Drinking in the History at the Vanderbilt Condado Hotel

When Hurricane Irma hit Puerto Rico a year ago, my employer made a generous offer to all of its employees. Instead of sweltering in our darkened homes, we could all go to the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel and stay there on the company’s dime. Most of our staff took the offer.

But I didn’t.

At that point, I’d lived in Puerto Rico for barely a month and had been in my then-new apartment only two weeks. I’d worked hard to get here. And I wasn’t going to let anything chase me out of my new home. So for six days I lived without power and made do.

Thus I never even set foot in the 99 year old hotel until recently. Lori was here visiting and I wanted to do something nice for her on our last night. And so we went to the hotel bar for a nightcap and a look-see.

In its storied history, the Condado Vanderbilt has played host to Charles Lindbergh, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Bob Hope, John F. Kennedy, Errol Flynn, and Arthur Rubinstein. We didn’t see any of those folks at the bar, unfortunately.

We did, however, take in the fabulous collection of paintings and sculptures that were arrayed there. And I took in a pretty fair Dark ‘n Stormy. Or two.

The hotel underwent substantial renovations that began in 2002 and weren’t completed until 2014. The project included the construction of two 11 story-towers, one to each side of the original building. That gave the back of the hotel that faces the Caribbean an expansive deck, which we strolled along while watching the sea crash into the rocks below.