive to bonds it's a very easy drive straight highway with beautiful scenery. And it's a great place to kind of for me to disconnect as a local and also for visitors to get another sense of break to the east we have a huge gap which is the International tropical forest it's the only tropical forest the rainforest in the US National Park system and a remarkable place to disconnect and meditate because it's breathtaking views and amazing scenery and as we go sort of deliberate for the ease there are lovely islands of vehicles and colabora which is when people asked me at the trade shows were so you wouldn't go Rica where do you go on vacation? Well I go to disconnect to mostly vehicles because vehicles combines both amazing beaches and also great nightlife and very interesting kind of mix local mixed expat community of people of all walks of life who just decided to make this beautiful pristine Island their their home. This is fascinating because you have horses roaming all over the place. Some of them have an older some of them don't. But sometimes you literally feel like you're driving in a safari because you really have to watch out especially at night. You have to watch out for horses roaming on the roads. It's a very rural, but also very beautiful gay tropical part of Oregon. And as we move west, the on the northwestern coast, there are several places that are fascinating because of the constant Zol geologically speaking when we got has some volcanic past but also so we have a lot of BMO, who's that will form these to be under the water and what form five the deposits of the seashells over millions of years. And so now the rivers, the underground rivers have made their way through that material and have created amazing caves on this port on this stretch. And as we move further, if you move inland you have the mountainous region what you see in the dark blue color. That's the mountain range of Puerto Rico has a very interesting mix ethnically because Puerto Rico in general is and I know it because there was a DNA study actually done on Puerto Rico. So we've got about half of the genes that European quarter, tiny Indian and quarter African men. So in the mountains, you have folks who have resettled during the Spanish times from failure in some German families have come in the middle of the 19th century. So you've got a lot of different ethnicities, great food and amazing views will be all teachers up to 1000 feet above the sea level. And then if you go to the light blue to the extreme left for me right here. This is the area that is known for amazing sunsets while watching during a certain part of the year. And it's a world in and of itself. If you look at the map of Puerto Rico, probably people who live in this part of the island they think that means some one like New Yorkers always stressed and you know worried about traffic worried about things that are completely material. Meanwhile, the folks who live on the West Coast dedicate quality time to the families they go to sleep earlier than wake up earlier and much more in sync with nature with themselves. And to them we are literally going to tropical is that has lost its you know, its natural, north, so to speak. And it's out there and you know, burning their candle from the both sides in the in the in the urban frenzy. So so this is the west coast for you lots of places to eat. Lots of seafood that is fished, you know, right there. And a lot of great conversations, because I think, and I wonder if you if you had the same experiences that Puerto Rico, the people here are so hospitable, that it's a big part of the experience just chatting with locals and getting to know everyone in their own realm and in their own world.

Mimi Lichtenstein 6:38
Yeah, I would agree with you on that. And we'll definitely touch on a few of those things, experiences that we had one of which was with you regarding salsa dancing. Here's a question for you for everyone's benefit hurricane Maria, we all know and saw the publicity when that came through. This is an island that was devastated, right? It didn't have electricity. Jose Andres came in to feed people served, I think millions of meals, and I think his organization is still there helping people who are a little bit down and out in Puerto Rico. But when I was in San Juan, Old San Juan, that whole coast near San Juan, you would never have known that. Like there's no recovered in that sense. Yes. Which, you know, is amazing. I couldn't do like a comparison of before and after. But you know, to see how resilient the industry is and the people are to bounce back from that was just really heartening. When we were in the south, I would say driving around, it was definitely a different picture, like some of the towns didn't seem like they were bounced back yet. Clearly not the same kind of tourism dollars are focused on the southern edge of Puerto Rico, like they are on the north. So they still seem to have quite a bit of work to do to come back.

Anastasia 7:52
Yet. Lorca Maria has really been in my time and when we got to meet him about 20 years has been the most impactful event of this nature that we had. And I think historically it happens like once in hundreds literally in 100 years. Yeah. And it went straight through the island, only the West I think the west coast was maybe had a force three equivalent of like force three winds was a center in the East upper there Ireland, Ireland had about probably about five losses. So it was quite an impact. Yeah, but I think it's also for me, it was fascinating to watch after the hurricane first Puerto Rico is very community oriented, very interconnected. So it was the neighbors that came out to clean the streets, because of course, you know, the government was overwhelmed. There's no TriCity. So everybody pulled out everything they had frozen and the fridges knowing you know that it's not going to last long. So there were a lot of you know, people barbecuing right outside sharing food. We all on our team goal involved in relief and medical evacuations are getting water filters, with assistance from Rotary International, providing technical support technical assistance to nonprofits that were later came to rebuild the house for folks who have lost their homes. And we've done a lot of legit as a team logistics for distribution, you know, food distribution and medicine, medical sort of distribute distributed medicine. So in that sense, we were right in the thick of it afterwards. And you see how everyone has come together at that moment. And another part that for me, it was very remarkable about Maria and I'll mention just two things. One, the cultural community bounce back, like literally instantaneously right after even before the infrastructure needs were taken care of, because culture is very thick, you know, it's really important here. And so if it was their way of saying, you know, as far as the artists and the dancers and musicians, it was their way of saying, We're here and it was their way of saying was strong and because we have the spirit if you have the spirit, the body will come back. So that was when we markable and one, I'm thinking of a friend who is a very highly qualified dentist here and talking to her after Hurricane Maria, she had all the resources to eat and spend some time with her family in California that will do it competing for her to go. And what she told me was very simple. She says, I have two boys who were probably about a 14, you know, 1314 at a time. And if I teach them that, when you see a difficulty or an obstacle, you get on the plane and run. That's not a good lesson. So let's stay, you know, and they stay through the full period of recovery. And for her, that was an opportunity to teach them that he can have a great life without the iPad. Yeah, when you can appreciate your sort of invest more into human connections or listen to electronics. It was remarkable how many people locally and also full school moved here from different states of the United States who have really come together to help recover and rebuild. So yeah,

Mimi Lichtenstein 11:02
well, you know, what's interesting, too, is that when you look at tourism around the world, right, it's, it's certainly suffered over the last couple of years. And so I think that for those of us that can go travel, part of that is helping, you know, with the community there, right, by injecting funds and resources back into the community, so that the people who are working at the hotels and who own the local restaurants, right, so that they can do well by their family and earn a living again, and, you know, contribute to the recovery of the island. So I think it's a wonderful testament to the people of Puerto Rico, and I was pleased to be a part of it. And I know for others who are considering, you know, I want to go to the Caribbean, which Island? Should I go to? You know, how do you decide that you want to go to Puerto Rico? Well, hopefully, at the end of this conversation, you'll probably think like, Oh, I do want to go to Puerto Rico, there's a lot of fun stuff happening there. And I had taken my kids to go live in Madrid a few years ago, for a family sabbatical. And when we were in Puerto Rico, I happen to bump into a family I know who was down there for a year, they moved down there with their kids. And I thought to myself, wow, my life would have been a lot easier had I chosen to go to Puerto Rico instead of Spain, because I wouldn't have had to deal with all of the visas and translations and all of that stuff. So they're living down there with their young children who are, you know, learning to be fluent in Spanish and having a completely different experience? So if anyone's thinking about that, I would say, think about it and explore the idea. Okay, let's dive into some of the other fabulous things in Puerto Rico. You know, the great thing is, again, it's a yes, it's a Caribbean island, but it's full of culture and history and wonderful things. So this, I think, is a fairly iconic photo. And for those people who are listening on the podcast, and not looking at it, it's of one of the forts that was built, I think, starting in the 1500s, for a couple 100 years. Could you give us a little bit, just touch on briefly where this fort is and what it's about? And then a little bit about what's on the back side of it, where families go on the weekends?

Anastasia 13:01
Yes, totally. Well, Puerto Rico, it was was discovered originally by Spain, but because of its geographic location, it's literally one of the first islands if you sail, not motor. If you sail from Europe, in general to Rico, because of the trade winds, you almost naturally ended up here. So whoever owned Puerto Rico in those times basically held the key to a fourplus. In Puerto Rico didn't have that much gold or silver of its own, but it definitely had a strategic location that allowed to defend and protect possessions in the Caribbean in general. So stain defended that tooth and nail, we had friends that once tried to take it by force, it was Dutch, who would try to try to take it in the 1625. There are numerous multiple English excursions to the islands. So befores were essential to protect it from the invaders. When you look at the fourth from the sea, as we're watching it on the screen right now, for those of you who are here in CCDC, this the photo is formidable. What's interesting is that it was built in this way to send the message because inside usually, the Harrisons were quite small. So sometimes the soldiers had to run back and forth between different cannons to fire the shots and project an impression of numerous army which there has never been. And now it's the museum. It's a beautiful place, beautifully restored. And it's also National Park museum. And behind the walls behind the fold itself. There is a beautiful green open air spot, you know, and it's traditionally I would say it's a rite of passage for Oregon kids to come and fly kites, mirror and moral. It's something that is a part of everyone's childhood, and it's a beautiful place. You can come out and have a picnic I've had participate in multiple classes and things get to yoga. I've been there watching Sunrise, sunrise sunset and also the moonrise. So it's loved by the locals. And that's one of the spots that I would definitely recommend to visit one for the history and then for the local experience, as he enjoyed the green behind the and Morrow.

Mimi Lichtenstein 15:16
And I think the day that we were there, I think was a Saturday afternoon. So just like anywhere else, you know, the weekends you have more families gathering than during the week, but it was not a sea of people, there were probably, you know, 100 people spread out over a very large area, flying kites, having picnics, we were getting ice cream. It's just a really fun, family afternoon, where it feels like you are surrounded by local people. Now, I love this photo, because before I went to Puerto Rico, I wouldn't have recognized this, but it's on so many of your license plates. And we ate at a restaurant that is named after it. So tell us a little bit about its significance.

Anastasia 15:55
Well, the if it's what the direita right, the part of the fortification that is meant for the century to for the watch to be to be held the immortal it has a number of those and christobel, which is another Ford has a number of those. And actually one of them has a love story, a romantic story attached to it, where one of the soldiers that was holding gar had disappeared. And so it became it got the name of the Rita del Diablo, or the century, you know, box of the devil. But the that's the sort of the formal legend, but there is also as in every legend, there are two versions. And so there's a story going that he had a look, you know, he escaped in less than military service because of his loved one. And they both escaped to Korea to another Latin American country. So every spot here has significance. And every spot here has a story behind it. So the gun eternal Diablo story.

Mimi Lichtenstein 16:53
I love that one. Well, we learned I love learning new things on vacation, right? Like I'm somebody who could learn all day long. And many people who go away in particular, some people want to go on a beach vacation, they just want to sit at the beach. I'm not one of those people. So I like all this fun history and culture and insights. One of the things I learned this photo is of La Perla. So the guide that we had, that Anastasia had suggested for us took us all around Old San Juan, which was so fun, full of information. And there happens to be a neighborhood outside of the city walls called La Perla. And maybe you could just touch on briefly what what that's about. But the fun thing for us to learn, given that I was there with 418 year old girls is that the music video despacito was filmed down in La Perla so I don't know that I'd ever watched the music video. I've heard the song a bunch of times. So afterwards, we watched it and it was fun to recognize many of the places that we had walked through with our guide. So do you want to tell us a little bit about kind of what La Perla was and where it's gotten to

Anastasia 17:56
LaBella has a lot of history historically if you go back to the 19th century, this was a place where the meat markets and all of the warehouses related to Sunday weekend market in the Old City was located so it was a historically working class area that did not enjoy as much the luxuries that you would see in those times in all support because at some point as we walk it it's you know, full of beautiful colonial buildings multi story homes, then we usually owned by one family very, very posh, very nice go to us for ages, which was and they were owned by a Folk School quite well to do whereas laterra has always been the the socioeconomics of underdog, so to speak of the Old City. It has a very vibrant and very authentic local community. I remember friend telling me a story of how we're working with national parks to connect a memorial in San Cristobal with a walkway, which now has happened, you've enjoyed that working area, which a lot of a lot large part of that is actually going to part of this cultural infrastructure development effort. And my friends told me that we were having community meetings to explain the project because the community tended to be more kind of to their own. And it was interesting how in the room everybody felt silent because they were waiting for the elders, you know, for the sort of the grandfather looking man and the grandmother looking lady to express their opinion on the project, because that's how they feel this is the right way to do so it was kind of a mix of the old and the new where you have a federally funded initiative between two national parks is connecting with a walkway to have tourism a little bit more vibrant and more open. And then you have this community where forget about the federal funds. Forget about the mayor, forget about all these officials. They'll look into the elders for opinion before deciding to proceed. So this just gives you an in an illustration of how much history is there and how much culture and how into Single places. And this procedure was chosen Bella was chosen as a site for this procedure. And that has opened the community up, because when you have a video that generates over 6 billion views all over the world, of course, the fans come down to Puerto Rico and they come knocking on the wall, so to speak of lapel mic, because they want to see where this was filmed and how it happened. And so that was a part of sort of the opening of La Perla and being more integrated into the tourism world. But it's still very authentic as one nice restaurant with a great view to eat. But the rest of it is just the, you know, community people living their lives as they have for decades. And who knows, you know, for centuries, it will say so, it's I had

Mimi Lichtenstein 20:42
a small surprise when walking through I don't have a picture of it. But there was the biggest, fattest Turkey I had ever seen, like a full size Turkey, it looked like a cover of a Thanksgiving magazine. He was just hanging out in the streets one day, so I'm assuming somebody owns him. But that was a fun surprise when we turned a corner.

Anastasia 21:02
And probably a lot of also plenty of roosters and chickens running around. Yeah, for

Mimi Lichtenstein 21:07
sure. Many of those all over Puerto Rico. Yeah. So I would say for sure go and visit it with your guide. I think it's a great thing to do with your guide. You know, you might get a little meandering lost if you do it without one and then so this next place I loved I first of all, I love this photo, which is your photo because it clearly must have been taking him around Christmas time perhaps. The night bird Yes. Okay. So this is a huge building and happens to be where Anastasia's offices so lucky Anastasia. And I walked into it. It has a huge courtyard plaza and I thought to myself, this reminds me so much of plus Emma, you're in Madrid, and then I think can't remember it was You told me your Paulo told me that it was actually modeled after Plaza? My you're in Madrid,

Anastasia 21:48
right? Yeah, because the building was it was built by the Spaniards to host initially Spanish soldiers and officers. And then it has over the years, it has been a home for US military, it has been a whole four different entities. And now it's basically cultural sites. So every floor has a museum, different organization that is related to promotion of Puerto Rico's culture in art, and coffee shop on the fridge and coffee shops as well. Yes. And running downstairs deliveries. That's where I get my coffee.

Mimi Lichtenstein 22:22
Excellent as when we were walking through with our guide, it just so happened, they had a couple that was going to be getting married. It wasn't the whole wedding, but they were doing what my kiddos said was the first look. So we watched the photographer, set them up, so they were facing apart. And then he stood there and she came walking up to him and tapped him on his shoulder. And he turned around and the photographer was running all around taking pictures of people's expressions. And that was a really fun thing to witness to. So it's a beautiful building. What

Anastasia 22:54
is the name of it? By Uh huh.

Mimi Lichtenstein 22:56
Okay, by Uh huh. And it also happens to be where we took some salsa lessons later in our trip. So there is a photo of that in a minute, I decided not to show a video of me taking salsa lessons, and instead to just show a photo, oh, here it is. It was a beautiful spot to do it because it was open air. We had myself in the four girls and our instructor who was amazing. And I think for anybody who's going who wants to have a bit of experiential introduction to the culture, taking salsa lessons is super fun.

Anastasia 23:26
as well. I'm very biased because I love salsa. And when people ask me, why did you come to Puerto Rica say, well, the official story is Procter and Gamble. But the real story is salsa because

Mimi Lichtenstein 23:37
well, we actually had a great time. And my daughter and I were in St. Lucia last month, and we took some salsa lessons there too. So it was fun. We had a little bit of an intro. And you know this so I think the night after, yeah, it was the same night after we had these lessons. We went and met you out in LA plus Sita, and went to de la vida, which is super fun, super local, where people dance salsa. And there were a couple of people who were phenomenal dancers, and one of them asked my daughter to dance and one of her friends to dance. So we watched her who just learned how to do it, dance with this super experienced guy. And it was absolutely so fun, huge smiles on their faces. So I highly recommend if people are interested in having an experience with the local culture and local people to do that, for sure. Okay, let's transition a little bit too. Oh, actually, before we do I had a question for you when we were there. We were talking about movies that have been filmed in Puerto Rico. There's quite a few of them. And I know I think it's Black Panther too. That's being filmed right now. But between El Yungay and the beaches and other areas. What are a couple of other famous movies that have been filmed on there?

Anastasia 24:49
Well, the under suspicion with Morgan Freeman has been filmed here in Puerto Rico, as I mentioned to you earlier I had when I was living in Olson, one I happen to live with rent in the same place where the studio had rented the apartment, Freeman. So we had the good morning sort of session every morning when he was going off to work. And I was going off to work as well. The assassins were chosen Puerto Rico. And most importantly, the Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed that here as well. So as you enjoy the forts, one of them some christobel shows the literally the part of the movie where this big carriage is coming up to the palace. And that was filmed here. So we have one of the things we do sometimes is a highlight have a tour that focuses on all of the back streets and all the different locations where the movies have been filmed. And actually one of them just fascinating is Rum Diary with Johnny Depp. So it took us some time of scouring to find exactly the street where they were rolling down the stairs and a little little car. And we actually were able to sort of reconstruct some of the locations. So it's something to for those who are of us movie fixing, although it's it's that's a different twist. And as you will know that it's you can see it, it's palpable, like they were filming the days that he were here. And I think he's kind of walking up the last board.

Mimi Lichtenstein 26:16
And I know there's one other movie being filmed there upcoming, I can't remember the name of it. But clearly, there's some, you know, some scenes and some locations that if you do have kids who are interested in a particular movie, to go do a potential reenactment and take a photo of it would probably be a fun thing for them to put on Instagram. So I will always like knowing those little facts for my teenage visitors. And then what about before we transition? Agriculture, sugarcane coffee, obviously, there's a lot of that within Puerto Rico. And we didn't have an opportunity to do it. But I know that you all offer some experiences like that, where you can go to the local farms and meet the local farmers and the people who do this. Do you want to share maybe one or two of those type B

Anastasia 26:59
if you walk the whole city and look and try to chase different types of coffee pretty much every time you taste coffee, also visiting a coffee shop that is owned by a family that has been in coffee production for many years. And so they have a Hacienda so the coffee plantations in different parts of the island. There's also historical or seen the Buena Vista if it's a well preserved plantation that has all of these steps of coffee production as it used to be done in old times, and a lot of us techniques still prevail. In addition, for rum, for example, we can do rum, we could go to Bacardi which is the more folks who are interested in this big sort of industrial approach to how do you become the biggest rum brand in the world. And that's the Bacardi tour for you with all of their marketing muscle and production capacity here in Puerto Rico. But if you interested in the traditional way of making rum, we have one of the places that actually has resurrected literally because in one run production because of the volumes. Oftentimes the molasses is coming from could come from other countries. But what they've done in in this local Hacienda is they Flint, that sugar cane, as it used to be in good old times when all of the sugarcane of plantations were based in Puerto Rico. And they re basically have the full cycle, the whole process from sugarcane production, sugarcane harvesting, to aging, to the distilling to tasting. So it's a full cycle for rum. And then in the end, of course, you get to taste the wrong data you have watched the made. So on the food side are lots of different options. There are forms, we get up collecting food and vegetables. While you here, you can actually there's a online site that collects and helps sort of channel from farm to table for from local farms to folks who live here. So for example, if he if one is renting a villa or Airbnb, you could actually take advantage of those few times and order your local food vegetables from local farms, as well. So different opportunities, you know, from tasting to partaking in the process and becoming the part of the farm to table culture here.

Mimi Lichtenstein 29:20
Yeah. Very cool. Well, thank you for sharing that. Because I do think that for people who have the time, that would be a fun experience someone had written in about the migration and affordability of the islands and a few other questions which, given so many of those things will affordability in particular is is relative. I'll just ask maybe a question about when we send clients places, obviously, it depends upon what kind of hotel level you're staying at. But in general, would you say over the last like five years has the or last couple of years there's many places in the United States where real estate prices have gone through the roof for a variety of reasons, has Puerto Rico And in particular, San Juan felt somewhat yes

Anastasia 30:02
to degree, I would say probably it's more applicable to the sort of tourism areas to the metro area. Because we have seen post enactment of several laws that basically support investment in Puerto Rico, there's been an influx of folks who basically have left California or left New York to come to Puerto Rico because of the climate and also because of the tax advantages that it offers. So we I'd say, Yes, you see that but also, as a visitor, you probably less some may not really feeling because part of the investment has gone, for example, to create more Airbnb. So I will say that Airbnb pricing went up because there's more supply. Now if you'd like to buy something, it probably costs you more. In sort of the on the beachfront communities, there's a little bit of an impact of that, probably less so in the middle of the island, or in some of the Northern metro areas that that we have covered.

Mimi Lichtenstein 31:01
Yeah, makes sense. Okay, so let's transition to all the fun, active and adventurous things. Yeah, you touched on driving through the middle of the island. Earlier, we did that when we were going from Old San Juan to the south. And on the way back, we took a slightly more western route, and I zoomed out on my map, and the road went like a piece of wiggly spaghetti. So it gets motion sickness. Keep that in mind. My daughter does actually get motion sickness, but she was totally fine. We had the windows open, it was a beautiful day. But when you go places like there, or El Yunque a hiking is, you know, something that my clients love to do, I love to do. So. You have places like this, where you can go and do spectacular hikes, do you have a favorite place for hikes in the island? Would you say all young guy or do you have a different one?

Anastasia 31:52
Well, I have as far as hiking process concerned, I will probably offer you can because I'm sort of urban hiker, which means that I am loved the exercise and the views. But I don't want to get crushed, or you know, to muddy in the process. So I'm going to live a not very extreme experience seeking hiker. So yoga is amazing, because all of the paths you can literally go to the highest peaks in the UK, in a very structured environment in the sense that you you're stepping on a row or on a stone path that has been built for your convenience. So it's you get the benefit of the nature. While you know there's no risk involved in walking through the you know, National Park with all of that sort of mapped and perhaps and paved paths for you so so that's probably if you ask me, however, if I'm to look for ways to disconnect, and I will probably choose a more rural, Less Traveled location, like the one you seeing on the forests, this is the mountains between Eduardo and occlude this, there's the developments area where you literally are in the vicinity of the highest peaks in Puerto Rico, you see the lake down below. And this particular place provides more like a camping opportunities where people come without tents, and they have a chance to have a direct light at the location. But the rest of the things that bring themselves and so this is more of a hardcore faults, right?

Mimi Lichtenstein 33:23
Yeah. And then this one, Sao Paulo, your colleague had told me and I think actually, Tony, one of our guides about this hike for Jacob prone, which is down in the south and the girls and I did it one day, it's only about at a healthy pace, you know, 1520 minutes up, but you get to the top and you have this old fort that you can climb up to the very top of that. I don't remember I think I don't know, I don't have a picture of us at the top. But the views are stunning. You know, you see out into the ocean. You see some of the keys, you see the beaches where the Spaniards and the Americans entered Puerto Rico when they came long ago. So this was also another hike that I would say put on your list. It was beautiful. And then our kids actually went and did beach yoga one morning which was super fun. So that was another opportunity to be outdoors and be active. And you know, you touched on before the surfing. I have a lot of friends who have been to the ring cone area and the northwest corner that you mentioned to do surfing. Also on the north coast. There are beaches, you know better than me, but outside of Old San Juan that I know Paulo had sort of designated beginner, intermediate and advanced. Have you ever tried surfing and do you have any favorite surfing beaches up there?

Anastasia 34:34
I have not. I swim a lot that's tried to swim almost every other day. But I have not tried surfing myself but I have a lot of friends who surf and Puerto Rico literally is not just the surfing place. It's a surfing destination. Yeah. Since the 60s there were hosted surfing competitions. Some of the Parisian surfers I actually once rented an apartment from a gentleman who was in top 10 Surface adhesives you know at his at his prime and has competed in places like Japan and Hawaii. So we have a very active very vivid surfing culture and that applies to all of the watersports and I always say when I describe watersports I always say that the beauty of Puerto Rico is that there's a lot of the offering is bringing why because all of the locals have a favorite sport what is for their own so, some of Tahlia friends who are kite surfers, you can dive many people own a motor boat or sailing boat, you can take sailing lessons, you can hire a boat to go around the island and these are the vehicles in Calabria which are also known as Spanish Virgin Islands. You can do it on your own if you have a license. So you can have fully catered trip with a captain with all things taken care of for you. So there's a lot of it's big variety of what you can do in terms of water, and opportunities.

Mimi Lichtenstein 35:56
And we were able to get out kayaking, which was so fun. You know, a lot of people hear about bio bays and the bioluminescence and I think that I'm pretty sure Puerto Rico has three different places one in the south one off via case and the one we went to near for Harto. And it was. That's the one tip for that which we're going to talk about at the end. But I'll throw in here is that if you do want to do something like that, definitely go as far away as you can from a full moon because it does help seeing the bioluminescence to have that contrast. Okay. I love this. I don't know if it's gonna play. But I think that kite surfing is something that I want to learn how to do. My family has taken lessons, it's very hard to learn how to do in one day, it's certainly you're not going to be that good. It takes a while to even actually get in the water. But when I was down there at the Ritz Carlton, I saw this happening. And this is a guy on essentially a kite surfing board with an E foil. So he's popped up out of the water. And instead of having the actual sort of, I guess you would say the sail from a wind surfer or up in the air from a kite surfer. He's actually just holding on to it. And it's helping him look through the water. So

Anastasia 37:09
workout imagined the workout. We're doing that were you on your own mast, right?

Mimi Lichtenstein 37:13
Yeah. I think I want to dedicate a solid week to learning maybe how to do this. I was gonna do kite surfing. But maybe this I don't know. You know how good I could get at the end of it. But for me, it just seems like something that would be like flying right where you're just like out there. Yeah, and you just keep going. It's not like surfing in the waves over and you're done. And then fishing. Fishing is obviously a big part of the culture and we ate a lot of fresh fish. And if you want to go out fishing, I think you can catch tuna and Marlin and maybe Mahi Mahi. So that's a really fun part of it. And then here's a photo of one of the walking paths from the Ritz Dorado which we'll touch on in a few minutes. But you know, walking through, I think they have like 16 or 17 miles of trails or just LMK. Right, or even just, you know, urban walking around San Juan, there's a lot of opportunities and you see so much. Now, if somebody wants to go to collabora or via case, either for the day or for overnight, you could go on a ferry, you could fly actually, or you could charter catamaran and go out there, is it if you're staying in Old San Juan, would you recommend doing that as a day trip? Or is that I know you know, it's a solid hour and a half from the East Coast. So would you would you suggest an overnight or suggest stay out on the East Coast? Or could you do it for

Anastasia 38:36
a technician for example, if you fly from San Juan to Vegas, it's only a 20 minute flight and you literally can arrive half an hour before it's a very, it's not an airport experience. It's more of an experience like if you were taking a train like very laid back very casual so he could do that but I would definitely stay more than one night in Vegas because you've got it want to dine probably at one of the local restaurants you probably would want to enjoy like a morning beach in when it's still very fresh and the sun is soft versus you know, just being there during the day. So I would definitely recommend Vegas for at least one or night maybe two nights to kind of feel the pace and disconnect and enjoy. There are there's a black sand beach in Vegas where the sand is locked to to particular mineral. We also offer the opportunity to go on the trail horseback riding you can do that. And there's a very vibrant local gastronomic scene it's much smaller than in some one but but very fun. So you can do a lot in a relatively compact period of time but I would definitely recommend at least an overnight or maybe even two nights on the island. You can also now another way of getting there you could probably drive to for Hardin and charter take a boat ride Like a private boat, or if it's supportive as a family, you could also charter a plane, the same plane that takes you there on a regular basis, you can charter it

Mimi Lichtenstein 40:08
as well. How many passenger plane is that? 10. Okay. So,

Anastasia 40:12
usually, but it's usually the it's from Sabre, which is the eastern part of Puerto Rico, it's about 10 minute flight. And from some one, it's about a 20 minute flight.

Mimi Lichtenstein 40:21
Okay, sunsets, sunsets are a big part of my life traveling with teenagers because they all love the golden hour. So every day, a little after 615 or so we would make our way outside. And really, it seemed like we had beautiful ones in San Juan in the south, like wherever we were, there were gorgeous sunsets. So I would say if you love taking pictures of beautiful sunsets, Puerto Rico is definitely a great destination for you. And I'm going to ask you a little bit later about your favorite spot, maybe in San Juan to catch the sunset. And then puppies, we had this situation happened, a friend of ours, from where we live actually has a puppy rescue organization that goes around the Caribbean and primarily in Puerto Rico and rescues puppies and brings them back and she found out I was there. And she wrote me and said, Hey, can you bring back a couple of puppies? And of course, I asked the girls and they were said, Yeah, let's bring back some puppies. So this is a picture of the two puppies that we brought back with us on the plane. And in the beginning, it looked like they were going to be a little bit whiny, like, you know, wanting attention or to get out. But they immediately fell asleep and slept for the whole four hour flight home. So it was so easy. And I haven't checked with her to find out where the puppies are today. But they're probably in some lovely home with some happy little children who are thrilled to have a new puppy. So if you are going to Puerto Rica for your chip and you're interested in that, send me a note happy to hook you guys up. And then cooking classes. So cooking food is always a big part of people's travels, whether you be eating them eating things or making things so we had the opportunity to do a cooking class. And one of the fun things for the girls to make was the toast Stonyface which maybe tell us a little bit about like what is that to a sone is a plantain Correct?

Anastasia 42:08
Yes, plantings are a big part of local cuisine. If you think of the role of perhaps you know, potatoes in American cuisine, it's used in soups, right, fried or mashed plantains basically perform that role here in the Caribbean, and especially in Puerto Rico. And what you see on the picture is the making of the stones, which is basically used are almost like a bread. You know, when you when you have your dinner, you would have to astonish serve pretty much bread like bread would be served in our traditional sort of North American setting. And once a slice of granting and fried a little bit, then comes the part where the Costanera where you want to make sure that it's flat. I mean, there's low gastronomical taste wise reason to it, it's just a tradition that it's not going to be a coffee it has to be Flatland. So the Cassandra is used to accomplish that and then the altar stone is fried again saying the word God stone brings associations because inquiry go for some reason when you when you got an unexpected problem or something, you know, sudden suddenly occurred that requires some resolution. You say kitto stone you know. So it also presents in folklore in many in many ways. Plus, there's Mofongo Of course, it's like mashed potatoes with bacon but then what's used for the baseline is cooked and fried and mashed planting. And you have a money use which is the right planting when it's deep fried so it's has a sweeter texture to it. You've got good nails, which is the little one teens sort of the berry plantings or the not sweet look like banana banana, but they're not there. They're not Sweden they use for different marinated types of foods. So you got you know, plantains galore. You can leave Billerica without having tried one and one of them.

Mimi Lichtenstein 44:07
We had them one night with our Sufi Chai, which was a fun way to have them. I had it with fresh fish, red snapper one night, so there's lots of opportunities to eat plantains, that's for sure. And just Tony's Alright, let's talk a little bit about some of the hotels and accommodations throughout Puerto Rico. Obviously, there's a lot of them we're not going to touch on all of them a few highlights in Old San Juan, I would say it's a virtuoso Hotel. So correct me if I'm wrong, but would you categorize that as the nicest most luxury property within Old San Juan?

Anastasia 44:41
Yes, yeah, most definitely. They have experience with taking care of the most demanding setting guests. Yeah, it would probably be classified as five star hotel what because you know, it's a colonial infrastructure. So you cannot add a huge pool and you cannot add immense gardens. You have a building that used to be monitoring the Courtland To be specific, and it has been transformed into beautiful, authentic, an architectural gem with everything preserved and added all of the amenities and the service that an exacting traveler would need that simple vendor coil.

Mimi Lichtenstein 45:19
Nice. And then as far as four star options go on the beach that aren't too too far from Old San Juan. I love the Fairmont. I went and did a site visit and saw their pool. So as far as being in that general area of Puerto Rico, the Ritz Carlton actually has a second hotel in this similar area, but it's been closed now for since the hurricane hasn't been closed on Saturday. Yeah. So we're hoping it reopens one day but at the moment it's not and there are other beach hotels Grand Hyatt there's the St. Regis sprinkled about the coast. And you know, as as usual with my clients, it just really depends upon who's going what your family's like what you want to do, how close you want to be, how remote you want to be, are you going to get a car or not, you know, a variety of things like that. This is a photo of the Ritz Dorado so I'd sent several families to the Ritz Dorado before who have all loved it. So I was like, Okay, I need to go see it. And I loved it absolutely fell in love. You know, it is a huge property. I think it's 1600 acres formerly owned by the Rockefellers and because of that, for those of you who are watching, you can see some of the rocks in the ocean that he had placed there long ago before it was not considered good to do that. And so it helps break the surface. So the the water over by the sand is actually quite calm but yet you still have these big waves crashing a little bit away from you, which makes it a really fun vibe and experience. And I love how they have so many units with plunge pools, their first floor units have punch pools, their top floor units have rooftop plunge pools so the views are obviously spectacular. I love to that they have indoor and outdoor showers maybe in every single unit. I'm not sure but I love those because I love a good outdoor shower. And then their spa is of course magnificent they had this is a photo of kind of the hot and cold area so they have warm water cold water, you can pull a pull a rope and have a bucket of cold water dump on your head, which I'm sure it's a very invigorating experience.

Anastasia 47:28
The lease right

Mimi Lichtenstein 47:31
there SPA was absolutely beautiful. I absolutely loved it. And I met as I was going around on a golf cart with Pedro and met some people who were biking around with their kids. There's some famous actors there. It's definitely a place where people who want the best go they have all sorts of you know, to golf courses to 18 hole golf courses, a huge water sports center, multiple pools, they have this whole kind of water park area where it has slides for the kids. They have a lazy river, ping pong, basketball, a gym that I would say rivals anything in New York or Miami. So for the person who's looking to have a luxury vacation, I would say this would be the top luxury property in Puerto Rico. And I learned because I met with the simile i that they have the largest wine cellar in the Caribbean. So for people who are into wines, it's also a great destination for them. I always love throwing in over the top ideas. So yachts, Anastasia, I'm sure would be great at sourcing some beautiful yachts if somebody wanted to take those on part of the island or out for the day. And what about well, this is a photo of the five bedroom villa I did a tour of at the Ritz Carlton Dorado too. So if you're looking to have an over the top vacation, I would say rent the five bedroom villa with Dorado will get you a yacht to go out on the water. And we'll have you dropped off with a helicopter at one of the three hell of pads that are on site at the Dorado so if you want to go over the top, I think the Dorado is the place to be anything you want to add to that that I missed.

Anastasia 49:07
The just an off kind of curious fact the champion surfer that I've mentioned to you before it was my landlord is also a helicopter pilot. And really the adrenaline rush is with you. It doesn't matter you know when or at what stage in life so he and a number of very fun professionals fly helicopters here. So yes, that's an option. We've had some guests taken a helicopter from their boat actually to add human get area, Rio Grande area at one occasion. So that's definitely an opportunity. And I think it's something to keep in mind that there's so many things to do in Puerto Rico. So literally splurge as much as you want or you can also have a mixed experience depending how much you want to kind of go deep down to local events, local culture, so it's that, that that depth that is really impressive.

Mimi Lichtenstein 49:59
Yeah, I wouldn't Three. And maybe before we touch on the favorites, like as far as putting together a complimentary itinerary, I think someone could surely go and stay just at a beach resort or at Dorado for a week, no problem. But if they wanted to my favorite would be to spend some time in Old San Juan and combine that with time at a beach resort. Yeah, I think that's nice because then you get a little bit of the urban vibe and also a little bit of the relaxation. Okay, transition to favorites. I have a few favorites of my own to share. But I'm first going to ask you tell me about I don't know whatever favorite cafe sunset spot. Tell us a little bit about some of your favorites.

Anastasia 50:38
Well, you've mentioned Olson one and that's the place where when I first came to Puerto Rico, I lived literally lived in the colonial city for probably about the first 15 years of my life here so I feel some one era you know, the resident of Olson, one longtime resident or someone and that's a place where if I want to have beauty around me, and also have plenty of gastronomic sort of options things to enjoy an adult's oneself with that's definitely a place so running down the list. Don't listen by a ha That's my favorite place for coffee super friendly. And also great coffee to start. I love the for lunch, either butter Cina or El buta because both places are have great authentic buffalo. You can literally you cannot leave Puerto Rico not allowed illegal if you have no one had my phone. Is that such a hottie like local meal and it's very special. It's you're not gonna get anywhere in the world. Exactly. When I travel outside of Puerto Rico for extended period of time. I wouldn't crave foods I'm like, I miss my muffin box. It gets to you in a good way. Pina Colada was invented by a local barman who worked at burger chain and then later moved to Hilton. So now both places compete for the name of the for the to be the place of the invention, but it's actually was it comes the fame belongs to the man who invented it and it's also there's a place in some point but she has an awesome point where you can taste pina colada. Now for fine dining, I would recommend marmalade here also no city, a Swiss chef that has traveled all over the world and worked with Michelin level restaurants that have had settled in Puerto Rico and exquisite fine experience of enjoying food. to its highest side say these would be my spots for for for food, per se. Definitely salsa dancing cannot leave Puerto Rico without at least having been a part of it right as you ladies have enjoyed to the phones, and on sunsets. You could even do a Morrow. In some point. You could also do for moonrise or for sunrise. You can also do Louisa which is the Eastern slightly eastern part of the frog.

Mimi Lichtenstein 52:58
Great. Thank you. So I echo some of the things you said that I got to try and I'll throw in a couple of other ones. One is gelato. Because ice cream is always a favorite with kids or teenagers. And this one is called Anita La MaMa I think which is right in Old San Juan line was out the door down the block the night that we went there, which I think was a Saturday night. So it was definitely the place to go to after dinner or after going to a club. The flavors were spectacularly delicious. And they had so many and it was beautiful, as you can see from the different photos. And then I just happened upon this little bakery called spiega. And it's owned by a woman and two brothers who work at the front here. And they had cookies that were many but reminded me of Lavon in New York City, and I'm in love with love and cookies. So I was super happy with that. And I brought the girls home breakfast pastries and sandwiches from here and everything was delicious. So highly recommend that super nondescript storefront but it was delicious. And then what was the Oh, lat day 23 where you and I met, we ended up going there late. It's a little bit like a food court food truck kind of situation probably want to get there by like five, six o'clock at the latest because they were closing up when we were there. And they have a variety of local type foods, but we only had so many choices. And so we were late. And we had fried chicken. And we all said it was by far the best fried chicken we'd ever had was chicken tenders and chicken sandwiches. Absolutely delicious. So highly recommend that too. So there's certainly lots of places that you can go when you're there. And maybe I'm going to follow up with some a couple other tidbits about some takeaways in the show notes. And you and I obviously will keep the conversation going. I hope to get back to Puerto Rico and I have to send many more clients. I want to thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate you being here. And I will look forward to touching base with you because I do have clients coming in a couple of weeks and hopefully said doing some more.

Anastasia 55:01
Thank you so much. We will look forward to having you here so we can embark on your plan to learn kitesurfing so I very contagious and wonderful, adventurous and contagious idea, a dream to have so

Mimi Lichtenstein 55:15
and you know what, I just feel like it'd be a super cool skill to have that, you know, here I am, you know, at this stage of my life, and I'm going out to learn how to kite surf. So maybe it'll be 2022, if not 2023.

Anastasia 55:26
Thank you. Thank you so much.

Mimi Lichtenstein 55:28
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