Puerto Vallarta (Mexico)

Puerto Vallarta Reviews

Puerto Vallarta Photos

Puerto Vallarta Information

Overview

Things to do

Country Info (Mexico)

Slideshow of Photos

Nestled beside the Río Caule between palm-covered mountains and the azure Bahía de las Banderas (Bay of Flags) is the picturesque, cobble-stoned, whitewashed city of Puerto Vallarta, a favourite of both the ultra-rich and the shoestring traveler.

The city boasts white-sand, palm-fringed beaches, lively bars and restaurants and heaps of galleries and handicrafts. The city has mutated from a sleepy seaside village to an international resort so quickly that it is fashionable to deride its spoilt charms, but it's almost impossible to dislike its quaintness, southern beaches, immense bay and marine life.

There are dolphins in the bay year-round, and pilot and grey whales between February and April. Locals insist that if you stand on the seafront in April, you can see giant manta rays leaping into the air during their mating rituals.

Puerto Vallarta is an honest-to-goodness Mexican town as well as a world-class resort, so visitors here enjoy a wider range of experiences than your typical vacation destination offers.

Plus its got all the requisites for that much-anticipated trip down south - weather as good as it gets (similar to Hawaii's, but the peso gives you a lot more bang for your buck), gorgeous scenery, 100 km of pristine beaches on the bay where Puerto Vallarta is situated (Banderas Bay, Mexico's largest and deepest, and home to award-winning sport fish, giant turtles, manta rays, dolphins and whales), more than a thousand restaurants, and every imaginable activity to engage in - even flying through the tree canopy!

There are large hotels dotted along the coast which are firmly mass-market and cater for all visitors, but mainly American and Canadian couples with Europeans coming in a close third. There is one family-orientated tourist hotel and one small upmarket hotel in the marina development, along with a couple of B&Bs; some apartments are available as holiday lets. Along the coast the hotels are large international-standard establishments with limited nearby amenities.

Locality:

Puerto Vallarta is on Caribbean coast of Yucatan Peninsula (20 mls S of Playa del Carmen; 60 mls SW of Cancun, which has the nearest international airport). The area has long stretches of white sand backed by relatively flat terrain covered with dry scrub and dense native forest that reaches the sea in places.

Suggest a change to the Puerto Vallarta Overview section (click to dropdown)

Puerto Vallarta is synonymous with fun! Visitors can choose from an abundance of activities, from excursions to secluded beaches, floating parties, scuba diving expeditions and romantic dinner cruises to hiking, biking, eco-tours, swimming with dolphins, whale watching and 4-wheeling.

How about parachute rides over Banderas Bay or a quick plane ride to a mountain village for lunch.

Puerto Vallarta is also known as an artists' mecca with its world-class galleries and organized evening art walks. There is always something exciting happening in this lovely tropical city.

Puerto Vallarta has long been a popular tourist destination. But with seven world-class golf courses now in play, its main attractions may no longer be sun-lit beaches and verdant mountains.

The nightlife around the the marina is very low-key, with a couple of restaurant-bars offering live music into the early hours a few nights a week. Ther is a disco, but mainly during peak season. The larger hotels often organise their own entertainment programmes. There is a modest selection of mid-range eateries, with a couple of establishments setting themselves up as the local quality options, but nothing really exclusive or gastronomic; fresh local fish, however, is literally delivered to the doorstep daily.

Suggest a change to the Puerto Vallarta Things to do section (click to dropdown)

Population: 106.202.900
Languages: Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regiona
Currency: Mexican peso
Currency code: MXN
Local Times:
Mexico - Federal District - Mexico City

Country Dialling Code: +52
Voltage: 127V 60Hz
Electrical plugs:
2 parallel flat prongs

Mexico forms a bridge between the slick first-world commerce of North America and the more chaotic Latin tempo of its southerly neighbour. Mexico is a traveller's paradise, crammed with a multitude of opposing identities: desert landscapes, snow-capped volcanoes, ancient ruins, teeming industrialised cities, time-warped colonial towns, glitzy resorts, lonely beaches and a world-beating collection of flora and fauna.

With a Native American heritage and a distinct Spanish flavour, Mexico is vibrant, colourful and unique. Its varied terrain ranges from cactus-studded deserts to white sandy beaches and blue waters, tropical rainforest and jungle-clad hills to steep rocky canyons and narrow gorges, and from snow-capped volcano peaks to bustling cities.

Since the height of Mayan and Aztec civilisations, Mexico has suffered the destructive force of the Conquistadors, European colonial rule, civil and territorial wars, rebellions, dictatorships, recessions and earthquakes.

Yet its people remain warm and friendly, much of the countryside remains unspoilt by development, and its cities display a unique style of architecture. The extraordinary history is reflected in the ancient Mayan temples strewn across the jungles and ruins of Aztec civilisations, rural indigenous villages, Spanish colonial cities and silver mining towns, and traditional Mexican ports.

Buildings display a unique combination of colonial and pagan architecture, blending together Art Nouveau, Baroque, Art Deco and Native American design into the structure of their churches and public structures. The country's culture displays a similar blend of the traditional and modern, where pagan meets Christian in a series of festivals, or fiestas throughout the year.

Besides a combination of unique culture and fascinating cities, Mexico also boasts several hundred miles of coastline extending down through both the Pacific and the Caribbean, which has branded the country as a popular summer retreat destination.

Beach resort cities such as Acapulco, Cancún and those of the Baja California peninsula are accepted vacation havens. The countryside is also rich in archaeological treasures with pyramids, ruins of ancient cities and great stone carvings of ancient gods standing as testament to a country once ruled by the Aztecs and Mayans.