Updated October 2020

Puerto Vallarta and tourism

Long before I lived in San Diego in the late 80’s, Puerto Vallarta was already synonymous with the ideal Mexican vacation. Friends of mine who already lived blocks, not miles, from Pacific Beach and the cliffs of La Jolla would go to Puerto Vallarta for vacation (one just can’t have too much sand, sun and ceviche).

Puerto Vallarta is a city of about 300,000 people with a large permanent expat population and many social groups, most of whom live in the areas Old Town, Marina Vallarta, Fluvial Vallarta and 5 de Decembre. It’s easy to get by without Spanish here, given that such a big percentage of the population needs to speak English for their work.

Pictures promoting Puerto Vallarta show upscale restaurants, art walks and zip-lining through the jungle, reinforcing the impression of one colossal resort, a gigantic Mexican version of the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center in Nashville, an all-inclusive resort enclosed under a bio-dome. Puerta Vallarta is a popular beach destination for Mexican nationals as well as tourists from the U.S. and Canada. It ranks particularly high for restaurant dining and shopping in comparison to say, Mazatlán, again a reflection of it’s greater focus on the needs of tourists.

Expat friends who know Puerto Vallarta well come back describing neighborhoods as increasingly posh due to the influx of expats, especially homesteaders from the gay community (Puerto Vallarta has been described as Mexico’s San Francisco) and their accompanying reputation for knowing how to raise property values. As my Mexican friends in Mazatlán put it (which makes me laugh every time), Puerto Vallarta is bien nice (really nice). Unlike Mazatlán, where I live, tourism is its main industry. All this led me to question its Mexican authenticity.

I have been to Puerto Vallarta several times and stayed at neighboring Sayulit0 another trip. I could never shake the mental images that looked nothing like what I know about Mexico, that Puerto Vallarta was just one big resort, typified by its sleek colonial Old Town in the center of the city. I decided to talk to Katie O”Grady, a blogger who lives in Puerto Vallarta, about how she came to choose it and whether you could still find real Mexico there.

Is Puerto Vallarta still “Mexican”?

Katie, her husband and their twin redheads live outside Puerto Vallarta proper in Nayarit, a clear indication that what she and her husband sought for their young family was not the protection of an expat enclave but rather the Mexico I experience in Mazatlán, a Mexico in love with the moment.

The couple moved to Mexico believing that the bond common between children and their families in Mexico, a bond they wished to duplicate, is not created by two people working 11-hour days and propping children on the couch with their smartphones while the exhausted parents recover from a long commute, try to pull a dinner together and pass out out exhausted at the end of day.

Having the good fortune of Spanish skills from her teaching career and a husband who could retire at 50 from his career as a fireman, the two decided they still had the lung capacity to blow more life into their family’s future by learning to savor the slow richness of life south of the border.

Katie O’Grady’s experiences raising her family, as described in her blog Los O’Grady’s in Mexico, jibe with the Mexico I know; the Mexico where family members really do like each other, the Mexico where teenagers are perfectly happy being towed around by their mothers on social calls, and where grandmothers, young parents, aunts and babies would rather spend their time together, even on a Saturday night, than go anywhere else. It’s this sentiment, more than its bars, beach and shopping, that keeps Puerto Vallarta a truly Mexican city.

Related Links:

YouTube video of neighborhoods to consider in Puerto Vallarta.

British blogger offers an inside look at things to do in Puerto Vallarta

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About the author:

Kerry Baker is the author of three books. If Only I Had a Place is your complete guide to renting luxuriously in Mexico for less. Renting in Mexico has both risk and opportunities. Learn how to best position yourself for the most rewarding expat life, and how where you live makes all the difference. Her third book is The Mexico Solution: Saving your money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico. Most recently she wrote The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipe That Translate in Mexico. In Mexico, you must cook to eat healthy. These 150 plus recipes will show you how in a foreign culture.