Nobu Hospitality has confirmed it will open its first Puerto Rico property, Nobu Hotel and Restaurant San Juan, with doors scheduled to open in 2028. The brand — co-founded by chef Nobu Matsuhisa, Robert De Niro and film producer Meir Teper — has built a reputation for pairing compact, design-led hotels with its signature Japanese-Peruvian restaurants, and the San Juan project follows that blueprint closely.
The property will be small by resort standards: just 50 rooms. At street level, guests will find the signature Nobu restaurant and a bar, while up top there will be a rooftop bar and lounge — a likely draw for sunset drinks given San Juan's setting. Nobu's chief executive Trevor Horwell framed the move as a way to plug into one of the Caribbean's most storied neighbourhoods, with the brand's contemporary, understated luxury style sitting alongside the old city's distinctive architecture and cultural heritage.
The announcement lands hot on the heels of another milestone for the group. Nobu recently opened its first Spanish property, the 50-room Nobu Hotel Madrid, which features a three-story restaurant, bar and lounge concept. Spain clearly suits them: Madrid now joins a European footprint that will expand further with Nobu Monte Rei in Portugal's Eastern Algarve, slated for 2029.
The Maldives is also on the roadmap. Nobu's debut there will be at Munyafushi, a private island in Laamu Atoll — a format that fits the brand's small-room-count, high-touch model. Taken together, the pipeline shows a company spreading deliberately across the Caribbean, Europe and the Indian Ocean rather than saturating one market.
For travellers, the Puerto Rico news is worth flagging early. San Juan already punches above its weight for food and design hotels, and a Nobu arrival typically lifts a destination's profile with American and international luxury travellers. Because the hotel will have only 50 rooms, expect demand to outstrip supply when it opens — booking well ahead will matter, especially in the peak December-to-April window. It also gives US travellers an easy luxury option: Puerto Rico requires no passport for American citizens and is served by frequent nonstop flights from major East Coast hubs.
If you can't wait until 2028, San Juan isn't short of alternatives in the meantime — the historic old city has been adding boutique properties for years, and the broader island offers everything from rainforest lodges near El Yunque to surf towns on the west coast. But for fans of Nobu's ceviche-and-black-cod formula paired with a rooftop in the tropics, the 2028 opening date now has a place in the calendar.
Story via Global Traveler.
