Mandie M.
Yelp
The place isn't the Ritz, but you don't experience a country in your room. It was my first time traveling to Puerto Rico; the country is beautiful and the people are very nice! My first impression of the hotel was that the lobby was tiny, but the staff was friendly and very helpful. The rooms were small, but big enough for my husband and myself to hang out comfortably. We were only staying for 2 nights until our cruise sailed, while all the other people in our party converged in San Juan (my brother and SIL got married on the cruise, so there was a lot of us). Some of the younger kids stayed at the hipper La Concha Resort (way nicer hotel, but also much more expensive, and only a block or two from Miramar), so we got to experience that too, and part of me liked the Mirimar better, in that it was MUCH quieter (I have 5 year old triplets and a 6 year old - I WANT R&R), and more laid back.
Breakfast was served every morning in the smaller of the hotel's two kitchen areas. The choices were good as far as a continental breakfast goes. They had your breakfast basics, and lots of coffee, tea, and juice to choose from. The hotel had large sitting/meeting rooms, and a beautiful rooftop terrace with a hot tub. The pool was small but it served it's purpose. The hotel itself isn't on a huge lot of land so IMO they did a great job with what they had to work with. They've landscaped it really nicely so you feel like it's more open that it really is. We did a lot of roaming around the hotel, and one of my only gripes is that it's easy to get lost. LOL There was twists and turns and new hallways everywhere, but they all lead to an open area I recognized and so I was never truly freaking-out-lost.
Overall, I would recommend Mirimar to someone staying in San Juan to experience the city, or to someone on a budget. Personally, I'm not big on architecture or history, and I wish we'd had beach access - that's more my thing. But again, you pay the big bucks for that. We did get to the beach while visiting my brother and his friends at La Concha, but it was a covert op since no one not staying at the hotel is supposed to be on that beach, so that was kind of a PITA, but also understandable since we were bending the rules. I have no idea if there are public beaches within a walk's distance of Mirimar, but there was plenty of shopping, restaurants, and even a Dunkin Donuts, like a beacon of light in the middle of a mysterious city. LOL
(We went in November of 2011)