4 min read 0

San Juan, Puerto Rico

We stopped in San Juan, Puerto Rico as part of our 2022 Caribbean Cruise. Puerto Rico, nicknamed “The Island of Enchantment” is a territory of the United States. Along with the main island, it is made up of several smaller islands, including Vieques, Culebra, and Mona.

We stayed within the Old San Juan historic area and used a self-guided audio tour created by local sixth-graders as part of a school project. We enjoyed the stories told by the children as they took on the personas of historical buildings. The app is called VoiceMap, and the tour is named “Talking Buildings of Old San Juan” – we highly recommend. It took us to about 20 different sites, including the Castillo San Cristobal and Castillo San Felipe del Morro forts.

3 min read 0

Philipsburg,ย Saint Maarten

We visited Saint Maarten on our 2022 Caribbean Cruise. The island is interesting in that it is split between 2 different countries. France controls the northern half and refers to it as Saint Martin, while the Netherlands claim the southern half, calling it Sint Maarten.
We had previously visited Sint Maarten in November of 2013, so we decided to rent a car at the docks and revisit a few of our favorite places and try to explore some of the beaches that we didn’t get a chance to see previously.

2 min read 0

Charlotte Amalia, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Our first port of call on our 2022 Caribbean Cruise was Charlotte Amalia, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. We took a converted pickup/mini-bus for a quick drive up steep, curving roads to Drakeโ€™s Seat โ€“ an overlook to Magenโ€™s Bay, then down to Magenโ€™s Bay Beach for a few hours in the sun. A walk into town and back rounded off the day.