Romantic Hideaway in Puerto Rico

Imagine a 150-year-old coffee plantation set deep in the heart of a tropical mountain jungle.

The only wildlife here seems to be the iridescent green-and-blue hummingbirds that buzz around the giant hibiscus. Warm breezes ruffle the lush ferns and purple and orange bougainvillea, while little bridges, paved walkways, banana and avocado trees and twinkling fountains invite you to take a leisurely stroll, preferably hand in hand with a lover.

This is La Hacienda Juanita, built in 1833 by a Spanish army officer’s family as a coffee plantation above the pretty town of Maricao and named after the family’s daughter, Juanita Antonetti Comas. The locals know it affectionately as La Juanita.

In its day it served as a hideout for Spaniards fleeing from revolutionary native criollos , as well as a self-contained coffee-producing community of 1,000 acres, one of 50 such plantations that dotted this northwestern quarter of the island a hundred years ago.

Mountaintop Site

Today La Juanita is a parador (a government-run inn, modeled after Spain’s parador system) and a supremely romantic getaway spot. The Comas family’s original, low veranda-fronted main house and kitchen serve as dining room and bar, and the tin-roofed, wood-beamed workers’ quarters have been transformed into 21 freshly renovated guest rooms.

With its remote mountaintop location in a flower-scented tropical jungle, La Juanita is a lovely, relaxing enticement.

Double rooms cost $30 a night. The dining room features such dishes as arroz con pollo (chicken and rice), asopao de gandules (legume stew) and sarcacho (an African-inspired stew of beef, yams, pumpkin and bananas), all deliciously prepared with the fresh ingredients of that day’s market.

A la carte dishes run $5 to $9, and on Sundays there is a big Puerto Rican buffet with three meat dishes for $7.50. Amenities include a swimming pool and tennis courts.

La Hacienda Juanita (State Road 105, Box 838, Maricao 00706) is about a 30-minute drive from the west coast city of Mayaguez. You can rent a car at the Mayaguez commuter airport or arrange with La Juanita to have a driver pick you up for a small fee.

Tiny Fishing Village

If you prefer relaxing on the beach, check on the Parador Villa Parguera on the southwest side of the island. It’s in the tiny fishing village of Parguera, a boat ride away from Puerto Rico’s famous Phosphorescent Bay. Villa Parguera was a private beach house before it was converted into a small hotel in 1952. It still retains its charm, with the one- and two-story buildings hugging the curve of the beach.

For $2 a ticket you can board a launch for a nighttime ride out into Phosphorescent Bay, where millions of microorganisms shimmer in the dark waters like Fourth of July sparklers. Choose a moonless night for the best glimpse of this natural phenomenon.

If you’ve always wanted to learn to snorkel, the parador provides instructions. Snorkeling, scuba diving and deep-sea fishing are all available from Villa Parguera or one of the nearby scuba shops.

Villa Parguera also features an open-air dining-dancing pavilion right on the water where you can take in supper, a dance and a show for $15 per person on weekends.

Double rooms run $32 to $55. The best rooms are upstairs, for privacy, and facing the beach for a view through the palm trees at the waves lapping nearby islands.

An indoor dining room serves seafood specialties for about $7 to $12, but the cooking is unremarkable; you might want to walk over to one of the handful of restaurants such as El Arrecife or Restaurant Pargomar for more flavorful fare at similar prices.

Parador Villa Parguera (R.R. 273 La Parguera, Lajas 00667) is about half an hour from Mayaguez by rental car. Or the parador will arrange for public transportation from San Juan, which costs $15 per person and takes about 2 1/2 hours.

Far From the Crowds

La Juanita and Villa Paraguera are the places to go if you want to enjoy your holiday very far from maddening crowds. But if you and your love prefer to keep at least within calling distance of the excitement of the city, the place to go is El San Juan, an elegant resort in Isla Verde on the outskirts of San Juan.

The pink stucco, bougainvillea-covered hotel provides a relaxing, self-contained alternative to the hectic crush of San Juan’s hotel strip, but is only a short taxi or bus ride from the city’s major shopping and sightseeing attractions.

El San Juan was built in 1959, and in the hands of owner Lou Puro it quickly became one of the most glamorous play spots of the Caribbean. Puro made the hotel into an extravagant adult playground, installing Italian marble floors and hand-carved mahogany paneling in the lobby.

He imported a gaming room from Monte Carlo and the Hong Kong Pavilion from the New York World’s Fair for his casino and Chinese restaurant, and sent his designers to Europe to bring back medieval storefronts for the hotel’s indoor shopping “street.”

Puro went bankrupt and El San Juan lost its gloss, but last year the 392-room hotel was remodeled to the tune of $40 million, with all of those features restored to their former glory and many things added.

The sprawling, elegant ocean-front property boasts such amenities as a wine bar, large casino, rooftop health spa, tennis courts, pool and beach, retail shops, two dance clubs and a supper club with nightly entertainment.

Rooms With Ocean View

Double rates start at $155 and run to $700 for a three-bedroom suite with Jacuzzi and wet bar. The most romantic accommodations are the rooms that face the ocean and are just above La Veranda restaurant--in early evening the strains of live salsa music float up to your terrace--and the casitas or “little houses” with private garden entrances, sunken Roman bathtubs and skylit bathrooms.

El San Juan has four restaurants with a range of cuisines and prices, but for authentic Puerto Rican specialties try the inexpensive Metropol, just a five-minute walk from the hotel, or take a 20-minute drive to the excellent La Mallorquina, the city’s oldest restaurant, in the heart of Old San Juan.

El San Juan Hotel and Casino is a five-minute drive from San Juan International Airport. State Road 187, P.O. Box 2872, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00902; phone (800) 468-2818.

For more information, contact the Puerto Rico Tourism Development Co., 3575 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Suite 248, Los Angeles 90068; phone (213) 874-5991.