Puerto Rico: The Budget

If you’ve been following along, I’ve been sharing all about our trip to Puerto Rico in February. If you haven’t been following along, you can catch up here, here, and here. I like to wrap up with a budget post - I think they can be helpful if you’re planning a similar getaway and it is also an opportunity to share some tips and tricks, both for saving money and for experiencing a place. The biggest budget challenge in planning this trip was that our dates were not flexible, which can make saving money a little more challenging. But I was able to put together a nice trip that was our usual balance of splurging and saving. I’ve said this before and I’m sure I’ll say it again - using points and miles makes travel so much more accessible. Because I use them, we are able to travel more frequently and more comfortably than we otherwise could.

Total cost: $3299.29

Transportation: $1098.83

I primarily used vouchers and credits to book our Portland to San Juan flights. Because I was saving money on the out of pocket expenses, I splurged on first class flights for the return trip, bringing the total cost for flights to $584.20. We shared the cost of a one week car rental with our friends, bringing our total to $276.89. If you can make a smaller car work, at one point I had reserved a compact car for less than $100, so definitely shop for deals. If you do rent a car (probably not necessary in San Juan, but highly recommended otherwise), just a caution to carefully document the state of your car at pickup. When we returned the car at approximately midnight, the staff spent a surprising amount of time looking for damage and only videos of the car at pickup prevented us from receiving additional charges. The rest of the expenses in this category included gas, taxis/Ubers, and airport parking. Using Uber was our go to in San Juan, although the easiest way to get from the airport is to use the taxi stand - it’s in a convenient location, we didn’t have to wait, and the rates are pre-set flat fees depending on the destination.

Accommodations: $786.98

Brandon and I stayed two nights at the boutique hotel Dreamcatcher in San Juan for $502.51. I booked the special run of the house rate, which guarantees a room with an en-suite bathroom. Doing this saved a little money, but isn’t an option if you want a specific room or if you are booking last minute (quantities are limited). We also saved money by sharing the cost of the home rental and I was able to use a $200 home rental credit that was a sign up benefit of the Capital One Venture X card, bringing my out of pocket expenses for the two nights at a very fancy house with a roof top lounge and private pool to $284.47. Finally, we used Brandon’s Hyatt points and a free night certificate for two nights at the Hyatt Regency for $0. Rooms started at $360 a night, so this was quite a bit of savings, especially when you consider that resort fees are waived on points stays. All this money saved was a good thing because food and beverages here were $$$.

Food and Drinks: $1302.45

Of note, this doesn’t include breakfast most days as we are mostly coffee in the morning kind of people. We had some great meals and some mediocre meals, which I’ve shared in previous Puerto Rico posts. Unless we were intentionally looking for budget eats, most restaurant meals for 2 adults with 1-2 drinks per person were around $100. Our most expensive meal was at the steakhouse at the Hyatt. We also racked up a decent tab at the pool bar. My best advice? Eat plantains in some form or fashion at every meal. You won’t regret that.

Activities: $515.72 and no regrets

The food tour we did with Flavors of San Juan was $293.72 for two adults and the bio bay tour with Paradise Scuba and Snorkeling was $200 for two adults. I would one hundred percent do both things again, but if I had to pick one, it would be the bio bay tour every time. The cost also included smaller expenses, such as entry to El Yunque National Forest.

Gifts/Souvenirs: $111.03

We didn’t do a lot of shopping, but did pick up a couple gifts for Harrison. The best thing we brought back from Puerto Rico was the memories.

If I were to get a redo on this trip, I think the one thing I would change was putting more time into researching food options, both to save money and to have a better experience. Otherwise, I was really happy with our trip. More importantly, I can highly recommend a trip to Puerto Rico. If you get a chance to go or see a deal on plane tickets (I’ve seen quite a few lately) plan that vacation!