Moving to Puerto in the Fall with Hubby and 2 small boys (ages 2 & 3)

my wife and i recently traveled almost everywhere in puerto rico, including a two-week stay in rio grande, during a seven-week adventure...i urge you to do something similar to determine which area appeals most to you...don't overlook the central mountains...you don't say what kind of work you do, but if it's something you can do from home it appears you can have your pick of places to live.

devcontroller wrote:

We are moving to PR in the Fall for work (my husband and I work together and both got relocated).  My in-laws live in San Lorenzo and my husband speaks Spanish. I have Rosetta Stone (Hola! that's pretty much the extent of my bilingual journey so far-just kidding). We are interested in either the Metro Area or the North eastern side of the island. I would love any information on real estate agents and Private Schools.  We are adventurous, love to travel, our kids are very adaptable and I've grown up in Memphis, TN-it was once number 2 in the country for violent crimes, so I'm well aware of the risks with crime there.  We would love to live in the mountains and have an ocean view from our home, so we are looking at Rio Grande (does anyone know of other great ares that we should consider)? I would really love to get information on soccer teams, swimming classes or baseball camps for our boys.  If you can give any advice or references on any of the above, I would appreciate it!  Thanks in advance for your help.

San Lorenzo? That's where my inlaws live, too.
I suppose they're Puerto Rican? That's a great advantage - as you know when you know someone (who knows someone) things are getting done a lot easier here on the island.

I'm afraid I can't offer a lot of practical help with your questions. I don't know any real estate agents and our kids are all grown up..

As for the area where you're going to live, if you and/or hubby have to commute to somewhere in the metro area I'd stay as close as possible. Traffic jams are really bad.

Most good schools and kids activities are in the metro area as well so you may want to look in the metro area.

It all depends on your budget, of course. Nice apartments /houses in the metro area are expensive. For the same money you spend on a small apartment in the metro area you can rent a very comfortable house in the mountains.

Thank to you both for your comments. We will work just south of the airport, I'm guessing that's Isla Verde, I wish working from home could ever be an option:-) I am on the fence about the metro area (my husband  could live in a box as long as he can see the ocean).  I am taking a short trip to investigate the metro area and a few schools to get a feel of whether or not living in San Juan could be an option. We currently live in a suburban setting with a lot of space, but our prime reason for wanting to live in PR (by the way it's been a 5 year plan in the making)  was to change our lifestyle. So we'll either decide to go super "metro" or super remote. Gary your comment of how far money can go has been my biggest conflict. We will live in an apartment for 3-5 months before deciding on a location. I want to explore as much of the island as possible like Timjoe48 has explained (although I think our adventure will take place about 2 days at a time-I'm envious of your 7-week adventure!)  PS yes my husband is Boriqua!

A nice, sort of remote, location could be the mountain area in the south of Carolina / Trujillo Alto / Canovanas.

From many places there you can see the ocean but you're also in El Campo. The commute to where you guys will work won't be too bad either. More to the south is Gurabo and from there through the mountains to San Lorenzo is only 15 minutes.

This is the area I'm talking about.



When I have business in the eastern part of the metro area I drive through the mountains from Juncos to Canovanas and I've seen some real nice houses in that area..