How to plan a Puerto Vallarta trip using only local businesses
Five days on Banderas Bay, booked entirely with people we know: where to sleep, who takes you out on the water, who cooks, who fixes your back afterwards.
Every big travel site will sell you Puerto Vallarta as a package: flight, resort, two excursions from a laminated menu. It works, and there is nothing wrong with it. But the bay is a real place with real people running real businesses, and if you book with them directly you get a better trip, a better price and a story worth telling. This is how we would do it, using only names from our own directory.
Before you go: read the locals
Start with Visita Vallarta, the English-language guide we maintain from here. It covers every beach on the bay, the neighborhoods, what a taxi should cost and which months bring whales. If you prefer rankings, Top 10 Vallarta has lists for restaurants, bars, beaches and tours, plus a community wall where residents post their own picks. Read both before you book anything, and you will already know more than most people who have been here five times.
Day 0: where to sleep
Two honest options. If you want the all-inclusive experience, do not guess: All Inclusive Puerto Vallarta compares all 49 resorts on the bay by zone, so you know whether you are landing in the Hotel Zone, the Marina, Nuevo Vallarta or the south shore, and what that actually means for your week.
If you would rather have a kitchen and a local host, PV Rents manages condos for owners who live abroad, which means a real person in Vallarta answers the phone when the water heater acts up. Old Town (Zona Romántica) puts you within walking distance of everything in this article; the Marina is quieter and closer to the boats.
Day 1: the Malecón, slowly
Do nothing ambitious on the first day. Walk the Malecón from the Hotel Rosita to the pier at Los Muertos, stop at the sculptures, eat something on the sand and watch the sun go into the Pacific at about 7 p.m. in winter. Dinner should be the one reservation you make in advance: Barcelona Tapas, on a rooftop above the bay, has been the most romantic table in town since 2000, and it is the restaurant we send every anniversary couple to.
Day 2: on the water
The bay is the whole point of Puerto Vallarta, and a private boat is cheaper than most people assume when it is booked by the hour and not through a hotel desk. Ol' Salty's Ranch runs three boats out of the Nuevo Vallarta marina with real prices published online; a morning to the Marietas Islands or a sunset run along the south shore are the two classics. If fishing is the goal, Fish and Tours is the marketplace where the sport fishing captains of Marina Vallarta list their charters, from four-hour inshore trips to full days chasing marlin.
Between December and March, whichever boat you choose, you will see humpback whales. Nobody needs to sell you a separate whale-watching tour.
Day 3: the mountains behind the beach
Forty minutes inland, the Sierra Madre starts, and it is a different country. Rancho Capomo is a working ranch near Las Palmas that runs horseback rides, ATV routes and ziplines through the foothills, with a river to swim in and a real ranch lunch afterwards. It is the tour we recommend to families and to anyone who thinks Vallarta is only a beach.
Surfers should instead cross into Nayarit: Vallarta Surf teaches beginners at Sayulita and takes intermediates to the point breaks at Punta Mita. They will tell you honestly which day has waves.
Day 4: eat like you live here
Skip the restaurant hunt for one night and bring the restaurant to you. PVR Private Chef cooks in your villa or condo, shops the market that morning and leaves the kitchen cleaner than they found it. It costs about what a good dinner out costs for a group, and there is no taxi home.
Dessert, or breakfast, or a birthday: Pastelería Pavlova is the best bakery in Vallarta by a distance that is not close. Order on WhatsApp; they deliver across the bay.
Day 5: repair
You have been on a horse, a boat and a surfboard. Day Spa Vallarta is our bilingual directory of the spas in town, from hotel spas to small neighborhood studios, with a plain-language guide to the aesthetic treatments people increasingly fly here for. Pick one near your hotel, book the morning, and fly home in the afternoon feeling like you live here.
What this trip costs
Booked directly, five days done this way costs less than the same five days bought as a package with the same activities, and every peso stays in Vallarta with a business that will remember you next year. That is the whole idea behind this site.
