San Juan · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
San Juan is a dollar city with cheap buses, free forts to walk around and expensive beds.
Sleep in Santurce
Santurce and the edges of Condado hold the hostels, ten minutes by bus from Old San Juan and a walk from the Calle Loíza bars.
What a day costs
Dorm $30–55, food $25–45 if you eat at fondas and food trucks, transport $5. Reckon $60–105 a day; this is not a cheap island.
Getting around cheap
AMA city buses and the Tren Urbano cost about a dollar and change, a free trolley loops Old San Juan, and públicos run shared vans to other towns.
Free by day
The Paseo del Morro along the sea wall, the sand at Ocean Park and Escambrón, and the whole grid of blue cobbles in the old city.
La Placita de Santurce
A daytime produce market that turns into an open-air drinking square on Thursday and Friday evenings, spilling into the surrounding streets.