Where the Sierra Madre meets the Pacific — Puerto Vallarta's El Centro colonial neighbourhood climbs cobblestoned streets from the Malecón oceanfront boardwalk into a hillside village of terracotta roofs and bougainvillea, the Zona Romántica's restaurant and gallery scene rivals San Miguel de Allende for quality in a beach setting, humpback whales arrive every November to give birth in the sheltered Banderas Bay (the largest natural bay in Mexico), and the Los Arcos National Park's granite pinnacles just south of the city are Mexico's most accessible open-water snorkelling site
Puerto Vallarta (250,000 city; metro Riviera Nayarit 600,000) is a mid-sized Pacific coast resort city in Jalisco state — distinct from the mass-tourism corridor further north (Cancún, Los Cabos) by its preserved historic centre, authentic arts scene, and walkable neighbourhoods. The city grew from a fishing village to an international resort after John Huston filmed 'The Night of the Iguana' here in 1963, bringing Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton — whose off-screen love affair made the international tabloids and put Puerto Vallarta on the map simultaneously. Banderas Bay (the largest natu…
Puerto Vallarta was a small Huichol and Aztec-influenced fishing settlement (originally called Las Peñas, population 600 in 1900) before the Jalisco state government formally established it as a municipality in 1918, renamed for Ignacio L. Vallarta (a Jalisco governor and Supreme Court justice). The city remained isolated — no road access from Guadalajara until the 1960s — when John Huston's 1963 film production 'The Night of the Iguana' (based on Tennessee Williams's play, starring Richard Burton) brought Hollywood to the bay. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's famously public extramarita…