The 10 Best Points of Interest & Landmarks in San Juan, Puerto Rico

La garita del Diablo is a lonely sentrybox that hangs from one of the most remote walls of Castillo San Cristobal. For centuries, this small post has been enveloped in a myriad rumors, highlighted by a ghost story that, to this day, is still shared among sanjuaneros. Some moonless nights--when darkness engulfs the old city of San Juan--the wind whistles eerily and evokes the distant hum of a guitar that has just been strummed. By the sea, a sentry box stands still, clinging to the vast, old wall that separates the San Cristobal Fort from the Atlantic Ocean. Legend has it that this lonely garita was where handsome Spanish soldier Sanchez disappeared forever. The Garita del Diablo (which is Spanish for the "Devil's Sentry Box") is at the center of one of San Juan's better-known legends. Long time ago, when the San Cristobal Fort still required soldiers posted on every sentry box, the men used to check up on their fellow soldiers by yelling "Sentry, be alert!". To that call, the next soldier would answer "I am alert!" Nevertheless, there came a night in which soldier Sanchez did not respond. Frightened and unable to leave their posts, his comrades waited until dawn to reach Garita del Diablo, where they found Sanchez's rifle and uniform...but there was not a single trace of the soldier's whereabouts. Immediately, the men attributed Sanchez's bizarre disappearance to the devil. There were rumors, however, that the soldier's vanishing act had more to do with a beautiful mestiza named Diana than with the devil. According to the legend, Sanchez composed songs whose messages only his beloved Diana could decipher. Songs of devotion, songs of elopement, songs of the hidden love nest they would build in the far away in the mountains of Luquillo. Songs that, according to the legend, still reverberate in the wind on some moonless nights in the Garita del Diablo.

It's a door, yes, but not any door. The Puerta de la Bandera is a place of national pride for all Puerto Ricans and a place of cultural appreciation for those who visit us. The door is painted with the Puerto Rican flag. The flag on the door was originally painted with the traditional colors of the Puerto Rico flag but in 2016, the year in which Puerto Rico lived tense economic and social situations, the flag was painted white and black as a symbol of protest and resistance. That caused the white and black flag to become a popular image that went viral on social networks.

This is not your typical bridge. The brothers Hernan and Sosthenes Behn where part of the process of urbanization in Santurce, they built this bridge. The people from Santurce started calling the bridge Puente Dos Hermanos (Bridge Two Brothers, in English) and has been called like this ever since. From Condado to Ashford Avenue, it directs you to Old San Juan. Enjoy the view of the amazing Laguna del Condado (Condado Lagoon, in English).

This restored 19th-century esplanade is the place to begin your stroll through Old San Juan, because of its central location and its inexhaustible charm.

Four centuries ago this gate was the main entrance into the city.

A bustling street full of shops and boutiques.

"That shopping street," as known to cab drivers; a tourist must.