San Juan’s Courtyard Isla Verde is excellent!

Author: Big Tex
Date of Trip: July 2007

An EXCELLENT HOTEL! This is not your ordinary Courtyard! This is more of a resort destination! My family (me, wife, DD16, DD12) stayed for 4 nights pre cruise at this property, and I would have liked to have stayed there, and forgot the cruise! Every employee was very helpful and polite. This is a credit to the management. From early morning to late at night, the hotel management was everywhere, making sure that guests were well taken care of. Any requests we made were taken care of with a smile and very quickly. I have only seen this level of service at 5 star resorts. After a few days, staff greeted us by name everywhere! That was pretty cool!

Our check in went quickly. Our room was very spacious, with a great balcony and view of the beach and blue sea. I had a small fridge and two large queen beds. Very comfortable, with nice,clean linens. Nothing overly fancy, but still nice. The pool was clean and fun. The beach is fantastic. You literally walk out the hotel onto the beach. We snorkeled right off the shore and found hundreds of sand dollars, and some starfish. Just down the beach was volleyball. We took full advantage of the pool bar and snack bar. The hamburgers are great. But if you are not too hungry, just get the kids burger. It is still nice sized. The drinks were stout and priced about what you expect. $6-7 for a margarita, etc. There are some specials available. The breakfast buffet was as good as most you will find stateside. And the evening buffet included American and Puerto Rican offerings. We did not eat at Sirena, but the menu looked good.

I gambled at the Casino del Sol, but did not have too much luck there. The casino hosts often came around and gave out match play coupons, which was nice. It was not smoky in there at all. Which I like. On Friday and Saturday nights, this is the happening place, with locals dancing away, overflowing into the hallways. It was enjoyable watching these excellent dancers. They could really move. The airplane noise is a non-factor. It is noticeable, but not annoying. We were worried before we arrived, but then it was a joke with us, because it was no problem at all. We kept asking each other- “Is there an airport nearby? I swear I heard something.”

Visited the rain forest, Old San Juan, and El Morro. Very good trips and worth seeing. The main thing I can say is that I would recommend this hotel to anyone visiting San Juan. You can’t go wrong. If anyone has questions, please feel free to contact me. Or better yet, contact the hotel management by email. They respond quickly and are very helpful. Willie Miller- Lumberton, Texas