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Metropolitan Area
San Juan is a city of neighborhoods; it can be experienced in a day or in a lifetime, with something new every day.
The Metropolitan area of San Juan is made up of the neighborhoods of Old San Juan, Puerta de Tierra, Miramar, Condado, Ocean Park, Santurce, Hato Rey, Puerto Nuevo, and Rio Piedras. With the growing urban areas the municipalities of Trujillo Alto, Carolina, Guaynabo, Cataño, and Bayamón are often considered part of the Metro Area.
Visitors are most familiar with the areas of Old San Juan, Condado, Ocean Park, and Isla Verde. Between the neighborhoods of Puerta de Tierra and Miramar is the newly opened Puerto Rico Convention Center District. Santurce houses some of the best art museums the island has to offer, a performing arts center, a natatorium, offices, shops, restaurants, and theaters. Hato Rey, also known as the financial district, is known for its many banks, the Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum or the “Choliseo” as it is known among the locals, and the largest shopping mall in the Caribbean, Plaza Las Americas. Rio Piedras is home to the University of Puerto Rico’s main campus and the National Botanical Garden of Puerto Rico. Puerto Nuevo has recently become the island’s art district with housing more than half a dozen art galleries on Andalucía Street alone.
Among the many ways of getting around the Metro Area is the “Tren Urbano” or Urban Train. The single line metro, glides along a 10.7 mile route from Santurce to Bayamón. With 16 different stations each one being a fine example of architecture in Puerto Rico and hosting examples of urban art.
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