More about The Gallery Inn
The Gallery Inn, Best Place to stay in Puerto Rico
by A TripAdvisor Member
The Gallery Inn in Old San Juan Puerto Rico is the most unique and charming hotel we have ever stayed in. It is like staying in an art museum. You enter through a small courtyard that has some of the most beautiful birds that will talk to you. Art objects adorn the walls everywhere in the hotel (you can actually buy them and have them shipped to you). Each of the rooms has it's own style. Each bedroom has it's own name as well.We stayed in the Blanco room for six nights before our cruise and in the Dr. Joe Room for four nights after our cruise. We were extremely pleased with the rooms. Every room has the Tempurpedic mattresses. We slept very well.
A continental breakfast is served either in the small dining area or outside by the trees which have the birds. You can also take it to your room.
The staff is wonderful. They are very helpful and friendly. They will bend over backward to make your stay a great one.
The Owners are Jan and Manuco. They are great to the guests! Jan is a famous local artist. They arranged concerts in the piano room while we were there. My wife said that Manuco's eyes looked like a young Omar Shariff (the famous actor from Dr. Zhavago).You must take a self guided tour around the building all the way up to the roof. There you will have a 360 degree view of the entire city. You are located in the best area for sightseeing by foot and also for some of the best restaurants in the Caribbean. You are in a very safe area of Puerto Rico. We were comfortable in walking at night or day. You will find friendly and helpful police officers everywhere.
You will be very disappointed if you do not visit this wonderful hotel/inn.
The best hotel ever (in San Juan)
by PA2AKgirl about The Gallery Inn at Galeria San Juan
Ahhh, if I could have stayed here, it would have made my trip even better. But, I just got to meet some of the people who work here and take a tour of this place. My friend is friends with the owner, the woman who also does the artwork that you'll see throughout the building. It's completely amazing...her specialty is busts and other sculpture, mostly, from what I saw, things that include faces:) I don't even know where to begin. The whole place is unique. I'll just list some of the features:
The building is 300 years old
There are exotic birds, mostly parrots everywhere in the courtyard
Fountains, plants, sculptures...
A room with a 9 foot grand Steinway piano.
There's terraces and courtyards, an open air lobby...
You have your choice of rooms: the artists room is $145, The colonial rooms are $195, Vista Rooms are $270 and the Topside Suite is $350. A night. You can understand why I didn't stay here.
We will not saty there again
by TripAdvisor Member WBL
We recently stayed at the gallery inn, it was our last night in PR and we thought after staying on the west side of the island it would be fun to stay at the gallery inn and spend some time in old san juan even though we have been here before. I must say the gallery inn has interesting art work including sculpture, paintings, etc. The numerous interesting and unusual collections are fun to see but this does not compensate for the lack of needed attention to making sure the plumbing and electricity is at the very least functioning. I understand this is an old and historic place but for the price, really, it is almost insulting. We have traveled extensively around the world and experienced numerous types of lodging. This place while has its strong points is not worth the money. They need to install hand rails and better lighting on the stairs, the breakfast was weak for the price and mold and mildew were more of a problem than need be. So it is a trade off, interesting but lacking some attention to make the stay worth the money, a great view for 20 minutes does not cost $400.00 a night.
art lovers
by TripAdvisor Member pasofino
We stayed at the Gallery Inn in May and loved it. The staff was friendly and went out of their way to be helpful (such as offering to speak on our behalf with the car rental agency). The inn looks fairly non-discript from the street but once past the gate you are greeted by several large resident birds in a courtyard garden. The buildngs are 300+ years old. The inn is lovely and unique with European flavored decor throughout. The roof decks offer great views of El Morro, Old San Juan and the sea. Plants and sculpture abound. We stayed on two seperate occasions and each time had a small but luxurious room with a view of the sea over the north wall of the city. The owner is a professional artist and her artwork is displayed throughout the hotel. We liked the location- no car needed as we were within walking distance of everything in old San Juan with great restaurants, bars close-by. This is the place for those of us who have done the beach and prefer to avoid generic chain mega-hotels. We would definitely stay here again!
Fantastic.......!
by TripAdvisor Member hhbartman
After reading the mixed reviews of the Gallery Inn we were cautiously optomistic. The place is indeed fascinating and you will remember it forever.....
The courtyard areas are beautiful, there is art literally everywhere and the staff are very friendly and eclectic. The morning concierge, Manny, was extremly helpful in steering us to the better restaurants in the area, of which there are many....
Our room was Felipe, with a rooftop Jacuzzi for two, brand new patio furniture and views of the caribbean and El Morro to die for.
Remember the place is several hundred years old so water pressure was weak and the toilet took a while to fill up .....all very small issues that were way offset by the overall experience....
Breakfast started with wonderful puerto rican coffee followed by fresh fruit and then perhaps a cheese omelet.......The mattress are evidently brand new and we were so impressed that we are ordering one for the house (temper-pedic?)
Their website does not do the place justice, it is indeed "magical" and worth the price which we found very fair considering location, view, and overall ambiance........
Worth a quick visit, but nothing more
by A TripAdvisor Member
This place is certainly unusual, and worth a quick look-see. The roof top garden has incomparable views of San Juan and the coast. But after a few minutes at the Inn, you realize you are basically in an expensive haunted house. The "art work" consists largely of countless castings made by the owner, which are laid wall-to-wall across the property. Interesting, but do you really want to sleep with dozens of faces glaring at you from the walls? And the place just looks, smells and feels dirty. We were promised a suite for $310/night, then given a medium sized room with the world's tiniest fold-out bed for our 15-year old. The owners were very nice about it, and proceeded to show us other rooms our son could sleep in at the other end of the house--they were so dreary, our son joked that we were trying to get rid of him. The room we finally took had no windows, so we had to choose between suffering in stifling heat, or freezing to death from the overactive air conditioning. The Gallery Inn might be worth trying at half the price, but you'll be much happier in the equally historic El Convento.
Great digs
by A TripAdvisor Member
We needed a place to stay in Old San Juan and picked this place based on research in tour books. We are members of a chorale. When we walked in the hotel music system was, quite by chance, quietly playing the selection from Bach we had just finished performing. We knew we were at home. Despite the pet parrots being occasionally off key, the fascinating surroundings and excellent service were on key. We enjoyed our short stay and will recommend this location to friends who anticipate a visit.
Not worth the price
by TripAdvisor Member bosslady1
One person's junk is another person's treasure, and this place is full of it. I would not stay here again because if I am paying $250 plus for a hotel room, I expect to be able to flush the soiled toilet paper down the toilet. In this place, the bathroom has a sign indicating "old house, old plumbing--please put toilet paper in wastebasket." Ewwwwww!
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