Not settling for just awesome

I have a tendency to book a vacation with a particular itinerary in mind and then, after further research, change my mind. It's not that I don't perform my due diligence before booking; but sometimes my initial plan, while awesome, could be awesomer. And why settle for awesome when you can have awesomer?

Take our Italy itin. Originally, I planned for us to spend 3 nights in Florence, 4 in Cinque Terre, and 3 in Venice. The plan was good but had faults and involved long, complicated train journeys with large pieces of luggage--not exactly relaxing. We cut CT from the itin and spent 5 nights each in Florence and Venice. While I'm sad that I haven't yet been to CT, I am so grateful that we had 5 nights in each of those Italian cities. First of all, I didn't even like Florence until the third day, and how sad to leave after you've finally become acclimated. And second, Venice is, well, Venice--amazing. Three days would not have been sufficient. Cinque Terre was meant to be saved for another trip.

What I'm getting to (in my usual rambling way) is that I've been thinking a lot about the PR itin and have been reading and rereading my guidebook and have realized that 4 nights in Old San Juan, even if we take a day trip to the rainforest for part of a day, might be a little too much. It's a smallish part of the city, and while it has a fair number of attractions, I don't think that we'll visit all of them. I tend to hit my museum limit fairly quickly when I'm not that interested in the subjects, and only a couple of the OSJ museums pique my interest.

So what are the other island options? I'm sure there are many, but if we stick to the more touristed areas, we have to venture just a few miles outside of Old San Juan to find beaches, resorts, casinos, and over-the-top swimming pools.

Venturing east from Old San Juan, you find five neighborhoods that are popular with tourists and offer a broad selection of hotels:

• Puerta de Tierra: The home of the capital and primo resorts but not the best place to be after dark.
• Condado: Fashionable district with high-end boutiques; similar to Miami's South Beach.
• Ocean Park and Punta Las Marias: Great beach but less pomp than Condado.
• Isla Verde (technically part of Carolina, not San Juan): Resort lifestyle to the extreme - beaches, sand, and trendy tourists, but minimal shopping.

I suspect I know what you're thinking--she wants to stay in Condado. You are somewhat correct. I considered it. The extensive shopping options are appealing. However, in the end, we decided upon Isla Verde. We found a good-enough deal on a hotel (marginally cheaper than the hotel that we booked in Old San Juan for the same time period, go us), and B is somewhat familiar with the area because he stayed at the El San Juan Hotel & Casino for a bachelor party a few years ago (though he didn't leave the hotel much, so the PR experience will still be new for him).

The reason I was able to justify not staying in Condado is that we're taking a tour to El Yunque (the rainforest), and it departs from a hotel in Condado. The tour gets back in the middle of the afternoon, and we'll have the rest of the day to explore the Condado neighborhood before heading back to Isla Verde (either by cab or public bus, depending on how adventurous/tired we're feeling that day).

Our revised PR itin now features 2 nights in Isla Verde, 2 nights in Old San Juan, and 3 nights in Vieques, and I am satisfied that we'll have sufficient activities in each place so that we won't get bored. The Vieques leg is going to be significantly lower-key than most of the vacations that we've had, and I hope that I don't get bored with the beach, but if I do, there is a hammock and a pool just waiting for me back at our B&B.