Jaunted

Tags: Know the Law / Driving Laws / International Road Permits / Celeb Travel / → All Tags

No International Driving Permit Needed Here

Sweet ride! Johnny Depp gets carted around in style on the Puerto Rico set of "The Rum Diary," in which he stars as a young newspaper reporter. That's costar Aaron Eckhart in the car with him.

Neither Depp nor Eckhart would need an International Driving Permit to take the wheel of that sweet convertible -- a US driver's license would suffice. But if they wanted to island-hop to, say, Antigua or Jamaica after shooting, an IDP would come in handy. Even if a local car rental in one of the 155 countries that accept it doesn't ask for it, it can't hurt to be covered for the price of $15 and 2 passport photos in places where an American driver's license isn't accepted.

Besides, this may be the last year it's that easy to drive around the world: The IDP was set up back in 1949 by the UN, which is expected to revisit the regulations at a road safety conference in November. (Host country Russia also accepts the IDP, but take it from us: don't drive there.)

Related Stories:
· Application for International Driving Permit [AAA.com]
· Victoria Beckham Parties At That Hot LA Club DMV [Jaunted]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Faded Youth Blog]

Tags: Wildlife / Wild Animal Travel / Monkey Butlers / → All Tags

Beach Party Sunday: Puerto Rico Fighting Hordes of Herpetic Monkeys

It's cold and wet in New York today, the first day of winter, and the mind wanders to thoughts of warm tropical paradises. A trip to Puerto Rico sure would be nice. Icy rum cocktails, gentle turquoise waters, soft white sand, and the constant threat of attack by hordes of diseased monkeys. Did somebody say beach party?

Too bad the Puerto Rican government wants to capture and kill all the monkeys. According to local rangers, the monkeys are an invasive species - having originally escaped from a secret research facility nearly forty years ago - and they pose a serious threat to native flora and fauna, agriculture, and even people.

That's right, some of these randy primates have herpes and hepatitis. Fun!

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Tags: Celeb Travel / George Clooney / Mustaches / → All Tags

Roughing It Travel: Where Is George Clooney's Mustache?

Why, in Puerto Rico, of course! World famous bachelor George Clooney took some time out from filming his new movie "Men Who Stare At Goats" to play a pickup basketball game, complete with the mustache he (or someone) has apparently chosen for his character. Looks like nose hair gone wrong, right?

Clooney is also co-producing the film, which is using the Rio Piedras neighborhood (where a campus of the University of Puerto Rico is located) as a stand-in for the Middle East.

The movie costars Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges as US military officers trying to find strategic applications for paranormal powers.

Related Stories:
· Clooney and Cast Arrive in Puerto Rico [Clooney's Cookie Crumbs]
· George Clooney Grows a Mustache [Telegraph]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: PopSugar]

Tags: Jaunted Field Trips / Puerto-Rico-Travel-Guide-Map / Puerto Rico Hotel Reviews / Islands / → All Tags

Puerto Rico Hotel Scene for the Web Reader

While we normally leave the hotel chronicles to our big sister site, we couldn't leave you without mappin' and recappin' the hotel scene we encountered on PR.

The basics? You have plenty of options: full blown resorts, upscale hotels, mid-range hotels and plenty of brand name chains.

The short video above is of El Conquistador in Fajardo, and after the jump we've got a bunch of one-line hotel reviews. To find out where exactly these places are, hit up our Puerto Rico Travel Map. We'll leave the heavy lifting to HotelChatter, which should have full reports in the coming weeks.

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Tags: Jaunted Field Trips / Puerto-Rico-Travel-Guide-Map / Old San Juan / Islands / → All Tags

Old San Juan: Built to Keep Out the British

Yes, Old San Juan is touristy. But Old San Juan is totally worth it. Founded in 1521 by the forever young Ponce de León, the city was heavily fortified with turrets and walls to protect it from British invasion.

These days Old San Juan is the tourist center of Puerto Rico. Full of cruisers in for one night and day trippers coming back from the beaches, you'll see slack-jawed fanny packers by the busload.

That said Old San Juan is an interesting place, full of small town Costa Blanca influence, Puerto Rican style and US commercialism. One thing's for sure, the Puerto Ricans did successfully stave off the British. We didn't see a single Union Jack.

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Tags: Jaunted Field Trips / Puerto-Rico-Travel-Guide-Map / Restaurants / Mofongo / Islands / → All Tags

Jaunted in Puerto Rico: The Best Eats

Sure you could spend your entire time in Puerto Rico hitting US fast food chains like Subway and Wendy's for lunch, then sit down for dinner at places like Chili's and Outback, but what fun would that be?

Puerto Rican food has plenty to offer, almost too much, but if you find yourself with limited time you at least have to try two things: the seafood and the mofongo.

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Tags: Jaunted Field Trips / Puerto-Rico-Travel-Guide-Map / Beaches / Islands / → All Tags

Best Beaches in Puerto Rico: North and East Coast

There are plenty of beaches in Puerto Rico and chances are if you stay at a resort or a hotel, a completely satisfactory beach will be just steps away. However, if you want to break away from the tourists and those waiting to board their cruise liner, rent a car, pick a coast and drive it.

As the day begins to expire you are bound to run into a beach-side BBQ, and maybe even a Lechón de Asado. So where do the locals hang out? Not at the resort or hotel beaches. We stuck to the east of the island and picked our two favorite beaches there.

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Tags: Active Travel / Kiteboarding / Puerto Rico Travel / → All Tags

Active Travel: Kiteboarding in Puerto Rico

When it comes to active travel, we've checked out some pretty crazy stuff. But when HotelChatter tipped us off to kiteboarding, we had to investigate. The adventure sport puts riders on a small surfboard that's a bit like the more-popular wakeboard--and then hands them the reins to a big kite. Riders strap their feet into bindings before letting loose.

The sport is still in its infancy, but there are plenty of places to check it out. Our suggestion? Kiteboarding PR. The one-day Kite Control Class helps beginners master kiteboarding techniques, everything from kite setup to takeoffs and landings. Advanced lessons and custom camps are also available for those anxious to ride the waves like a true pro.

Our number one tip for the newbies? Well, it came from the experts:

The best way to feel like you're not at your local Costco meat section is to be sure all the boys wear board shorts over their wetsuits.

Related Stories:
· Kiteboarding PR [Official Site]
· Why Take Lessons [Kiteboarding Magazine]
· Kiteboarding and Sand-Biking are Big at La Zebra [Hotel Chatter]

[Photo: BlogKite]

Tags: Movie Set Travel / → All Tags

Movie Set Travel: El Cantante

J-Lo makes her return to the big screen with today's pick, El Cantante, together with hubby Marc Anthony. It chronicles three decades in the life of salsa great Hector Lavoe, from the perspective of his Bronx-born wife Ms. J-Lo, er, Puchi.

We've heard there's more chemistry on-screen between Marc and Jen than there was between Ben and Jen, but other than that, El Cantante's gotten some lukewarm reviews.

This one was shot in one of our favorite tropical getaways, Puerto Rico. Here's what to check out when you head down there:

Where To Stay: Casa Ilsena Inn -- Head out of San Juan to Rincon and check into this charming inn that looks a bit out of Mexico. It's definitely laid back, with just 9 rooms and you'll share a hot tub and pool with other guests but it's the perfect place to sneak away to and it won't cost you more then $200 a night.

Where To Eat: Cru -- Voted one of San Juan's best new restaurants, Cru is located inside the Normandie Hotel. Guests can choose from some of the freshest fish and seafood offerings available including halibut carpaccio and cuttlefish with carmelized onions.

Where To Swim: Bahia Mosquito -- Head to Vieques for this amazing sight, one of three bioluminescent bays on the island where you'll see the tiny natural organisms that appear to shine through the ocean at night.

[Photo: chubbybadass]

Tags: New York Times / Travel Media / Caribbean / Islands / Matt Gross / Hotels / → All Tags

Ingesting His Way Through San Juan

Our fave budget traveler, Frugal Matt, is back this week with a look at Old San Juan. When last we heard from him, he was in Switzerland, so it's good to see we're back to warmer climes.

He snagged a deal on a room at the Nuyorican Cafe, which has just opened a new boutique hotel: Da House (pictured above). Though from the sound of it, he didn't spend much time there:

The sun was setting, and I was just heading home when Nacho called. A friend of a friend, he'd heard I was in town and wanted to know if I was up for a night out...I can't say I remember very well what followed, but we bounced around, never spending more than $2 for a beer.

Now, that's our kind of town. Matt spent plenty of time grubbing too, with stops at a street-side stand for an empenada and a diner for a ham-and-cheese breakfast sandwich. Though he skipped Tantra--maybe the only restaurant in town with tandoori mofongo--he did finally end up at the Nuyorican Cafe after a long night and a plate of hot wings. The verdict? Sounds like they were amazing.

[Photo: chgosfs]

Related Stories:
· A Cheap Room Puts Old San Juan Within Reach [NYT]
· Nuyorican Cafe [Official Site]
· Da House [Official Site]
· Jaunted's Matt Gross coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Passports / Islands / Beaches / Caribbean / → All Tags

Passport-Free Travel: Puerto Rico

Sunny Puerto Rico is wasting no time pimping the no-passport-required angle. Besides the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, it's one of the few places left you can hitch a plane too without a passport. It's also probably the easiest passport-free destination to reach from the United States, making it truly conducive to a hassle-free vacation. Lower-cost airlines (including JetBlue, of course) fly there, as do legacies like American.

They've also got a bit of a sense of humor over at the Puerto Rico tourism board, as evidenced by the website's list of travel tips:

5. Pack your favorite travel guidebook but don't show it off in public because you don't want to look like a tourist!

7. Bring your favorite MP3 player so you can block out your travel companion after continuous days of traveling together.

'Course, the rest are all boring and about pleasing the TSA, but that was fun while it lasted.

Our latest Puerto Rico fantasy involves a stay at Tamarindo Estates on secluded Culebra, and perhaps sharing a meal with Tony Bourdain (if you saw his Puerto Rico episode of No Reservations). But that part's kind of a whole separate story.

[Photo: ] slowhands []

Tags: Travel Media / T Magazine / Islands / Caribbean / New York Times / → All Tags

T Magazine Descends on Vieques

The New York Times' T Magazine is the Suri Cruise of travel magazines. It doesn't look like its daddy the Times and we're not sure what to expect from it, but we still can't help being interested. We always end up giving it a read, and we were happy to see a story on Vieques in this issue.

The island of Vieques floats just seven miles from Puerto Rico, and, as author Mark Healy mentions, was controversially used for years by the U.S. Navy for target practice. That stopped in 2003 and now all that's going on is beachcombing. We're talking totally empty beaches, down dirt roads, the kind that provide, Mark says, "mind-rinsing solitude."

If you're looking to visit--and you will be after reading the article--there are a couple of T Magazine/Wallpaper* type hotels to choose from: Martineau Bay, Hix Island House and the Bravo Beach Hotel. As far as air travel goes, for now you'll have to puddle jump from the main island--try Vieques Air Link--but American Eagle service could start soon.

[Photo: TrekkerPanda]

Related stories:
· The Coast is Clear in Vieques [NYT]