Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico trip ideas

Explore the magic of Old San Juan with a historian

Puerto Rico

3 hours (approx.)
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

What's Included

Bottled water
Snacks

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

Plaza Colón, San Juan, 00916, Puerto Rico
Meeting Place: Colón Square, in the benches next to the Colón statue. Your tour guide will text or call you once he/she arrives to site. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to start time.

Start time

09:30 AM

End point

Plaza de Armas, San Juan, 00916, Puerto Rico
Tour guide will leave the group in Plaza De Armas, located at the heart of the city. It's just a 5-10 minute walk back to the main plaza. Your tour guide will provide you with a map of San Juan and will give recommendatins of where to shop and eat.

What To Expect

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Service animals allowed

Near public transportation
Surfaces are wheelchair accessible
Most travelers can participate
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 20 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Reviews

4.5

13 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

We perform checks on reviews

Showing 1-6 of 13 reviews

A perfect taste of Old San Juan

Emily_D, Mar 2024

Laura was very knowledgeable, had great answers to questions, and it was the right amount of time to get a good taste of the city.

Response from Host, Mar 2024

Thank you so much for sharing your experience!!! It was such a pleasure having you and your family with us!!

Excellent tour of Old San Juan

Doriana_R, Mar 2024

My husband and I had an amazing tour of Old San Juan with Miguel Garcia. He was extremely knowledgeable of the city with its incredible history and made it so much fun! We highly recommend using him. You will not be dissappointed.

Response from Host, Mar 2024

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! We are glad you had a nice time in the tour and we hope to see you again!

Knowledgeable and friendly tour guide

Rebekah_S, Feb 2024

Miguel Garcia was a wonderful tour guide! He is very knowledgeable and personable and answered all our questions, even about the local plants and animals. Old San Juan was even more beautiful and interesting than I expected! Miguel took the time to point out restrooms, a place to buy water for $1, and he recommended great restaurants that we tried. He even explained more about local Puerto Rican food when we asked. I would highly recommend him!

Response from Host, Feb 2024

Thank you so much for sharing your review! We appreciate your kind words an will definitely let Miguel know that you left him a review!

Great experience

Vayo_M, Jan 2024

We had the great time with the tour. Especially, Miquel was such an amazing tour guide. He was so nice, passionate and friendly. He explained a lot and answered a lot of our question. I would recommend him. The best guide ever.

Response from Host, Jan 2024

Thank you so much for your review! We will definitely let Miguel know that he had a really happy customer!

Friendly, knowledgeable guide but disconnect in description and duration of tour

Susan_L, Jan 2024

Our guide Laura was very friendly and happy to answer questions. I would say though that there is a big gap between what is promised in the online tour description and what we actually did. In addition, there was a big time gap as well, as our tour only lasted two hours. I would say the tour either needs to run the full 3 hours, or the price should be lowered to reflect the shorter tour. Per the description and our experiences next to the ** What's included: Bottled water Limbers or the PR version of the snow cone Entry/Admission - Casa Museo Felisa Rincon de Gautier Entry/Admission - Catedral Basilica Menor de San Juan Bautista Entry/Admission - Cuartel de Ballaja Entry/Admission - La Casa Estrecha What to Expect: Stop At: Plaza Colon, Calle Calz. de los Heroes 908, La Martinica, San Juan 00901 Puerto Rico. Our experienced tour guide will meet you at Plaza Colón, you will learn about the history and stories behind this 500-year-old cobblestoned city.Duration: 20 minutes **We met here and got some overviews of the city and culture. Stop At: Casa Museo Felisa Rincon de Gautier, Caleta de San Juan No. 51, Esquina Clara Lair, San Juan 00901 Puerto Rico. Learn about the life and works of the first female mayor of San Juan, Doña Fela. Also visitors will have the opportunity to see up close a typical colonial San Juan house. Duration: 20 minutes **We did not tour this museum. Stop At: Catedral Basilica Menor de San Juan Bautista, Calle del Cristo 151-153, San Juan 00901-1521 Puerto Rico. Explore the second oldest cathedral in the Americas and the first cathedral built in Puerto Rico. Duration: 30 minutes **We entered and toured the cathedral. Stop At: Cuartel de Ballaja, Calle Norzagaray Corner Calle del Morro, San Juan 00901 Puerto Rico. Visit the last massive building made by the Spanish in Puerto Rico. Walk through its hallways and savor a delicious cup of coffee at Cafe Don Ruiz. Duration: 15 minutes **We did not enter the barracks or have coffee; we walked through the center of the courtyard and out the other side. Stop At: La Casa Estrecha, 101 Calle de Tetuan Old San Juan, San Juan 00901-1811 Puerto Rico. Take a photo op at San Juan's narrowest house and its view. Duration: 5 minutes. **We did not enter the narrow house; we talked in front of it. Stop At: Cuartel de Ballaja, Calle Norzagaray Corner Calle del Morro, San Juan 00901 Puerto Rico.Explore the last massive building made by the Spanish in Puerto Rico. Be amazed by the largest courtyard of Old San Juan. Duration: 10 minutes **Mentioned above, we walked through the courtyard. Stop At: Iglesia de San Jose, Calle del Cristo Plaza de San José, San Juan 00901 Puerto Rico. Visit San Juan's oldest church. Your tour guide will take you through all the details that decorate this church. Learn about the history of this church during the Spanish American War's attack to San Juan. Duration: 20 minutes. **We did not enter or tour this church. Stop At: Capilla del Santo Cristo de la Salud, 1 Calle Del Cristo, San Juan 00901 Puerto Rico. Learn about the urban legend of La Capilla del Cristo. Learn about the miracle that took place in this street. Duration: 10 minutes **We talked in front of the gates. Stop At: Castillo San Felipe del Morro, 501 Calle Norzagaray, San Juan 00901-1213 Puerto Rico. Be amazed by the history of the fortifications that once bordered the whole city. Your tour guide will give you free time to visit the fort's surroundings. Duration: 30 minutes. **We did not get to explore the fort. We talked about it in the distance as we walked by. This is one stop I especially wish we could have explored in person as described in the tour.

Response from Host, Jan 2024

Thank you for your review. The description clearly states that the admission to the forts is not included. We talk about the forts from the outside. National Parks does not allow tour guides with out their permits to go inside the forts. The Museums and Chapels were closed on January 2nd, even though it was a day full of ships, many places did not open. Unfortunately that is something we do not control and it's out of our reach. That is why the information was offered in front of the building.

Not as described… disappointed.

COLLEEN_F, Dec 2023

I’ll start with the positives. Laura seemed to be a very friendly person. The small group we were with (a family of four and a solo gentlemen, making us 7 total, were lovely and really added to the experience. Laura was a distracted, mildly disinterested, sloppy tour guide. When we went into the Catedral San Juan Batista, Laura gave us a couple sentences of info before directing us inside for 15 minutes as she stayed outside on a bench. She failed to mention that Ponce De Leon’s final resting site was inside - which most of our group missed. My partner and I only found it because we knew to look through a previous Google search. She mentioned that 30 min later responding to a question, and everyone was disappointed.. Laura also wasn’t the best at answering questions. Several times she had a hard time answering what seemed to be basic questions. For instance, she was asked which way we were facing looking at the bay and her answer was clearly wrong (a quick map reference showed that). She also told us she guessed the population of Old San Juan to be “a couple thousand - not many” when it’s over 300,000. The tour was also supposed to include bottled water and snacks or a icee-type drink. I’m pretty sure we only got the water (basic purified water from a coffee shop) because someone in our group brought it up. There were no snacks or icees. Though we passed an icee vendor on the tour we had to pay for our own (fake out! lol). As we passed other tour groups and heard other tour guides in action, we couldn’t help but think we chose poorly. In this case the pricier walking tour (this one) was not worth the money. (The other people in our group made similar remarks).