The language is Spanish, but the upper class in San Juan takes pride in speaking half English in each sentence. Moving between hotels, ballparks, and outlets of American stores and restaurants, you'll never be far away from an employee who speaks English.
Most US chains are present (not Alamo). Those on the airport grounds add a 10% "concession fee" to your bill (a racket widespread in the US). Some chains insist you buy their insurance if paying with a debit card. To leave the car at a stadium parking lot, ask for a model that isn't flashy. This may minimize exit hassles, but the shocks, steering, and brakes will be worn, and you will not have enough acceleration either to be assertive with the local drivers or to maintain speed on the mountain crossings. But the air conditioning worked fine. Accompany the agent during the enumeration of scrapes and dents and keep a copy certifying the initial condition of the car.
Most expressways are toll roads; a typical toll is $0.50. That does not mean that the toll the other way will be $0.50. Toll collection is inefficient (use the exact change lanes) and traffic enforcement is nonexistent. Drivers are macho, impatient, and indecisive.
Signs let you reach any city either by expressway or by trunk roads; but they aren't perfect. On the expressway south through Caguas, all exits are numbered but there is no telling what goes where. On the secondary roads, you can easily get sidetracked by following a straight line instead of the good pavement. PR-14 between Aibonito and Coamo is beautiful, but twisty and unmarked for fifteen miles. Speeds are in mph but distances and exit numbers are by kilometer. (Changing the speed limit from 55 mph to 90 km/h would surely produce an epidemic of accidents as drivers envisioned an easy excuse for the cop.)
Maps sold in the US are all out of date and don't accurately describe the class of each highway; some expressways listed as "proposed" are already built.
US chains have all amenities but retail in 1999 was around $400. The Embassy Suites near the airport is a treat and I got a rate of $260 that included the parking fee.
Out-island economy hotels for tourists are called "paradors" ("stoppers"). The government inspects them and regulates the use of this term. A night in a parador might cost $75-150.
There are bargains, but they aren't on the Internet or in the travel agent's catalog. Mario's Hotel in Isla Verde near the airport runway is $60 a night plus 9% tax ($70 in the high season, which starts in December), with free, lighted, off-street parking (adequate except on weekends); rooms are adequate with private bath, everyone speaks a little English and some people speak a lot. The air conditioner, run all night, blocks out most of the street noise. The horns and car alarms do calm down at night, pretty early for Latin America.
San Juan is the most expensive place on the island. Since parking at the ballpark is a breeze, you could stay outside the city and drive there after the game. But if your goal is to see the Spanish-colonial Old City with its fort, or the good beaches, driving and parking could be a problem (the government wants to move to a system of rented golf carts) and you might want to stay in San Juan. There is a city bus system and there is supposed to be an elevated rail line in 2002, though in 2001, newspaper columnists were talking about its pillars as the "ruins."
There is a fine criollo buffet in Ponce on PR-123 (formerly shown as 10 or 14 on some maps) that looks like a converted Bonanza and is called "Criollismo," but the big surprise is that the salad bar at a real Bonanza (like the one on the PR-1 strip leaving Caguas to the north) is cheaper and also has all the criollo specialties and gringo salad fixings. And, in the Carolina shopping center off Route 3 on your way to Clemente stadium, the food court has a fabulous place called "Arrocito Con..." (A little rice with...) where you can get white or criollo rice and toppings that change daily, even sometimes bacalao, fish dark meat stewed with peppers and onions. There's always yuca and twice I saw it wrapped in turkey and tied down with bacon strips; this was baseball-sized but not a mofongo.
In towns too small to have known-good places such as chains, look for places with lighted (and not hand-lettered) signs and parking well away from the travel lane; a wide storefront on a main road but not a hole-in-the-wall. The number of parked cars (especially truckers and cops) indicates quality.
FDR Avenue half a mile east of Bithorn Stadium has a variety of foreign restaurants. To the west there's another Bonanza. All the big US chains exist in all the big cities, especially chicken (KFC and Church's) and hamburgers. Subway is everywhere and identical to mainland franchises.
There are many bakeries (panaderías), as elsewhere in Latin America, but they're not as cheap because of US sugar price supports. There are no unique delicacies. Corn bread, sometimes with frosting, is a recurring offering. Donas (doughnuts) are there, Dunkin-style. The word also refers to zero runs in a half-inning. A big surprise is that 7-11 stores in San Juan have bread ovens; you can get a half-pound French loaf baked that day for $0.55. If nothing else works, buy sliced meat and the crumbly white Puerto Rico cheese and make sandwiches. Subway in 2000 introduced a variety of distinctive breads baked hourly on the premises; it's scandalous that headquarters prohibits them from selling them separately. Rum and booze are sold in supermarkets, bakeries, and convenience stores.
If you find you miss the criollo rice when you get home, go to that funny aisle of the supermarket and pick up a box of Goya sazón (the coriander-and-annatto variety). A packet mixed into white rice, with veggies stirred in, is it exactly.