The first evening
Start with the food.
Vallarta is a food town first. The cantinas, the taco crawls, the tequila. The walking tour most travellers take the night they arrive.
The classics
Puerto Vallarta's Most Popular Day Tours
Marietas Hidden Beach, Los Arcos snorkel, Yelapa waterfall, Sierra Madre ATV. The trips most travellers come to PV for.
Three worlds, one bay
The town. The bay. The Sierra Madre behind.
Puerto Vallarta sits at a hinge where three geographies meet — a walkable colonial town with the best food on this coast, a wide curved bay full of marine sanctuary, and the Sierra Madre rising straight from the water behind the city. Each is its own kind of day.
The Town
Cobblestones, taquerías, the cantina hour.Vallarta Food Tours through the Centro and the Romantic Zone. Mezcal cocktails after dark, chocolate workshops by day, the night markets along the Malecón. The first evening usually starts here.
Explore The Town →The Bay
Marietas, Los Arcos, the boat days.Hidden Beach at the Marietas. Snorkel through the granite arches of Los Arcos. Sail across Banderas Bay at sunset. Whale watching from December to March, dolphins year-round.
Explore The Bay →The Sierra
Mountains, mezcal villages, the jungle behind.Sierra Madre ATV trails, horseback rides into the cloud forest, the colonial cobblestones of San Sebastián del Oeste. The mountains rise straight from the bay behind the city.
Explore The Sierra →Only on Banderas Bay
Three days you can only have here.
Snorkel tours and waterfall hikes are everywhere. These three aren’t. A volcanic-crater beach inside an island. A national marine park of sea arches. A boat-only fishing village with a jungle waterfall. All on the same bay.
Hidden Beach
Playa del Amor
A volcanic crater collapsed in the Marietas Islands and left a sand-floored beach hidden inside the rock. The roof is half-open to the sky — you swim through a sea-level tunnel to reach it. The whole archipelago is a federally protected marine sanctuary; visitor permits are capped at 116 a day.
- 1 Marietas Islands Snorkel Tour & Hidden Beach
- 2 Los Arcos 5 islands Snorkeling Cliff Jumping and Hidden Beach
- 3 Marietas Islands snorkeling & Hidden beach (w/ restrictions)
Marine park
Los Arcos
Four granite islets rising from Banderas Bay, tunnelled through by the surf into sea arches you can swim under. National Marine Park since 1984. Manta rays glide below, parrotfish in clouds, the cliffs above stacked with frigate birds and brown boobies.
- 1 Boat and Snorkel Tour to 5 Islands of Los Arcos
- 2 Bioluminescence & sunset local boat tour to Los Arcos Sanctuary
- 3 Puerto Vallarta: Los Arcos Islands Boat Tour and Snorkeling
Boat only
Yelapa
Where the road south of Vallarta ends. Yelapa is a fishing village reachable only by water from Boca de Tomatlán. Cobblestones, palm-roofed palapas, a forty-metre waterfall a half-hour’s hike up the river. No cars in the village — donkeys still do the moving.
- 1 Mega Yacht ALL INCLUSIVE Yelapa Waterfall & Snorkeling Adventure
- 2 Puerto Vallarta: Yelapa Mega Yacht Cruise
- 3 Yelapa and Majahuitas Snorkeling Cruise in Puerto Vallarta All Inclusive
By place
Pick a corner of the bay.
Puerto Vallarta for the food and the Malecón. Marietas for the Hidden Beach. Yelapa for the boat day. Sayulita for the surf-town hour. San Sebastián for the mountain mezcal. The Sierra Madre for the day on horseback.
By activity
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
Boat if you want the bay. Snorkel if you want the marine park. ATV if you want the dust. Horseback if you want the Sierra. Tequila, tacos, whales or a full sunset sail — pick the pace.
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