March 2022 - Our Stay in Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta may be the most well-known and touristy destination on our spring tour. It is a good-sized city with good infrastructure, decent arts scene, and many good restaurants. When we were in Chapala, we mentioned to our Airbnb owner that we would be in Puerto Vallarta in the new year. She noted that they owned a condo there and asked if we would be interested. As we reviewed our options, the location was inland, away from the beach and tourist scene, but we really wanted to support our host because she helped us a lot with our transition to international life.

The condo itself was nice. It was a second-floor unit and a bit smaller than either of the rentals we’d stayed in before. There were 2 bedrooms, each with a double bed, and a larger room that served as a combination dining room / kitchen / sitting area. The condo was equipped with a full kitchen, washing machine, air conditioning, and flat-screen TV. We had some initial problems with the gas and hot water, but the host’s local support staff were able to get the problem resolved within a day. The condo had good wifi and we didn’t have any issues with it during our stay. As we got settled into our new condo, we discussed that we may have been running the AC too much in Mazatlán – electricity is very expensive and nights are often cool, yet we ran the AC most of the time because it was easy. In Puerto Vallarta, we quickly found that by opening both the front and back doors, we could get a very nice cross-breeze, and did not need the AC at all. The only times that we ran it was when we left Gunner home alone and needed to close the doors.

Nice new carwash nearby

The neighborhood surrounding our condo was not what we expected. When we first arrived, we were surprised by the industrial feel of the area - lots of businesses, some workshops, and a couple of distribution centers. We found a car wash with a grand opening, so we sat and had a snack while they did a full in/out for approx. $5 + $1 tip (the price was 1/2 off for grand opening, plus we spent $8 on chips, guacamole, and beers, so I'm not sure it was a killer deal vs. back home!). The condo community was still under construction so the security staff weren’t really paying attention to who was coming and going through the gate (though we never had any problems and never felt unsafe). Additionally, our condo community was adjacent to another community, and while I originally thought the areas were just older and newer sections, at one point, the security staff for the western section would not let us enter and told us we needed to use the eastern gate. The older section seemed fully occupied and our newer area seemed about 50% occupied for the 2/3 that had already been built out. All of the residents in both areas appeared to be working-class locals with families, i.e., few or no expats or retirees. All of that said, the community worked fine for our stay. The area was generally flat, and made it easy to walk Gunner on 2 or 3 laps around the condo complex, both morning and night. Additionally, there was a large grassy open space just outside our door where we could throw tennis balls and let him run and retrieve and there was a nice pool that was rarely crowded. One other benefit was that a water delivery truck would circle the neighborhood 3 days per week, so we didn’t need to buy the large 20-liter garrafones at the store, but could instead get them right outside our door for only 33 pesos each (about $1.60).

Because of our inland location, we decided that we would spend some of our days at the condo rather than travelling into town. We bought some food that was easy to reheat or ensured that we had some leftovers from the days that we would go out. We probably stayed in about 25% of our days at the condo. On our days out, we rarely went to the same place twice. Puerto Vallarta sprawls along the coast, and there are many small beach towns to the north and south. We explored the marina area and the suburbs of Puerto Vallarta heading south, including the Hotel Zone, 5th of December, Centro, and the Romantic Zone. The marina is surrounded by condos, high-rises, and a golf course, all of which are popular with expats. We found some good restaurants there, and Sandy found a shop to get her hair styled.

Food truck huarache and tacos

The Hotel Zone is just that – primarily large resort-style hotels and not much for culture or destinations. One unexpected highlight was the day I talked Sandy into taking a walk along the Pitillal River. We planned to eat at a Food Truck Park when we got to the Hotel Zone, but to be honest, we did not have high expectations for the park. We were instead surprised to find a very nice, clean dog-friendly park with multiple modern restaurants and a beer garden. We enjoyed the area so much that we made sure to take the walk and eat the food a second time before we left Puerto Vallarta.

The malecon

Heading further south into the 5th of December neighborhood, there are a few sights and restaurants, but we really didn’t find much to entertain us there. This area is also the northern end of Puerto Vallarta’s malecon. Heading south along the malecon through the Centro area, everything becomes a bit more touristy. The malecon is a well-maintained, wide walking path past shops, restaurants, statues, and street performers. It is my favorite malecon so far, and one of the places I enjoyed walking the most in the city.

Xiutla dancers

At the south end of the malecon is the Romantic Zone. This area feels like the “old part of town” with narrow cobblestone streets. There is also a central square (with parking underneath) where we enjoyed some dance performances by the local Xiutla dancers on two separate evenings. With all of the activity towards the south end of the city, we would probably look for a condo in one of these suburbs if we were to return.

We ate a wide range of food in Puerto Vallarta. In addition to the typical Mexican food and seafood, we ate at a Peruvian restaurant, Spanish tapas restaurant, sports bar, and a couple of micro-breweries. As before, many of the restaurants were based on recommendations in local Facebook groups, but I have gotten more comfortable picking places based upon reviews in Google Maps – typically looking for ratings above 4.5, or at least above 4.0, and with 100+ reviews. Realistically though, I think you could wander into almost any place within a few blocks of the water and be pleased with your meal. Our cost per meal was all over the place; there’s just a wide range of restaurants to choose from, plus the beach-front restaurants in the Puerto Vallarta area tend to charge for their umbrellas and chairs. For local restaurants our meals averaged $15-$20 (total for 2 + drinks). But our splurges at the microbreweries and beach restaurants were often up to $40-$50, and the tapas restaurant came in at $78! For an overall average, we spent about $33 on the days we ate out and another $8/day on groceries for the month.

Puro Peru peruvian food

El Jacalito - seafood platter

We explored a number of other towns during our stay. North along the coast, we checked out Boca de Tomates, Bucerias, Punta de Mita, Sayulita, and Rincon de Guayabitos. Each of these had their own pros and cons. Boca de Tomates is a simple grouping of beach huts with no real infrastructure. The area was nice and quiet and the food was good, but I hear they will be developing this area with hotels in the coming year or so. Bucerias is close enough to Puerto Vallarta that there is heavy traffic and a fair amount of people. That said, it was slower and laid back on the beach, but with some good places to eat nearby. Punta de Mita is a tiny community at the end of a peninsula. Easy to find a place to eat and to take a quiet walk along the coast. Sayulita is a very busy hippie surf town up the coast. The beach was more crowded than we expected and the beachfront places charge premium prices for their chairs and umbrellas. Rincon de Guayabitos was small, easy to get around, and surprisingly busy on the beach. To the south of Puerto Vallarta, we explored Mismaloya and Boca de Tomatlán. Both are very small but worthwhile places to spend a day at the beach. With all of these beach destinations, we ended up splurging $120 for two nice beach chairs and a large umbrella at Costco.

We also travelled up into the mountains to see three “Pueblos Magicos” – towns designated by the Mexican government for maintaining some historic components and deserving of tourism. Talpa de Allende was a nice small town, and we probably saw all that it has for tourists. Mascota is smaller, and again with limited tourist attractions, though we only stayed for a short time as it seemed that the town centro and market had both already shut down for the day. There is supposed to be a scenic loop to drive north of town, which would be a good reason to return. San Sebastian del Oeste was the last and smallest of the three. This town is definitely centered around tourism and since we did not have much time there, it would be fun to return and explore for a couple of days.

Campamento Tortuguero release

Some other touristy things we did included taking a pirate ship tour (pirate show + snorkeling + 2 hours on a beach + lunch), visiting an artisan chocolate maker to make our own chocolate from roasted cocoa beans, releasing turtle hatchlings, visiting a local botanical garden, watching some live music, taking in some native dancing, and hiking at a few locations along the coast. With all of those tours and destinations, and living inland from the coast, we did a fair amount of driving. We looked at using Uber in town, but the rates were around $10 one-way, so we opted to drive and pay for parking instead. Puerto Vallarta is a busy city, with constant traffic, especially on the 2-lane roads near our condo. One difference in Puerto Vallarta – left turn lanes are provided, but they’re on the right side of the through-traffic, i.e., get in the right lane to turn left. I had read about this before the visit, so I knew what to expect, but it still took a bit to get used to it.

Driving means buying gas, which was a bit different in Puerto Vallarta vs. everywhere else we've been. Typically, we pay with cash to avoid credit card theft. Because all of the gas stations are full service, the simplest way to do this to buy a fixed amount to avoid needing to make change. So, we let the tank get to about half, and then there's a process that starts with asking for 500 pesos of "verde" (approx. $25 of the regular grade, not premium). The attendant repeats the request back, enters 500 on a keypad on the pump, and says "todo ceros" so that I can confirm that the pump has in fact been reset to start at zero. The attendant pumps the gas, often cleaning the windows while we wait. Once complete, the attendant collects the 500 pesos, and I add 20 pesos for a tip. But Puerto Vallarta is different because it has a Costco - we can use our Costco credit card, and I pump the gas myself just like in the U.S. It should feel like more work, but it actually feels easier, we get a completely full tank every time, and I even get my receipt texted to my U.S.-based cell phone!

There are definitely a large number of expats in Puerto Vallarta. It’s a touristy city and we saw a lot of foreigners, especially on the days we were near the ocean. By far, the majority of the tourists were Mexican, but as far as expats go, it felt like the dominant group was Canadians, followed by Americans, then a mix of Europeans. Many of the restaurants and shops catered to the international crowd, including menus in English, and waitstaff speaking English. We also found a Facebook group with recurring meetups and went to one early in our visit. It was nice to talk with people who had relocated to the area, but we didn’t attend later meetups because most of the people were 1) permanently relocating to Puerto Vallarta and 2) significantly older.

We enjoyed our time in Puerto Vallarta, but wish we had been located closer to the action in town and closer to the beach. We don’t regret supporting our previous Airbnb host, but would look for a rental in a different part of the city if/when we return. We would rank our visit to Puerto Vallarta below our stay in Mazatlán, but would like to spend more time there, closer to the city, to make a better comparison.