PUERTO RICO

  

The Girard-Perregaux World Time Tour:  On each and every GP WW.TC dial there are twenty-four cities listed, at least two from each continent, and these cities, will be our focus. We know that while traveling on business, many people leave themselves just one day to play tourist. 

So rather than another over-packed city guide, we offer you “One Perfect Day,” in each and every city we visit. We’ll highlight the best each has to offer and the experiences that make it unique, beyond the standard “where to go and what to see,” although we’ll occasionally include that too. —The Editors

THE SUN PEEKS IN THE SLATS OF THE WOODEN SHADES that cover the windows of the Hotel El Convento (pictured below.) Memories from the night before resurface slowly—wine and cheese on the ivy-bedecked roof as the sun starts to go down, the white bean soup at Marmalade, bodies grooving through the night at the bar at La Concha. But as your eyes blink open to take in the day, suddenly you remember—as tropical as San Juan feels to visitors from colder climes, you’re truly off to the beach today.

Hotel El Convento in Old San Juan

Walk out into the cobblestone-paved square in the heart of San Juan’s Old Town and thank your lucky stars you had the good sense to rent a Jeep. Windows down, roof off, it’s the accessory of choice for the two-hour trip traversing the northern coast of the island, through the hills of Puerto Rico washed fresh and green by the rising sun, while the waves crash below. You’re headed to Rincon, and the dozens of small beaches that crowd the northwest corner of the island. Home to a friendly mix of locals, sun-blackened surfers, and at least one slightly shaggy and passably affectionate mutt from the small hours of the day to the final rays of an appropriately stunning pink sunset, you’ll want to ease into the day.

Fort El Morro in Old San Juan

Choose somewhere manageable to start, like Maria’s, with a view of the lighthouse, and rendezvous with your surf instructor from Surf Lessons Puerto Rico & Adventures sitting god-like on his board in the shallows, fresh from the dawn surf. It’s okay to giggle when he tells you his name is Ramses, born as he appears to be of the sun and surf.

Once your sun baked shoulders and quivering quads are screaming for mercy, carry your boards back to the beach, collapsing for a moment in the kind of total, honest exhaustion that feels, compared to the pinching stress of every day life, like a kind of joy. Seek food—something from a stand, a cart, fresh and fruity, or head to Calypso, the kind of brightly painted beach shack that thrives exclusively in hot climates and at slow paces.

There are things you can do from here—forests you can zipline through, shops with shells and shirts, even small art galleries—but this is the islands, and your cultural obligations are mercifully few.

The Horned Dorset Resport Rincon, Puerto Rico

Eventually you retreat to the Horned Dorset Primavera, through the jungle of ferns and trees that hide your villa from the world, and lie on the beach. Nap, read, relax, lunch if you like on the flower-bedecked beachfront terrace on vegetable-packed club sandwiches or fresh local fish, or stretch out on the padded loungers and simply refuse to move. One of just a handful of Relais & Chateaux properties in the Caribbean and the only one on Puerto Rico, the stunning duplex suites recall an age of neo-colonial luxury, from your four-post pillow of a bed to the heavily carved dark-wood cabinets and chairs scattered around your living room. End your aquatic excursion with a soak in the private pool on your terrace, or in the giant, freestanding bathtub with the doors open to the sea.

The Horned Dorset Beach

The Horned Dorset Pool

Then, outfit yourself in your best white linen and light silks, and pick up arum punch in the library bar, to be enjoyed in the plush couches on the terrace of the main building before dinner. The restaurant at the Hornet Dorset is certainly the best on the west coast of the island, and one of the best in Puerto Rico; it’s not uncommon for couples to drive from San Juan for a special-occasion dinner. The ever-changing prix-fixe menu is a symphony of fresh fish and lobster set off by classic French sauces; velvety soups and tender duck breasts are also regular players. Order your courses and bask in the old-school camaraderie of waiters who’ve been serving here for decades, since they were young surf bums themselves. Relax. Listen to the invisible waves crash in the blackness beyond the balcony. Relax. Spare a scratch for the house cat, meowing into the wind as he winds around your sandals. Relax. Relax. KW

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