Dolce Amore Italian Resort

Dolce Amore is as much a destination restaurant as it is a place to sleep. The on-site Italian kitchen — Napoli-style pizza, hand-made pasta, bread and gelato, made with imported Italian ingredients — is genuinely excellent, and it shows: it's rated 4.9/5 from over 680 reviews and ranks among the top few restaurants on the whole island. Open daily, roughly 8am–9pm.

The catch: it doesn't take reservations unless you're a large group, so expect to queue at peak times (30–45 minutes isn't unusual) and to be moved along once you've eaten if it's busy. Prices run a notch higher than typical Filipino carinderia fare, but most guests say the quality justifies it.

As a stay, the resort has an outdoor pool, a lush garden and a terrace for sun-seekers, and rooms come with their own terrace overlooking the pool. Room service, Wi-Fi and vegan options on request round things out — a comfortable, if compact, base on the Circumferential Road in San Juan.