Considering taking the Tradwinds plunge...

I'm sticking to my guns on having 4 days on the island, starting Feb 12. Predicament is that if I leave Saturday, there is nothing through SXM that gets us there before 5pm-ish. Leaving 3 days on the island for the most part. So leaning towards flying out of Miami on a 5 of 7pm flight to San Juan and then doing the Tradewinds morning flight that allows 4 days to relax in St Barts.

So my question is the following:

Best option for hotel near the airport (not staying at the airport hotel) ?
Best nice dinner option near the airport/hotel ?
How easy is getting through security and to terminal A, the next morning ?
I understand after Feb 2, you don't need to have a neg test to enter PR if vaxxed ?

Thanks.

The Marriot Courtyard is close and clean. They have restaurants and a casino. A short walk to Metropol, a cuban / spanish local place. It is very good and consistant. There will be no wait for security with Tradewind. Check in and go to their lounge, then they will call you to board.

Fantastic. Thanks!

There is really nothing wrong with airport hotel. Very clean and on campus. Next month we arrive around 5:00 pm and are staying at hotel and will taxi to and from to dinner somewhere. Early morning flight and after quick continental breakfast we just walk right over to Tradewind check in and go to their lounge. No security at all. They come and get you and escort you to bus to plane. Easy

We just flew this route on 1/14-15.
From Courtyard by Marriott-Isla Verde, to sitting with a drink in the Tradewind lounge was 20 minutes.
Taxi fare is $18. Uber was $11

So......this raises another question! If you could only do one, what would be the the more enjoyable/stress reducing/splurge worthy, direction for Tradewinds ? Going to Saint Barts or coming back to the states ?

Lionsgate said:

We just flew this route on 1/14-15.
From Courtyard by Marriott-Isla Verde, to sitting with a drink in the Tradewind lounge was 20 minutes.
Taxi fare is $18. Uber was $11

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This is the hotel that i'm looking at to use my 1-night Bonvoy free certificate. It's not exactly a cheap hotel...

TR561 said:

Going to Saint Barts or coming back to the states ?

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Going! Mainly because we have direct flights to SJU but not SXM.

Thanks for all of the help. So, the paperwork seems to be very close to the amount of time & energy as SXM... PR has an equivalent EHAS form as SXM and as of Feb 2, you don't need to test to get into either, if Vaccinated. Seems the main advantage is the fact you can leave late in the evening to start the trip and arrive early the next morning for a full day on the island.

TR561 said:

I'm sticking to my guns on having 4 days on the island, starting Feb 12. Predicament is that if I leave Saturday, there is nothing through SXM that gets us there before 5pm-ish. Leaving 3 days on the island for the most part. So leaning towards flying out of Miami on a 5 of 7pm flight to San Juan and then doing the Tradewinds morning flight that allows 4 days to relax in St Barts.

So my question is the following:

Best option for hotel near the airport (not staying at the airport hotel) ?
Best nice dinner option near the airport/hotel ?
How easy is getting through security and to terminal A, the next morning ?
I understand after Feb 2, you don't need to have a neg test to enter PR if vaxxed ?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Tradewind may be expensive but they are absolutely fantastic to deal with...we've always gone that route except last March when went through SXM and the ferry for some obvious reasons. :thinking1:

We cannot get from point A to point C without an overnight (excepting a highly unrealistic 45 minute connection time in CLT) so we always have to overnight somewhere. We've done an overnight in the continental US where we take the morning flight to SJU...but you still basically have to take the last flights to SBH...so we've found an overnight in SJU is far better. It's still 2 days...but we can get to SBH before lunch on the second day.

We're staying at the Condado Ocean Club this Sunday https://www.condadooceanclub.com/ but have usually stayed at the Fairmont El San Juan which is cool but showing it's age a bit. As you note...the Courtyard isn't particularly cheap...and the Condado Ocean Club is only about $50 more.

As for "security" to board Tradewind? Hanging out in the lounge and getting a snack until they call you to go through a very perfunctory metal detector check? Can't be easier...

We are also overnighting in San Juan on the way to STB's and also on our return. We will use the Caribe Hilton on both stays. As mentioned in the earlier comments you essentially gain an extra day on STB's via your early morning TW's arrival. And, we have also found that we gain several more hours on STB's prior to our departure by taking the last TW's flight out of STB's to San Juan (currently leaves at 5:55pm) and then spending the night in San Juan and ultimately returning to the US on the next day.

TR561 said:

So......this raises another question! If you could only do one, what would be the the more enjoyable/stress reducing/splurge worthy, direction for Tradewinds ? Going to Saint Barts or coming back to the states ?

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Is it just me or did the Tradewind flights between SJU and SBH go up significantly?

We have probably had a 50/50 split on traveling thru SJU vs SXM the last few years. If I had to pick one way to go thru SJU, for me it would be coming home. The early flight out of SBH allows us to get on a noonish or 1PMish flight from SJU to NYC and get home earlier, but that's not the only reason. I have found in the past that the early morning flight both ways is usually cheaper than the later flights (at least when I have travelled). This combined with oftentimes cheaper flights to/from NYC and SJU as compared to SXM makes the math better on the way home since on the way there (when we fly Tradewind) we take the usually more expensive afternoon flight to SBH. Hand and hand with this we aren't interested in staying the night in SJU to get on the morning flight. Last, but not least, being able to go through customs and immigration in SJU in the empty, "private" Tradewind section is just awesome and saves us from the International terminal at JFK. YMMV as everyone's situation is of course different

You can get pretty affordable if you do the 645am one and leave on an off day. There are some for the 300's in Feb. But for the most part, it's like 550 - 700. Not cheap

Where you clear Immigration and Customs in SJU depends on ICE staffing levels. If they are fully staffed then both the Terminal A and Terminal D locations are open. If they are short-staffed then the Terminal A location will not be open,and Tradewind will use the Terminl D location. Either is preferable to most mainland Immigration and Customs locations.

Another advantage is that there are fewer incoming international flights to SJU. The last three times, there weren't enough of us to even form a line.

We just got home from St B this week end. Tradewind to PR was easy and the walk to Jet Blue very short at the PR airport. No line at Customs....The only thing we had to do was put the luggage through the FDA x ray machines.... Check in at Jet Blue easy.

pascaleschmidt said:

We just got home from St B this week end. Tradewind to PR was easy and the walk to Jet Blue very short at the PR airport. No line at Customs....The only thing we had to do was put the luggage through the FDA x ray machines.... Check in at Jet Blue easy.

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You did both directions on Tradewind, correct ?

TR561 said:

You did both directions on Tradewind, correct ?

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Yes