Services Offered
Tours & Activities

City Tour of Old And New San Juan with Bacardi Distillery

Your tour first carries you out to the south side of San Juan Harbor, where you will enter the beautifully manicured grounds of the Bacardí Rum Distillery, the world’s largest distiller of natural spirits. Upon arrival you will board an open-air tram with a bilingual guide who will take you to their brand new Visitor’s Building. The first stop will be at an interior patio, where each guest is given an ear set that allows one to listen to pre-recorded commentary throughout the tour. After passing through a large room containing a fountain and three large prints with historical representations, you will enter the theater and view a short film covering the Bacardí Family history as well as that of the Bacardí Corporation. This film lasts approximately 9 minutes.

You will then enter a replica of an old distillery that houses an excellent audio-visual display; here you’ll be able to pick and choose what you wish to learn about, by punching in the number associated with each item onto your ear set. The next gallery is an office with "original" documentation, family portraits, and a collection of rum bottles among other items. Each of these items will have an explanation on the ear set. Your next stop will be for a short video, which describes the actual process of making rum. And you will have the opportunity to smell that final product; you will enjoy the aroma of the different type of rums that are bottled at Bacardí.

Your tour will continue to the Bacardí cocktail lounge, which resembles a 1920’s bar in Cuba (the era of the prohibition). A bartender will explain and show you how to prepare the first three cocktails ever made with Bacardí: "Cuba Libre", "Daiquiri" and "Mojito Cubano", and you’ll learn what inspired Bacardí in the preparation of these three cocktails as well as how they got their names.

Following the bar display Bacardí brings you back to the present and displays some of their greatest commercial ads in a disco like room filled with lights and music. Here you will have the opportunity to send video e-mails to your friends.

Finally you will proceed to the open-air pavilion, where you will be treated to complimentary rum drinks. Adjacent to the pavilion is the Rum N’ Things gift shop where one can purchase Bacardí Rum as well as many other Bacardí products.

Open to the public Monday through Sunday, tour times start every 15 minutes from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, except Sundays, where they do have a limited schedule. The tour lasts from 45 minutes to one hour and up to 40 persons can be accommodated per tour departure time. Additional time should be allotted for shopping at the gift shop, as well as tasting the various Bacardi products.

From Bacardi the tour continues through portions of new San Juan and on into the beautiful centuries old city of the original San Juan, actually an island connected by bridges to mainland Puerto Rico. You will drive past Fort San Gerónimo and on into Old San Juan, one of the most beautiful old cities in the New World and filming location for big-budget movies starring such luminaries as Steven Seagal, Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone. Your first stop is for a short visit to Fort San Cristobal, a mainstay of the San Juan fortification system, from which the Spanish successfully defended their city from British and Dutch attacks as well as frequent assaults from various and sundry pirates. Be sure to watch their his-torical video on the area. You’ll see the beautiful 17th century Spanish ironwork on the restored homes and note the blue-black glazed cobblestones that were brought to San Juan as ballast for the Spanish galleons, and were used to line the narrow streets of the Old City. In addition, armed with our Map of Old San Juan, you will have about 30 minutes* to explore some of the many interesting shops, bou-tiques and art galleries that have made this historic area their home.

Please note: As of March, 2004, access to the northern more scenic road of Norzagaray Street has been limited to small vans or cars. Larger capacity vehicles must take the more direct road of San Francisco. While this has not affected the tour greatly, it does limit some of the more interesting views. Therefore, some groups have opted to add a walking tour guide to enhance the tour and enable their participants to view these points of interest. For those groups more likely to shop than sightsee, the walking tour guide would not be necessary.

*Note – If your group is taking this tour from one of the outlying resorts as opposed to coming from a metropolitan area hotel there will be substantially more time available for both shopping as well as luncheon – since the tour becomes an all day excursion instead of half day.

Metro area hotels:
Minimum/Maximum – 18 min/0 max
Travel time to Bacardi – 25-30 minutes
Travel time to Old San Juan – 25-30 min-utes
Travel time OSJ to hotel – 10-20 minutes
Door to Door – 3.5-4 hour tour
Recommend - morning or afternoon

Hyatt Dorado Beach:
Minimum/Maximum – 18 min/90 max
Travel time to Bacardi – 25 minutes
Travel time to Old San Juan – 25-30 minutes
Travel time OSJ to hotel – 45 minutes – 1 hour
Door to Door – approximately 6 hours
Recommend – Depart hotel @ 9am | Depart Old San Juan @ 2pm

Westin Riomar:
Minimum/Maximum – 18 min/90 max
Travel time to Bacardi – 1 hour 15 minutes
Travel time to Old San Juan – 25-30 min-utes
Travel time OSJ to hotel – 45 min – 1 hour
Door to Door – approximately 6 hours
Recommend – Depart hotel @ 9am | Depart Old San Juan @ 2pm

Wyndham El Conquistador:
Minimum/Maximum – 18 min/90 max
Travel time to Bacardi – 1 hour 45 minutes
Travel time to Old San Juan – 25-30 minutes
Travel time OSJ to hotel – 1.25 – 1.5 hours
Door to Door – approximately 7-8 hours
Recommend – Depart hotel @ 8:15am | Depart Old San Juan @ 2:30pm

Days of Operation:
This tour does not operate on Sundays, due to high traffic congestion in Old San Juan, and limited shop hours.

We suggest this tour be done on Day 2 of your program, unless you are staying at the Conquistador, in which case you may wish to do on Day 3.

Recommended attire:
Comfortable clothing
Walking shoes

Authorized clients can view current rate and availability information by accessing their online accounts.