I'll make this short and sweet. The Intercontinental is perfect for couples, friends, families, and kids. The pool area is great, the beach, though public, is beautiful, and the food is outstanding. Know that the price adds up, as not much is included in the room rate, but for a quick getaway, its perfect. The room was small, standard, but the bed was SO comfortable. I highly recommend this hotel to all planning to visit the Isla Verde area.

Contact me for any futher details.

Coming from St. Croix our flight was delayed in San Juan and we decided to stay a few days. The InterContinental was suggested by the gate agents and we are glad they did. The hotel was magnificent and our ocean view room was amazing.
Since we had no prior plans to stay here we checked with the concierge and he gave us an excellent plan of attack. We saw Old San Juan and the castillos and also drove over to the rainforest.
The pool area was spacious and had plenty of chairs to pick from. The swim up bar closed just was we were there which was disappointing. The beach was beautiful and lovely for walking along. I even found a live sand dollar!
The casino was small and it hard to find a machine in the evening.
We dined at Alfredo's and the food was delicious. My favorite part of the room was the bed/bedding. I hope to be able to contact them to try and find out what brand(s) it was. We asked with the front desk on check-out but they said to contact housekeeping. Overall an excellent "extended" vacation.

The wife and I just returned from a late June one week stay. Kids are 3 and 5. Pool is great for kids that age and pool very nice, clean and accessible. No seaweed anywhere and I'm assuming that when it does accumulate it's after a storm and the hotel would clean it up promptly. Service was great except for the concierge and we had no problems with housekeeping. And yes we got the free upgrade but I think that was possible because there were available rooms and it was low season - I wouldn't count on it at different times of the year.

We booked the trip through Costco - all very smooth and the breakfast special they get you is great. If you have kids go to El Morro in Old San Juan on a cloudy day and fly kites for a day - easiest kite flying conditions you'll ever have due to the wind -- and you can buy kites there for $3-$4. Also, the hotel based Avis lady gave me a great tip on where to eat near Luquillo Beach --> try the Kiosko #2 La Parilla if you like seafood ! That beach is about 45 minutes away and is beautiful to be sure but extremely hot hot hot and zero wave action.

The hotel and facilities were great and I'd recommend the place to somebody with little kids but to help you manage your expectations I've listed some negatives below.

Negatives:
1) the 3 elevators servicing 16 floors were unreliable and kind of a pain but most of the guests took it well so it was a running joke.
2) the concierge(s) were useless and actually gave bad information. For example, I told them that I'd be taking the kids to Old San Juan and asked them if it would be easy to find some simple food for them there -- like a pizza. They said there were no such choices and instead directed me to an Italian sit down restaurant and a Caribean themed restaurant. When I went anyway and went to the center of town - the Plaza de Armas - I found myself surrounded by familiar kids places - mcdonalds, wendy's, burger king, etc. This would lead me to conclude that the concierges get compensated for directing people to specific places. They also gave me misinformation about the trip to Culebra Island. The concierge you see in hotel website video must have retired or something.
3) if you read reviews about the local, nearby restaurants be forewarned. The Mi Casita restaurant is close and may be good but it's always packed for dinner so don't expect to just walk over. Also, the Fast Food places near the hotel are the slowest I've ever experienced - the Burger King was stunning in it's tortoise pace, and we left after waiting for 15 minutes in a line that didn't move. The Wendy's was slightly faster. The workers were nice enough but totally inefficient. So dinners are a problem unless you drive elsewhere.

Avoid:
Rain forest excursion - It's 1 hour there, 1 hour back and then 90 minutes in a bus through the forest with a little 20 minutes walk. Total waste of time and I wish I had driven there myself and walked around on my own. I guess if you can't walk or are drunk from a cruise the excursion might make sense but otherwise it's a waste.

We stayed at the Intercontinental from 7/8 through 7/12. I had a package that included the breakfast buffet and a tour of the rain forest. I was travelling with my husband, two young kids and my father - so clearly it was mixed company. However, all of us had a great time there. The overall experience was sublime. So here are my thoughts:

1) Hotel Beach and pool: The Pool is fabulous ..it has a swim up bar, jacuzzi, and several waterfalls. The water is as deep as as 61/2 feet and as shallow as 3. I would just sit under the waterfall and get a water massage. There were plenty of seats/cabanas at the pool. The beach too is nice. There was a bit ofseaweed but nothing out of control. You can rent an umbrella for the beach but we just found a palm tree and moved our seats under it. The waves can be a bit rough at times so those with small children should be careful but my 9 and 7 year had way too much fun.

2) Food: We had our very first meal there at Mi Casita across the street. Very friendly and reasonably priced. I did try the mofongo. The filling was fabulous but the mofongo itself is a quite bland (not the reataurants fault ..just the way it is). I found the food to be pricey in PR overall not too many mid priced choices. We did eat at Ruth's Chris in the hotel one day which was wonderful. As for my other favorite place it was Tantra in OSJ. We ate at Barrachina in Isla Verde as it came so highly recommended by everyone. Maybe we did not order the right things or the one in OSJ is better..but this was my only really bad food experience. It just was not that special compared to what you were paying. I had ordered a Nacho Platter and it was the worst I have had and I really cant imagine messing that up. As I mentioned we did the breakfast buffet. It was great and the all the wait staff is so nice.

3) Transportation: We rented a car one day ..to go to the Bio bay. The driving wasn't too bad you just have to be a bit more vigilant and the road signage is not the greatest. But we dont have any horror stories to report there. We rented the car from the Avis right in the hotel and it was easy to be able to pick up and return the car right there. We also used the bus one day. Not bad, takes you through some bad areas but you are not going there so who cares. The bus is clean and air conditioned and only cost 75 cents to OSJ. One thing no one told us is they take exact change only..no bills allowed.

4) Sites we visited: El Yunque, fascinating but it was my least favorite. Bio Bay (vieques) we used East Wind Cats. Loved that though the time in the water was too short. El Morro, loved that too its an amazing structure a must see. OSJ is wonderful ..the most charming architecture and cute shops.

My only "issue" at the hotel was that we originally did not get a room with a king bed though our reservation stated that. However the hotel upgraded us to an ocean view room with a king bed.

Everyone in the hotel and PR was so nice, I was sad to leave.