Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
We leave Puerto Vallarta in three days, after spending just over seven weeks here across three different Airbnbs. We definitely prefer Puerto Vallarta over Sayulita for our slow travel lifestyle. But will we ever come back for a winter?
Puerto Vallarta is an authentic Mexican tourist town. Sounds like a contradiction, but somehow here it works. It is full of American, Canadian, and Mexican tourists, but still authentic enough that the streets are full of taco stands, tiendas, roosters, and iguanas. It is a Canadian and American expat/snow bird hot spot, and there were times that we had to remind ourselves that we were actually in Mexico because so many people looked like us! That said, the locals are welcoming and kind and we never detected any hint of the anti-tourism sentiment that we see in some over-touristed cities in Europe.
Our airbnbs were focused on the south side of the city. We stayed in three neighborhoods: Zona Romantica (Old Town), Gringo Gulch/Centro, and 5 de Diciembre. Further north you’ll find the Hotel Zone, where many of the all-inclusive resorts are, and the Marina district, where the cruise ship ports are.
Stretching along the beach from Zona Romantica to 5 de Diciembre is the Malecon. We really enjoyed walking along the Malecon daily. It is a wide paved boardwalk right on the water. The city has done a great job of installing art sculptures which provides a great backdrop for pictures of the Bay of Banderas. Walking has definitely been better here than in Sayulita, but the hills are more intense! My Fitness app on my Apple Watch is wondering what in the world is going on. From our current Airbnb, it is 12 flights of stairs to get down to the city and then back up coming home!
Our first Airbnb was by far the nicest and the largest. It was also definitely the most expensive! We only stayed 10 days, but it would have been about $5000 USD for a month. We’ve certainly learned here in Puerto Vallarta that you get what you pay for. Taxes on Airbnbs in Mexico are outrageously expensive (20-25% above list price), on top of already pricey accommodations. If you still think that Mexico is a cheap travel destination, it definitely isn’t! In fact we paid more for accommodations here than we will anywhere else this year except London. The good condos are also booked way in advance. November - March is the tourist season here, and we found that the nicest, most affordable properties are booked out years in advance. Weather in paradise comes with a price! If you want to come in the off season you’ll get your pick if you can survive the heat and humidity!
Our first Airbnb was more of a vacation for us, as our kids came down to celebrate Christmas with us! We had two bedrooms, a fully stocked kitchen, living room, dining room, a balcony with sunset views, and a community pool! The only downside was issues with the hot water, and after a few days of cold showers we realized that we had to run the kitchen sink the entire time we were showering in order to have hot water! Infrastructure challenges were common our entire stay in Puerto Vallarta. In every place we stayed we had power outages lasting up to 24 hours, internet outages, and lack of consistent hot water.
We loved having the boys here. We kept our family tradition of having pizza on Christmas Eve when we dined at Los Muertos Brewing. Christmas Day we watched the Chiefs beat the Raiders at Gusto’s Lounge, a local Chiefs dive bar who’s owner used to own a bar in Kansas City! It was fun to watch the Chiefs play with a room full of KC fans. We had a fabulous Christmas dinner at El Palomar de los Gonzalez and watched the sun set over the bay. That week we also had a tequila tasting at Vallarta Tequila Tastings. We chose the Tequila Food Pairing which had 4 great courses paired with different tequilas. Not being big tequila drinkers, it was a great experience. We didn’t realize that to be considered tequila, it had to be made here in the state of Jalisco, and only from blue agave. We got to try silver tequila, reposado, anejo, and viejo anejo. Surprisingly, we actually enjoyed it! Much better than the Jose Cuervo shots of our college days!
We also had a great beach day. Similar to Sayulita and San Pancho, there are restaurants lining the beach that have loungers on the sand with umbrellas. Here, as long as you keep ordering drinks and/or food, there is no charge to stay as long as you’d like. We took full advantage! The beaches here aren’t very wide, particularly at high tide, and its obviously the biggest attaction here, so the crowds reflected that.
We moved to our second Airbnb on New Years Day after the kids flew back to the US. No pictures of this one! Think small, dark, worn, and depressing. It was relatively inexpensive comparatively, and now we know why! We were thankful we only had two weeks here, and were ready to move on when the time came!
Other than work, we filled our days with long walks and eating dinners out. One thing we absolutely love about Mexico is the color. From the trees that are perpetually green, to the flowers that are always in bloom, to the 7pm sunsets in January, to the vibrant street art…it has been good for the soul. Normally Eric and I both struggle through the dark, cold days of winter. This year, with daily doses of color and Vitamin D from the sun, we’ve both felt the difference.
We made it a point to see the ocean every day, and as we got further into January the whales arrived! Humpback whales arrive in Puerto Vallarta in December and stay through March as part of their migration north. We’ve seen whales from the Malecon and from our balcony pretty much daily, whether it is a spray from a blowhole, a tail flop, or a full breach. It is truly awe inspiring. Mother Nature is good! We have loved being by the water.
South of Zona Romantica is Conchas Chinas, where we hiked one Saturday
Our final Airbnb has been something totally new to us. It is open air! Our bedroom has louvered doors on two sides to close it off, and the bathroom is behind doors. Otherwise everything else is open to the south and is a giant covered terrace. Think of it as “glamping” without the glamour! We’ve never been outdoors this much in our entire lives! The condo is spacious, we have plenty of room so stretch out.
The pros: We get to see the ocean 24/7 including daily sunsets. We get our daily Vitamin D on lounge chairs. And there is no shortage of fresh air!
The cons: There is no hot water in the kitchen, so we have to fill up a bowl in the bathroom. But…in order to get hot water in the bathroom sink you first have to turn on the hot water in the shower. So doing dishes is a chore! We also are early risers, but there are condos above and below us that are also open air, so we feel that we need to be very quite until at least 7:30am to be considerate of the neighbors. Thankfully we don’t have mosquitos. We do have ants. Unfortunately, we also have a neighborhood coati (a Mexican racoon) that started visiting us nightly looking for food! This is our first (and not the last) time when we didn’t have a dryer in our unit, so we’ve become masters of the clothesline.
We are tired of tacos. That’s a good sign that we’re ready to move on to Europe! But we have found a couple of restaurants that we would highly recommend
Monzon Brewery: This is a great US style craft brewery with a welcoming bar and a good variety of craft brews
Burning Burrito and Tiki Bar: This is a fantastic family owned restaurant that serves up fresh food and hand crafted cocktails. Everything is made with fresh simple ingredients and they have great service.
El Punto San Pancho Pizza: The pizza restaurant we enjoyed in San Pancho has franchised to Puerto Vallarta! Great handmade sourdough pizza for $50 MXN ($2.50 USD)
Como Pizza: This great little pizza and pasta restaurant has the friendliest service, great pizza by the slice, made to order pasta, and affordable wine (note…broadly speaking all the wine in PV is from Chile or Argentina and is much more expensive than beer)
Don Chava: This is a small taco restaurant in Zona Romantica. Inexpensive, seating and easy to order!
We’ve been eating out once a day here, mostly for dinner as it has been hard to cook in this kitchen. At the places above, we can eat for $200-$600MXN total ($10-$30 USD) depending on if we have beer or wine. If you eat at any of the tourist restaurants along the Malecon or anything sit down with waiters, you’re looking at more like $800-$1200 MXN ($40-$60 USD) for two people. It’s still less than we spent when we went out to dinner in the US, but we also didn’t go out to eat every day in the US, so we’re chosing the less expensive places here.
So, what are our overall thoughts on Puerto Vallarta? Similar to San Pancho and Sayulita, it is a great vacation spot, especially December - February where the highs are in the low 80s and there is low humidity. To escape the US cold I would definitely recommend a week long vacation here! Puerto Vallarta would be great for a romantic couples get away, for a family destination, or for larger groups of friends.
But could we come back to live for several months at a time? For us, the answer is no. While there are so many things we have loved, its just not budget friendly from a rent perspective and the infrastructure isn’t good enough for us.
Next week we’ll recap our 13 week Mexican adventure and share our rating scale with you!