DownTown Area

Once lodged in your hotel and willing to put your best smile on your face to receive the town’s vibrant people, there are certain spots you should visit on your first day to really get a picture of the place and become a pata salada (salted leg) –the nickname for Puerto Vallarta’s residents. Slip on some comfy cotton clothes, low shoes for long hikes on cobblestone streets.

If you really want to be a part of the town, hop on a bus to the downtown area, to the Malecon. The Malecon (seawall) is the town’s main street, the coastal driveway that edges the central beach, sprinkled with sculptures and stores. It takes you from the Rosita Hotel, Puerto Vallarta’s oldest inn, to the square in Guadalupe Church, a center of religious celebrations.

The square is the heart of town, a place where inhabitants mix up with visitors, where music and comedians’ laughter abound, of performances at Los Arcos, of breathtaking sunsets and fireworks every night at 9:00 pm. Walk on past Los Arcos, traipsing the new Malecon and bordering the sea’s beaten track, and you’ll get to another zone full of flavor: the Romantic Zone, a place teeming with stores, cafés and restaurants. After spending a few hours roaming around Puerto Vallarta, you’ll start feeling a whole lot better, as if you were a part of Mexico already. By that time, some would just be in love with its mountains, its streets or its locals. Yet, there’s still a lot to be unearthed.

Other Zones

Before leaving the downtown area behind, we recommend you to drop in on Gringo Gulch, the same area where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton played out their romance, coupled with the Kimberly House –where the couple lived- including the Pink Bridge.

This is a very special zone of cobblestone streets that go up to the mountain. Travelers may have easy access to it from the Malecon. The hotel zone kicks off at the Hotel Rosita and stretches out for miles, dotted with most of Puerto Vallarta’s lodgings down a lovely boulevard of palm trees and a beach strip touching all of them.

This long walkway is home to many of the shopping malls, restaurants of all styles and stores. Around the Las Glorias Plaza are airline offices, gyms, ice cream parlors and other places. And at the end of the zone lies the Vallarta Marina, a major entertainment center teeming with fun, shops and restaurants. Across the road and crossing the bridge and the Cuale River island, you find the Old Vallarta or Romantic Zone, teeming with charming restaurants and cafés that dot the town’s streets and the beach.

Beach & Montains

It’s in the Mexican Pacific, next to the sea, so we know you won’t resist the temptation of going to the beach the following day, or even on your first day there, and bask in the sun, drinking margaritas or icy beer as you tr y to stay away from your ever yday life. There ar e choices galore when it comes to beaches, some of them dominated by choppy waters, others better fit for sur fers, and others cut out just for lovers or people eager to kick up their heels. There are others that will round out a better pictur e during your stay.

Playa de los Muer tos is the most sought-after beach of all. It’s the closest to town –within walking distance from downtown- and is packed with casual and fancy restaurants, bars and the original little horse sculpture at the end of it. The south is marked by beach of astounding beauty, of thinner sand and bluer waters. The best-known ones are Mismaloya or Playas Gemelas. They are just 10 to 15 minutes by bus or cab from the downtown area. The nor th –already in the state of Nayarit- boasts per fectly long and sandy beaches for easygoing hikers. Don’t miss out on San Pancho, Sayulita, Destiladeras or Guayabitos. You can get there by bus, a shuttle ser vice with depar tures from the Las Gloria Plaza and the nearby Wall-Mart.

If beaches are breathtaking, mountains mesmerize you and even make you forget for a moment they are not the sea. It’s lovely to take a good look at them with their foogy tops and greenish shadows. And we should tr y to stare at them for the longest time because man’s predator behavior is increasingly putting them in harm’s way. You must visit the most beautiful towns, like San Sebastian del Oeste, where time stood still 500 years ago, El Tuito, Mascota or Talpa de Allende, famous for its unspoiled lands.