Hotel El Convento

Located in the heart of Old San Juan, El Convento, a member of Historic Hotels of America, has set new standards of luxury, comfort and service while preserving the unique character and mystique of the hotel. A former Carmelite convent built three and a half centuries ago, El Convento has gone through many incarnations before a complete refurbishment carefully restored this historic hotel with special attention paid to the preservation of the original structure. No expense or imagination has been spared in giving El Convento a fine blend of originality and classic quality.

There is something refreshingly different about El Convento, a small boutique-style hotel that celebrates the days of Old World style, creating a welcome atmosphere of sophistication without pretension, providing its guests with style and traditional hospitality. The legacy of El Convento will no doubt continue to endure long into the 21st century.Guests enter on a black-and-white marble floor amid Spanish antiques and tapestries and take an elevator to a third-floor, open-air reception area. Popular with guests wishing to explore Old San Juan, the hotel is also family-friendly, providing children with easy access to the Puerto Rican Children's Museum just outside the entrance.

Guests lounge on a rooftop sundeck with potted flowers overlooking Old San Juan, cool off in a plunge pool, soak in a bubbling spa, and work out in an air-conditioned fitness center. After strolls through the old city, the hotel's spacious interior courtyard provides shady respite under a 350-year-old tree.Complimentary Internet access is available in the hotel's air-conditioned library.

Dining:

Café del Nispero - Located in interior garden courtyard under centuries-old, 75-foot tall nispero tree. Lunch menu featuring daily specials, burgers, sandwiches, salads, and main courses such as pecan-crusted seabass, soy-pineapple chicken.
El Picoteo - Open-air tapas bar with antiqued masonry walls colored orange, high wood-beam ceiling. All-day lunch-dinner menu featuring hot and cold tapas, Spanish-style pizza, paella, sangria.
Café Bohemio - Intimate, air-conditioned dining room with high wood-beam ceiling, red-and-white walls, candle wall, celebrity photographs. Lunch menu of Puerto Rican-style sandwiches, salads, and main courses such as tuna tartare, skirt steak. Dinner menu with additional choices such as pepper steak, shrimp in Creole sauce. Live music some nights.

58 air-conditioned guestrooms in a yellow five-story building. Wood doors containing louvered panels open to French balconies (no step-out space) offering views of Old San Juan. Rooms also face wide, open-air, balustraded corridors facing the hotel's open-air garden courtyard, with upholstered chairs and tables and chairs outside each room. Rooms feature handcrafted furniture of dark-colored wood and wrought iron, including Spanish antiques and replicas of antiques; terra-cotta-tile floors; white ceilings; and colored walls. Small marble bathrooms contain pedestal sinks and tub/shower combinations.


Located 9 miles away from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU). Approximate driving time is 25 minutes.
Follow Av Baldoriotyde Castro/Rte 26 towards San Juan. Continue over the Laguna del Condado bridge where the road becomes Rte 25/Av Muñoz Rivera. At the entrance way to Old San Juan, take the first turn right onto Calle Norzagaray. Turn left at the Plaza San Jose onto Calle Cristo. Go downhill 2 blocks and the hotel is on the right.

Check-in time is 3 PM
Check-out time is Noon.
4 night minimum stay required during Christmas(Dec.23, 2005 to Jan. 2, 2006) and President's Week 3 nights minimum stay required (Feb 18-21, 2005-February 17-20, 2006.)