Puerto Vallarta

Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport is 8km north of the Old Town. Check in and walk directly to the Malecon — Puerto Vallarta's beachfront promenade, 2km of seafront sculpture, bars, and restaurants that is the social heartbeat of the city. The sculptures along the Malecon — Manuel Felguerez, Alejandro Colunga, and Ramiz Barquet have created an outdoor sculpture gallery of genuine quality — are best experienced at sunset when the Pacific light turns the bronze and steel extraordinary colors. The Los Muertos Beach at the south end of the Malecon is where Puerto Vallarta's most famous beach scene plays out: beach clubs, volleyball, and the specific warmth of Banderas Bay's water. First dinner at Coco's Kitchen in Emiliano Zapata neighborhood for exceptional traditional Jalisco food.

Puerto Vallarta's Old Town (Centro) is built around the Parroquia de Nuéstra Señora de Guadalupe — the parish church whose distinctive baroque tower crowned with a crown that fell in the 1995 earthquake and was replaced with a replica is the city's most recognizable landmark. The Gringo Gulch neighborhood above the church is where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had their houses connected by a bridge above the street; Taylor's rose-pink Casa Kimberly is now a boutique hotel open for tours. The Romantic Zone (Emiliano Zapata neighborhood) south of the Olas Altas beach is the Old Town's most bohemian quarter: good restaurants, the Lazaro Cardenas Park morning market, and the LGBTQ+ friendly beach strip at Blue Chairs. The morning mercado on the Olas Altas street has excellent local food for breakfast: fresh juices, chilaquiles, and huaraches.

Yelapa, 45 minutes south of Puerto Vallarta by water taxi (no road access), is a fishing village at the mouth of a jungle river where the Sierra Madre meets Banderas Bay. The village has no cars and the beach is backed by the extraordinary green wall of the jungle. Yelapa Waterfall — a 25-foot cascade accessible by a 30-minute trail through the jungle from the beach — is one of the area's most beautiful natural features. The village women's pie cooperative (the Yelapa Pie Ladies) are famous for their fresh-baked pie — wandering vendors carry pies through the water to your boat and through the beach bars selling slices of coconut cream, Key lime, and banana cream in a tradition that has persisted for decades. Snorkeling off the headland at Los Arcos Marine National Park on the way back — enormous granite sea arches with extraordinary marine diversity.

Banderas Bay is one of Mexico's most important humpback whale nurseries —kat December through March, hundreds of humpbacks calve and nurse their young in the protected deep waters of the bay, with the Sierra Madre peaks visible in the background. Boat tours typically observe multiple whales at close range and the breaching, tail-slapping, and pectoral fin waving are spectacular. The Puerto Vallarta whale watching tour operators are extremely professional and adhere to responsible wildlife tourism standards. Beyond whales, the bay has a permanent dolphin population (spinner dolphins) and the extraordinary diversity of tropical fish and sea turtles accessible by snorkeling at the Marietas Islands — an uninhabited volcanic archipelago 30km offshore, a UNESCO protected biosphere reserve with the famous Hidden Beach (Playa del Amor, accessible only by swimming through a short tunnel).

Drive north of Puerto Vallarta along the Riviera Nayarit — a stretch of Pacific coastline in the state of Nayarit that has some of Mexico's most beautiful and least developed beaches. Sayulita (30 minutes north) is a surf town of extraordinary charm: colorful painted buildings, a town square lined with excellent restaurants and juice bars, and a left-hand point break that is one of Mexico's most accessible surfing waves. The Sayulita market and the excellent Todo's Tacos street stand are highlights. San Francisco (San Pancho), 10km further north, is smaller, quieter, and has a wild Pacific beach of extraordinary beauty. The Surfing Madonna mosaic in San Pancho's town square is one of Nayarit's most famous works of folk art. Return to Puerto Vallarta via the coastal road through Punta de Mita for the view back over the entire bay.

The Sierra Madre mountains directly behind Puerto Vallarta rise to 2,000 meters and the jungle-covered slopes are perfect for canopy zip-line adventures. Los Veranos Canopy Tours and Vallarta Adventures both operate in the Sierra Madre with multi-stage zip lines above the tropical canopy, river swimming, and rappelling into jungle pools that are genuinely extraordinary. The jungle tours pass through primary tropical dry forest and tropical wet forest, with extraordinary biodiversity including coati, iguana, and tropical birds. A gentler alternative is the Botanical Garden of Puerto Vallarta (8km south of the city in the jungle) — one of the finest tropical botanical gardens in Mexico, with a spectacular orchid collection, a river for swimming, and outstanding views over the Pacific from the hilltop cafe.

Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Airport connects to most US cities directly and to Mexico City for international connections. A final Old Town morning: the Mercado Municipal for the finest selection of fresh tropical fruit (mamey, guanabana, pitaya) in Mexico, then coffee and a concha (the traditional Mexican sweet bread) at the Cafe de Artistas courtyard. Buy artisan blue talavera pottery from Oaxacan and Jalisco artisans at the Malecon boutiques, Nayarit handmade textiles in huipil embroidery patterns, and a bottle of raícilla (the Jalisco artisanal spirit made from the lechuguilla agave, the local precursor to mezcal) from a specialist liquor shop on the Malecon. Puerto Vallarta is the most romantic beach city in Mexico and the combination of cobblestone colonial history, Pacific beach life, and jungle mountains creates a honeymoon of exceptional completeness.