Old San Juan Walking Tour With A Historian

Miguel was very knowledgeable about history and culture, and did a great job of showing us Old San Juan in three hours — including the bar owned by Bad Bunny’s family!

The tour company cancelled and did not notify us! We found out when we showed up at the meeting place. Very poor customer service. Luckily we were able to join another tour.

Our guide was excellent and well versed in San Juan history. She was wonderful and I recommend this tour to all. THANK YOU!

Frances was a wonderful and knowledgeable guide. She was extremely friendly and made time to answer questions and paced our walked nicely. After spending 1.5 Days in Old San Juan prior to the tour I wasn’t sure if we’d learn new things. We certainly did as she gave us a slice of life mixed with the history. She also peeked our interest in learning more!

This was a great tour however, if anyone is hard of hearing, it might be diffucult to hear the tour guide at all times. Otherwise, it was enjoyable & my family learned a lot.

I can say without question that Sofrito Tours approaches history, the city, and being a host with more care and passion than most tour companies. It’s hard to find tours that engage us with history in a way that we’re not rolling our eyes or tuning out, but they made us laugh and actually remember the history that was shared. We covered so much ground walking around, got time inside and in shade to cool off, it was perfect for me and my husband who wanted to get the history and a sense of the city before the rest of our time there. Plus we got a good idea of the city and recommendations for other things to do - food and history! Before our trip was done, we were already talking about their other tours to see more of the island!

Awful company and poor customer service. Think twice before you book this tour company. We scheduled in advance only to be met with no tour. Jancarlo txt the evening before on the time to meet, 9: 00 am, and meeting place, Plaza Colon. We arrived to the Plaza at 9 am. Early am from Jancarlo to meet at 9:30 am. No show of tour guide at 9:30 am . I asked 4 other tour guides who were present on site to see if any of them were Jancarlo. None were. These tour guides were very helpful and assisted me in calling Sofrito Tours. I was told told at 9: 40 am they were running late, but on their way from one of the tour guides who helped us. Apparently this was a lie. Another tour guide also called and gave me a number to call. At this time 10:05 am I was frustrated after being informed they were coming. The female who answered the phone told me the same information. Still no guide. Another call to Sofrito Tours, same female, I was told that there must be a problem with my phone and Jancarlo was contacting me and has already took the group and left ! Where was this person !? If he txt at 7:52 am on March 12, 2025 to let me know "I will be there at 9:30 am" , then he could reach me. Another lie. I was very unhappy with the female on the phone who basically made this my fault !! I was not happy with this person. She hung up on me twice and I was disconnected once. This increased my negative feelings by 10 fold. Laura, if this was you , shame on you. If this your hired help, they need customer service training or get fired. The third call , resulted in the female saying they will give a refund and hung up on me again. I will get the refund , no doubt and I let her know this review will be written.

Very knowledgeable guide. Even though that I am no stranger to the City I still learned tons of new information.

Laura was very knowledgeable, had great answers to questions, and it was the right amount of time to get a good taste of the city.

My husband and I had an amazing tour of Old San Juan with Miguel Garcia. He was extremely knowledgeable of the city with its incredible history and made it so much fun! We highly recommend using him. You will not be dissappointed.

Miguel was awesome! He answered all of our questions and had further expertise about the ecology and botany of the area. His enthusiasm and flexibility are an asset for learning.

Miguel was knowledgeable and fun to spend the morning with. He customized the discussion to fit our interests while still providing lots of historical value. Highly recommend!

Miguel Garcia was a wonderful tour guide! He is very knowledgeable and personable and answered all our questions, even about the local plants and animals. Old San Juan was even more beautiful and interesting than I expected! Miguel took the time to point out restrooms, a place to buy water for $1, and he recommended great restaurants that we tried. He even explained more about local Puerto Rican food when we asked. I would highly recommend him!

Historic walk of San Juan was the perfect beginning of our winter getaway vacation. Tour guide Miguel shared his knowledge of culture, history, economics, and people of Puerto Rico. His humble yet highly educated approach opened our minds to great curiosity.

Our guide was wonderful! He filled the 3 hour tour with fascinating facts about the history of Old San Juan. He answered all our many questions while pointing out buildings, sculptures , and landmarks.

We had the great time with the tour. Especially, Miquel was such an amazing tour guide. He was so nice, passionate and friendly. He explained a lot and answered a lot of our question. I would recommend him. The best guide ever.

The tour was excellent & our guide, Miguel Garcia, was the best. He was very knowledgeable, pleasant, & answered all of our questions. I would highly recommend this tour & Miguel.

Our guide Laura was very friendly and happy to answer questions. I would say though that there is a big gap between what is promised in the online tour description and what we actually did. In addition, there was a big time gap as well, as our tour only lasted two hours. I would say the tour either needs to run the full 3 hours, or the price should be lowered to reflect the shorter tour. Per the description and our experiences next to the ** What's included: Bottled water Limbers or the PR version of the snow cone Entry/Admission - Casa Museo Felisa Rincon de Gautier Entry/Admission - Catedral Basilica Menor de San Juan Bautista Entry/Admission - Cuartel de Ballaja Entry/Admission - La Casa Estrecha What to Expect: Stop At: Plaza Colon, Calle Calz. de los Heroes 908, La Martinica, San Juan 00901 Puerto Rico. Our experienced tour guide will meet you at Plaza Colón, you will learn about the history and stories behind this 500-year-old cobblestoned city.Duration: 20 minutes **We met here and got some overviews of the city and culture. Stop At: Casa Museo Felisa Rincon de Gautier, Caleta de San Juan No. 51, Esquina Clara Lair, San Juan 00901 Puerto Rico. Learn about the life and works of the first female mayor of San Juan, Doña Fela. Also visitors will have the opportunity to see up close a typical colonial San Juan house. Duration: 20 minutes **We did not tour this museum. Stop At: Catedral Basilica Menor de San Juan Bautista, Calle del Cristo 151-153, San Juan 00901-1521 Puerto Rico. Explore the second oldest cathedral in the Americas and the first cathedral built in Puerto Rico. Duration: 30 minutes **We entered and toured the cathedral. Stop At: Cuartel de Ballaja, Calle Norzagaray Corner Calle del Morro, San Juan 00901 Puerto Rico. Visit the last massive building made by the Spanish in Puerto Rico. Walk through its hallways and savor a delicious cup of coffee at Cafe Don Ruiz. Duration: 15 minutes **We did not enter the barracks or have coffee; we walked through the center of the courtyard and out the other side. Stop At: La Casa Estrecha, 101 Calle de Tetuan Old San Juan, San Juan 00901-1811 Puerto Rico. Take a photo op at San Juan's narrowest house and its view. Duration: 5 minutes. **We did not enter the narrow house; we talked in front of it. Stop At: Cuartel de Ballaja, Calle Norzagaray Corner Calle del Morro, San Juan 00901 Puerto Rico.Explore the last massive building made by the Spanish in Puerto Rico. Be amazed by the largest courtyard of Old San Juan. Duration: 10 minutes **Mentioned above, we walked through the courtyard. Stop At: Iglesia de San Jose, Calle del Cristo Plaza de San José, San Juan 00901 Puerto Rico. Visit San Juan's oldest church. Your tour guide will take you through all the details that decorate this church. Learn about the history of this church during the Spanish American War's attack to San Juan. Duration: 20 minutes. **We did not enter or tour this church. Stop At: Capilla del Santo Cristo de la Salud, 1 Calle Del Cristo, San Juan 00901 Puerto Rico. Learn about the urban legend of La Capilla del Cristo. Learn about the miracle that took place in this street. Duration: 10 minutes **We talked in front of the gates. Stop At: Castillo San Felipe del Morro, 501 Calle Norzagaray, San Juan 00901-1213 Puerto Rico. Be amazed by the history of the fortifications that once bordered the whole city. Your tour guide will give you free time to visit the fort's surroundings. Duration: 30 minutes. **We did not get to explore the fort. We talked about it in the distance as we walked by. This is one stop I especially wish we could have explored in person as described in the tour.

I’ll start with the positives. Laura seemed to be a very friendly person. The small group we were with (a family of four and a solo gentlemen, making us 7 total, were lovely and really added to the experience. Laura was a distracted, mildly disinterested, sloppy tour guide. When we went into the Catedral San Juan Batista, Laura gave us a couple sentences of info before directing us inside for 15 minutes as she stayed outside on a bench. She failed to mention that Ponce De Leon’s final resting site was inside - which most of our group missed. My partner and I only found it because we knew to look through a previous Google search. She mentioned that 30 min later responding to a question, and everyone was disappointed.. Laura also wasn’t the best at answering questions. Several times she had a hard time answering what seemed to be basic questions. For instance, she was asked which way we were facing looking at the bay and her answer was clearly wrong (a quick map reference showed that). She also told us she guessed the population of Old San Juan to be “a couple thousand - not many” when it’s over 300,000. The tour was also supposed to include bottled water and snacks or a icee-type drink. I’m pretty sure we only got the water (basic purified water from a coffee shop) because someone in our group brought it up. There were no snacks or icees. Though we passed an icee vendor on the tour we had to pay for our own (fake out! lol). As we passed other tour groups and heard other tour guides in action, we couldn’t help but think we chose poorly. In this case the pricier walking tour (this one) was not worth the money. (The other people in our group made similar remarks).

Laura was amazing! My husband and I love history and we picked her brain the whole time. She also made an excellent recommendation for food. We very much enjoyed our history full morning walk with her and we are looking forward to seeing her again on our next trip. Definitely will be our go to tour guide.