Is East more popular than West side?

Day to day and sometimes month to month some of the members disappear for a spell. When it comes to mainlanders the West is very popular, more so than the East of the island. I view the west of the island as more California coast like, rocky beaches, big waves, young people walking around in swimsuits going from bar to bar and lots of small restaurants with English menus. While it is more lay back in other ways, it is quite the spot for entertainment. During winter all the snow birds flock in and is busy, during the rest of the year it calms down a bit. Also prices for properties have gone up quite a bit due to all the mainlanders moving there and English is almost as useful as it is Spanish there.

The east side is more day to day, working people and we have a lot of mainlanders also but not as many. East coast attracts people who like to be traveling to other islands, do boating, do scuba, snorkeling and be close to San Juan. Condado, Isla Verde have a lot of tourists and mainlanders but that is north-east and the prices are high.

Beach front means people in front of your house since beaches in PR are all public property. your property ends and the beach starts, but the beach is not yours and can not be fenced. Depending on the spot, you may see thousands of people a day or 1 or 2 a year. If you try to limit access you will likely end up with a protest once people notice the limitation. Flooding as you stated, salt spray causing lots of rusting of any metal and your car. Also a lot of properties do not have any sanitary facilities, they dump the raw sewage into the sea, so you may have bacteria issues with the water and things floating that you may not want to swim with.

A lot of people feel safe country side, more so because there is little reason for bad guys to be anywhere close to your home. Locals if you make friends with them will keep an eye on your place and they will do that if you interact with them.

Bochinche (Gossip) is very common in PR, but they have nothing to say if they are not watching out the window, this is both positive and negative, they will know who was taking mangoes in your property and they will talk about how you dress or if you have a lover that visits when your husband is out. It is like that bar, where everyone knows your name, just ask anyone in the street where "Doña" Sonia lives and they will give you directions or offer to take you there. But Bochinche is everywhere not just in the country side.

Don't go showing you are rich or have expensive things and you will have no reason to be a target. Learn the language, be friendly, be part of the community, attend church, volunteer, you will make friends and the people will keep an eye for you. Not only that but they will show you what to do, where to shop, what time to arrive for the specials, where are all the hidden river spots, and exchange fruits and vegetables with you.

The bottom line is that there are wonderful places to live all around the island.

There are roughly 270 miles of Beaches in PR, each beach is unique in some way. Some have white sand, some tan sand, some have black sand, some are rocky. Some are dead calm and some are rather rough. But like Frogrock said there are wonderful places to live all over the island.

Gated communities keep most of the traffic of outsiders down but there could be bad people living inside the gated community. I prefer non-gated but a lot of mainlanders like it.

Hi! I live in the East side in the metro area and live in a gated community. It's the closest we could get to the city life and beaches are always near. We actually chose this are because we were told by our realtor that in case of a black out, the power gets restored to the tourist areas first. When we moved out here they were rationing/shutting off water and where we were at they didn't do that because it's a tourist area.

We chose the north west part of the island because:

Less trafic and congestion on the roads.  Yet close to the major highways.

Locals advised that crime was lower and it is safer than the SJ area - more relaxed.  I agree.

Access to lots of shopping, beaches, eateries and such.  We have walmart, home depot, sam's club, etc. close by.

Got lucky finding a place on the water.

After living here, I think the south coast is worth a second look as the ocean is generally calmer  -  the north gets big surf, especially winter months ( great for surfers! but swimmers need protected beaches.)

You must spend time exploring and driving around the island to see it all and learn the  real estate market - so that you can recognize a bargain when you stumble upon it.

Good luck to you!

Well I am definitely not rich, and don't have expensive things, so that would not be an issue.  If I move there though, I do have a lot of "Old"  things that I would like to bring.  I am very into vintage things, and have collected inexpensive things along the way, but I would likely not be able to find things like that there?   But that is definitely putting the cart before the horse as usual!  I think maybe checking out the south would be a good idea too, as calmer waters would be better for me, although I have significant difficulty getting out of the water, so may not be able to swim anyway, except in a pool.  I didn't think there were any white sand beaches in PR, only on the smaller islands?  I would love to be near a white sand beach!!!  I still plan to visit there for a period of time, but would also like to choose an area to visit which is closer to the area that I may be more inclined to ultimately be in?  For me, the most important is safety first, of course.  And  no matter where you are, you are close to the beach.  Not sure I would want to be in a gated community, because ultimately I think living in an area with a mix of locals and expats would be the most desirable to me.  Otherwise I may as well live in Florida!