Located right in between the two most important parts of San Juan to travelers, Old San Juan and Condado, Puerta de Tierra is both convenient and inconvenient as a place to call home base. Puerta de Tierra itself is a middle-class to lower-class residential neighborhood, dotted with some businesses, municipal buildings, and empty museums. However, the Puerta de Tierra beachfront has two hotels, a nice beach, and a decent park that provides a welcome urban respite for both locals and hotel tourists.
While Puerta de Tierra is not a slum nor a generally rough neighborhood, it is not a tourist destination, and you should exercise some common sense and awareness when traveling through the area. If you can do this, then you should have no problems and will have a much better look at life as lived by San Juan locals, and may see many things most tourists never see while visiting the city.
