How to get all over in Puerto Vallarta

With its eminently walkable downtown, practical journey-hailing provider and an effective bus community, receiving around the at any time-expanding Pacific coastline resort town of Puerto Vallarta has never been less difficult. Even when venturing out on working day excursions to remote jungle-backed seashores you will have no problem finding boats to zip you throughout the sprawling Banderas Bay. Here’s how to navigate Puerto Vallarta and its environs. 

The water taxis of Los Muertos Pier, Puerto Vallarta
The water taxis of Los Muertos Pier, Puerto Vallarta © Hugo de Jesus Hernandez Rivera / Getty

Boat

To go to a string of sublime shorelines that grace Vallarta’s southern shore, board a h2o taxi departing from the Playa de los Muertos pier in downtown’s Zona Romántica. The motorboats make stops at Playa Las Ánimas (25 minutes), Quimixto (40 minutes) and Yelapa (55 minutes) with the spherical-trip fare costing M$380. The boats run at least 4 occasions daily and generally extra commonly throughout large season. For departure periods, inquire at the water taxi office in front of the pier. Drinking water taxis in Boca de Tomatlán, a fishing city about 16km (10 miles) south of downtown, also go to the southern beach locations and do so on a a lot more frequent foundation. 

You can also constitution private motorboats, sailboats and yachts. Tour operators these types of as Vallarta Adventures run diving and snorkeling expeditions to emblematic web-sites such as the wildlife-loaded Islas Marietas and Los Arcos National Maritime Park.

A public bus driving through the downtown district of Puerto Vallarta
A community bus driving via the downtown district of Puerto Vallarta © Marilyn Nieves / Getty

Bus

Buses are an economical and efficient transportation selection to attain neighborhoods further than the metropolis heart. They function from 5am to 11pm on most routes, and value M$10. Plaza Lázaro Cárdenas around Playa Olas Altas is a main departure hub. Northbound regional buses quit on Insurgentes close to the corner of Madero. Marked ‘Aeropuerto,’ ‘Hotelera,’ ‘Mojoneras’ and ‘Juntas,’ they pass via the town heading north to the airport and Marina Vallarta the ‘Mojoneras’ bus also stops at Puerto Vallarta’s extensive-distance bus terminal.

White-and-orange ‘Boca de Tomatlán’ buses (M$10) head south along the coastal highway via Mismaloya (20 minutes) to Boca de Tomatlán (30 minutes). They depart from the corner of Badillo and Constitución each 15 minutes. To visit the pretty Vallarta Botanical Gardens, hop on an ‘El Tuito’ bus (M$35) at the corner of Carranza and Aguacate.

Buses to Sayulita and San Francisco (M$50, 1 hour) depart regularly from a cease in entrance of Walmart, across from the cruise ship terminal. They also end beneath a pedestrian bridge just outside the airport. 

San Sebastian del Oeste, Mexico
San Sebastian del Oeste is a terrific working day journey from Puerto Vallarta, most effortlessly accessed from a rental car © KalervoK / Getty

Auto and scooter

Rental automobiles can be fairly expensive in Puerto Vallarta but you cannot defeat the convenience and comfort, specially when traveling with little ones. They’re particularly beneficial for day trips to Punta de Mita, Sayulita and San Francisco (aka San Pancho), a collection of laid-back again surf cities about an hour north of Vallarta in the neighboring point out of Nayarit. Vehicle rentals will also provide you nicely for a mountain getaway to the close by mining town of San Sebastián del Oeste, as they permit you to make stops along a state road dotted with family members-run bakeries and raicilla (a distilled agave drink) distilleries.

Rental providers have workplaces in and all over the airport, quite a few alongside Avenida Francisco Medina Ascencio. Rental charges for an financial state vehicle with legal responsibility protection array from M$1200 to M$1600 for every day, based on the time of yr. Scooters or motorbikes (M$1000 for every day) are constantly enjoyment for having all over city, climate allowing.

A taxi in Puero Vallarta, Mexico
A taxi in Puero Vallarta, Mexico © Bentfotos / Shutterstock

Taxi and rideshare

At any time due to the fact Uber came to city several people have uncovered the journey-hailing service preferable to taxis for the reason that there is no haggling included in excess of fares. Uber is permitted to do airport fall-offs but prohibited from picking up arriving passengers, having said that, you can often exit the airport by means of a pedestrian bridge and get an Uber auto from the road. 

Taxi fares are set by zones but some cabbies may well even now test to overcharge. You really should normally agree on a rate just before getting in a taxi and when negotiating maintain in intellect that motorists typically do not anticipate strategies. A regular excursion from downtown to the Zona Hotelera and Marina Vallarta runs about M$100 to M$120, though a ride to the airport or extended-distance bus terminal fees about M$200. If you are heading south, be expecting to fork out about M$150 to M$200 to Mismaloya or Boca de Tomatlán and all around M$450 to the Vallarta Botanical Back garden. Shorter excursions in and all around the Centro start at M$50. There are quite a few downtown taxi stands, together with types at Insurgentes and Cárdenas, Rodríguez and Matamoros and Parque Lázaro Cárdenas. It is usually deemed safe and sound to hail road cabs in Puerto Vallarta.

Downtown Puerto Vallarta
Downtown Puerto Vallarta © Bentfotos / Shutterstock

Walking

Downtown Vallarta’s charming cobbled streets and scenic hillside backstreets are tailor-made for wandering. And with a mile-prolonged boardwalk dotted with general public sculptures, a visitors-no cost river wander and remarkably addictive avenue food virtually almost everywhere you switch, you can get by just wonderful in the town heart without having at any time environment foot in a bus or cab. Up in the hills, you can roam the aged stomping grounds of Hollywood celebrities in Gringo Gulch or choose in a superb sunset from La Cruz del Cerro lookout place.  

Even from Vallarta’s somewhat eradicated hillside lodges, downtown’s beach locations are conveniently in going for walks length. If you’re up for discovering the serene southern coast on foot, a jungle trail from Boca de Tomatlán to Playa Quimixto qualified prospects to a series of beautiful coves and palm-fringed seashores.

Obtainable transportation in Puerto Vallarta

A rising variety of lodges, dining places, beach locations and general public spaces present wheelchair obtain in Puerto Vallarta. Downtown’s hilly and uneven cobbled streets can prove hard to navigate for men and women with disabilities and several intersections in the town centre have no streetlights or crosswalks. Some local buses working along major routes from the airport to the city middle are geared up with wheelchair lifts. 

Nevertheless personal carry vans are in brief source, Seaside Crossers has numerous automobiles available for tours and transportation, furthermore it rents amphibious seashore wheelchairs and other mobility devices. H2o taxis will gladly improvise to transportation disabled travellers to Vallarta’s distant coastal villages, these as Yelapa and Quimixto, but neither the beach locations nor the motorboats have accessibility options. You’d be substantially better off at Playa Palmares, a Blue Flag-specified seashore with wheelchair ramps and parking. 

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