Pieced together with cobblestone streets and bright colored houses, Old San Juan will romance you inside and out. It will make you feel like twirling through the streets with your arms out wide.

It doesn’t matter what kind of mood you are in when you arrive in Old San Juan, because you will be emotionally healed when you leave.

It is impossible to remain in a bad mood when the streets are lined with hues of coral, blue and green, and when flowers dangle from dainty balconies only to greet your eye.

After exploring the streets, you can view Castillo de San Cristobal during the day (be careful, unlike me).

Grab a delicious plate of mufongo and do some shopping, and then hurry to catch the sunset over El Morro (you can see a very shaky video of us running to catch it below). The sun setting over the water is a fantastic backdrop for the fort and the hundreds of kits that flood the sky in the lawn.

Once the sun goes down, head to the hill for some cocktails. Old San Juan has some terrific cocktail bars and beer havens. La Factoria and La Taberna Lupulo were two of our favorites. La Factoria is a craft cocktail bar and offers two of the best cocktails I’ve ever had, The Get Lucky Mule and the Lavender Mule.

The “Mule” from the Factoria

Whereas the Factoria is known more for it’s cocktail specialties (and also it’s wine), La Taberna Lupulo is across the street and more aimed towards beer fanatics. With 50 craft beers on tap, it is easy to spend a whole night just taste testing.