Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Earlier this morning I found Joel Maxwell’s link to my blog. I promised him I’d publish travel notes today. These are specific to my Puerto Rico trip and the wedding from last weekend. I hope you find some of them useful should you ever go there. As always I direct you to The Frugal Traveler column of the NYT. The writer is a close friend and he’s pretty savvy.

1) There really aren’t any buses. You will be taking cabs everywhere. And those cabs aren’t cheap. I hear there is a difference between a taxi and a publico, but darned if I really knew the difference. I guess a publico is the inter-city van service which I took between San Juan and Fajardo.

2) Cash is king. When you stay at a resort, cash tips go flying everywhere. Remember to bring lots of cash with you.

3) ATM? What’s that? You can’t find an ATM on Vieques, PR. Make sure you bring your own stash of traveler’s checks or something like that. San Juan has large banks like Citibank and Banco Popular, but you will get charged regular $2 ATM fees, though I hear you can have those waived by your bank if you call before you leave.

4) The ferry was kind of fun from Fajardo to Vieques, however, being tied to the ferry schedule sucked. For the amount of time I could have saved and done more sightseeing, I probably should have flown from San Juan to Vieques. In terms of money, the ferry is $2, but if you are traveling alone, it costs $80 from San Juan airport to the ferry dock and flying costs about $80 as well. Try to carpool to the ferry if you can. I split that trip with two other guests and saved money that way. However, I would have liked to get more sightseeing time by flying.

5) Getting stood up by your ex-boyfriend stinks. However, when he takes you out to dinner and tours old San Juan with you at night, it makes up for it. Plus his advice on the cheap hotels was right on the money and saves you a bundle. And yeah, he bought dinner and drinks since it was his fault that I spent the extra $80 on a taxi back to San Juan from the ferry. Getting told that you look really great: Priceless. There is another post in this one, but I’ll save it since it’s rather long.

What was the frugal tip here and not just being smug? Talk to friends and locals to find out where it’s *SAFE* and cheap to stay in town. Isla Verde in San Juan was reasonably safe, but a little grungy. If you’ve done the youth hostel thing, it was about the same as that. Not fancy, but serviceable.

6) Always get your manicure and pedicure the day BEFORE the wedding. Getting it done the day of when you’re in a rush is a sure fire way to get it all ruined. However, Creative ‘Glowing’ is a great color with a tan. There is no point in paying $25 for a nice manicure if you’re going to wreck it. (Which was picked up by the bride’s mom, so now I feel even guiltier for the mess on my fingers.)

7) No matter what your friend tells you, she is a liar and will buy you a present for being her maid of honor. It was really beautiful and well, I got a little verklempt during my toast. But it was because I was looking at her and I think she was getting verklempt too. Luckily there was no weeping to ruin the makeup. But that’s ok, I didn’t pay for a makeup job since I did my own.

I am definitely going to go back. I will probably also stay again at the really posh hotel for a night or two. If I do this trip once more, I will schedule it for the new moon so I can enjoy the bioluminescent sea life in the dark, and take some snorkeling/scuba lessons.

9) I never had a chance to shop for snacks before getting to the hotel. That’s ok because I only paid once or twice for meals at the hotel. I was eating mostly meals that were paid for as part of the wedding so I ate one meal at the spa, drinks at the bar a few times (which were comparable to drink prices in DC, if not cheaper). The bride and I did eat PB&J sandwiches in her suite right before the ceremony so we wouldn’t pass out during her vows. I also helped polish off someone’s orange juice and pound cake the next morning right before we all checked out.

10) If I had stayed an extra night at the resort, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot. The other girls who flew back to DC with me had wonderful souvenirs and experiences on Vieques for the rest of Sunday. However, I got a loss for France and a long wait by the ferry docks. Bah. I shouldn’t complain. It was still a good trip even if I missed out on really getting to know Puerto Rico.

11) Verizon doesn’t have service on Vieques, but Sprint and Cingular do. It returns once you get on the mainland though. I would check the charges before you go though. SMS works great out there and was a godsend as we tried to make logistical arrangements between the variously arriving parties of guests.