Puerto Vallarta is located on the Pacific Coast on one of the largest bays in the world. Banderas Bay measures 42 kilometers from north to south. The northernmost limit of the bay is at Punta Mita which is the end of the Sierra de Vallejo mountains and, to the south, the bay ends in Cabo Corrientes, part of the foothills of the Sierra del Cuale range.

The bay has been known since the XVI Century when Spanish soldiers, during the expeditions to Lower California (or island of pearls, as they called it, landed on the bay’s beaches in order to supply their ships with water, firewood and fresh food. There are many chronicles from that time that mention the beauty of the coastline, the fertility of the land and the safe harbors that the bay offered ships.

During the XVI Century, safe harbors all along the Pacific Coast were a vital necessity so that ships returning from the Philippines would have a place to find refuge in case of attack by pirates.

These harbors were also necessary during the long journeys, to and from the Orient so that ships could be repaired if necessary and crews could take on provisions.

One of the first to propose a settlement on Banderas Bay was Captain Pedro de Unamuno after the trip he made in 1587 from the Philippines.

Famous navigators like Sebastian Vizcaino, Lopez de Vicuna and Gonzalo de Francia more than once landed on these beaches and also proposed the establishment of a colony, but their petitions never received any attention.

It is known that a shipyard was built on the bay in 1644 and two ships were built for Bernardo Bernal de Pinadero that would be used in the colonization of Lower California.

In document and in ships logs dating from the XVIII Centuries, constant references are made to whaling ships and fishing boast that harbored in the bay. At the time, Banderas Bay was also known as Humpback Bay (Bahia de los Jorobados) because of the number humpback whales that were seen in the bay.

In the XIX Century, the site that is today Puerto Vallarta was used for the loading and unloading of supplies and materials for the mining companies that worked the mines in Cuale and San Sebastian. At that time the site was known as Las Peñas.

Around the middle of the XIX Century, Don Guadalupe Sánchez Torres, originally from Cihuatlán, Jalisco, began to make regular deliveries of salt in his small boat since the mines required large quantities for refining the silver. Don Guadalupe and his men built a small lean-to from tree trunks and palm leaves so that they would have a place to rest that was out of the sun while the sale was being loaded onto donkeys for transport to the mines.

Towards the end of 1851, Don Guadalupe decided to bring his family to Las Peñas de Santa Maria de Guadalupe because he arrived early in the morning hours of December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

With the arrival of new families, the village grew bit by bit and its economy began to change. While some families brought in salt, others began to devote themselves to agriculture or cattle raising.

It is also known that periodically French and German ships entered the bay in search of brazil wood, a very hard wood that was processed in Europe to obtain dyes. In Admiral George Dewey’s report to the U.S. Naval Hydrographic Office, he says "on the mouth of a small river called the Rio Real (Royal River) is located a small town called Las Peñas where the boats come to take on wood for dyes.

This same admiral, in 1874, aboard the ship Narragansett, made astronomical observations at Punta Mita, Tabo and at a place close to Los Muertos beach in order to establish the exact geographical position of each of these sites and to make a map of the coast.

In 1880, Las Peñas had a population of 1,500 inhabitants. New families from Cuale and San Sebastian came to settle in the port.

Five years later, on July 14, 1885, the port was opened to national maritime traffic and officially given the name of Las Peñas. On the 23rd of July, a Maritime Customs Office was established.

The following year on October 31, 1886 the town was given official political and judicial standing when decree No. 210 was passed by the State Congress.

During the last decade of the XIX Century and the first of XX Century, Las Peñas gradually progressed thanks to the combined efforts of the people and the enthusiasm of Don Guadalupe.

In March 1914, the first post office was opened and in September of the same year a telegraph was installed.

On May 31, 1918, by Congressional decree No. 1889, the port was elevated to a municipality and the name was changed to Puerto Vallarta in memory of the illustrious lawyer and Governor of Jalisco, Don Ignacio L. Vallarta.

In 1925 when the Montgomery Fruit Company purchased about 70,000 acres in near-by Ixtapa, Vallarta began to boom due to the surplus of jobs available on the newly-opened banana plantations. They also built a railway to transport the bananas from Ixtapa to El Salado estuary where they were loaded onto ships to carry them to the United States.

This operation ended in 1935 when the Montgomery Fruit Company had to leave Mexico because of the new agrarian law that had just come into effect. Other products were raised in the area such as corn, beans, tobacco and small coconuts used for their oil, were shipped to the interior to be used in the national market.

In about 1930, a few national and foreign tourist began to come o Puerto Vallarta, returning year after year, to spend their vacation enjoying the tranquility and great natural beauty of the port. Slowly word began to spread and each year more tourists came.

In 1951, Puerto Vallarta became internationally known when it celebrated the centennial of its founding. Mexican warships were sent from Acapulco to celebrate the occasion with a 21-gun salute in the bay. A relic of the True Cross was brought to Vallarta as well on this occasion and Sra. Margarita Mantecon de Garza wrote the first history of Puerto Vallarta.

The event that opened wide the doors to progress, popularity and fame was the filming of the movie "Night of the Iguana" in Puerto Vallarta. Thousands of visitors came, anxious to see the places that appeared in the movie and hopeful of catching a glimpse of some of the movie stars.

From then on, thanks to the publicity the movie gave Vallarta, and also to the improved means of transportation, the town grew by leaps and bounds. The town was now accessible by road and by air. First class hotels were built. Agriculture, which until now had been the principal source of income, took a back seat to tourism.

Things have changed since the first airplane landed here in 1931. Today Puerto Vallarta has hotels that range from small, economical inns to magnificent luxury hotels. Important national and international airline companies provide services that connect Vallarta to the principal cities of the U.S. and Europe. Luxury cruise ships dock here on a daily basis and a good highway connects the town to Tepic, Guadalajara and the rest of the country.

The population growth has been notable. It has gone from 12,500 in 1964 to 300,000 or more in 2000. There is a large foreign colony, primarily Americans and Canadians, that live here on a permanent or semi-permanent basis and that are active participants in community life.

Visitors to Puerto Vallarta will find the climate all year around. The average temperature in 80 degrees F., and except for the rainy season that lasts from the middle of June to the middle of September, the sun shines every day.

All around PV, just minutes from downtown, there are easily reached areas of great natural beauty, ideal for a day’s outing or a picnic. Some even have there own hotels where it is possible for a visitor to "get away from it all" for a few days. Some of the favorite spots are Bucerías, Mismaloya, Quimixto and Yelapa.

The Federal Government, in conjunction with the state governments of Jalisco and Nayarit as well as some private enterprises, have begun an important program for the development of tourism in the entire Banderas Bay area.

Vallarta is also the site of important conventions and business meetings. Undoubtedly one of the most important was the meeting of President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz with President Richard M. Nixon in august, 1970.

This same year, 1970, two important public works were inaugurated: the maritime terminal and the new airport, both of which have been subsequently remodeled and enlarged in order to provide better service.

On May 31, 1968, the fiftieth anniversary of Puerto Vallarta’s elevation to a municipality, with Lic. Francisco Medina Ascencio, governor of Jalisco, and Sr. Jose Vazquez Galvan as mayor of Puerto Vallarta, the state government by means of decree No. 8366 elevated PV to the status of a city.

Between 1980 and 1990 Puerto Vallarta's population nearly doubled from 57,000 to 112,000 citizens. By 1985 the flux of tourism and immigrants demanded, on one hand, the building of new hotels and, on the other, the development of residential options for its employees and executives. Downtown Puerto Vallarta wasn't large enough to house this expansion and nobody wanted to see tall buildings obstructing the view of the bay or destroying the city's typical Mexican-village atmosphere.

With great timing, the Martínez Güitrón brothers from Guadalajara started building Marina Vallarta. Impeccably planned, the development would eventually include a school, condominiums, residential site, a shopping mall and large hotel properties. Work on the Marina proper, with its 450 boat slips, was started in 1986 and by 1990 the Marina was in full swing. The project was basically finished by 1993, ahead of schedule.

The first years of the nineties were hard for Puerto Vallarta. Even though the national tourism grew, international travelers dropped off. In 1993 the destination was fifth in Mexican vacationers' list of beach resorts, after Cancun, Acapulco, Mazatlan and Veracruz. It was crucial to put an end to this decline.

On May 31, 1996, the Puerto Vallarta Tourism Fund was created. This institution has since been in charge of handling the funds raised through a two-percent tax on hotel room occupation. Fortunately, Puerto Vallarta decided to use 100% of these funds in promoting the destination at national and international levels. The joint efforts of the fund, hotels and restaurants, free agents, tour operators and guardians of the environment turned things around and Puerto Vallarta began the process of earning a position among world-class beach destinations.

In contrast with Cancun, Ixtapa or Huatulco - government planned resort destinations - Puerto Vallarta is somewhat of an accidental resort town. Nobody set out to put Puerto Vallarta on the tourist map, at least not in the early years. But today the primitive charms of yore have been substituted with million-dollar investments and fierce competition. The globe is shrinking, and traveling to places once inaccesible due to distances, is now common practice. Even though Puerto Vallarta is today measured up against Bali, New Zealand or Ibiza, it still holds its own. The natural beauty of Banderas Bay, with its deep waters (either warm or cool, depending on the season), immensely rich biodiversity. Lagoons and wetland birds can be watched year round, while right in the bay, whales and dolphins frolic. There's fish to be made into ceviche or grilled on a stick; billfish worthy of international tournaments and colorful fish to be admired diving below the bay's surface. In the foothills, the tropical forest welcomes bikers, horseback riders and mountain bikers. Crossing the streams and cooling down in the pools formed by their waterfalls, explorers learn to tell fig trees from parotas and amapas. On the beaches at night, marine turtles lay their eggs during the summer months. Banderas Bay is definitely a marvel and a strong attractive for tourism.

These assets have earned Banderas Bay membership within the Club des Baies plus Belles de Monde (The World's most Beautiful Bays Club, whose main objective is the promotion of exceptional, world-renowned bays. People have little by little noticed the pricelessness of their surrounding paradise and have undertaken efforts to preserve it intact.

One of these efforts is the regional sewage system and treatment plant that have been installed in the last years. This state-of-the-art plant, biologically treats sewage waste so it can be released again as clean water without fear of pollution.

Tall and elegant, palm trees never bend too much in Puerto Vallarta. Although winds may blow, they never reach the fury of hurricane force. The geographical situation of the bay protects it from the storms that cause such devastation in other tropical destinations. All in all, our climate has to be among the best in the world, especially during the winter, when the days are sunny and the nights are cool.

In the downtown area, overhead wires are being cabled underground, to the delight of photographers and strollers, that now will be able to enjoy Puerto Vallarta's architecture where white walls are interrupted only by flowerpots blooming with bougainvillea, geranium, hibiscus, copa de oro and splendid ferns. The city streets have always been paved in cobbled stones, but now, these river rocks have been set in concrete to create a much smoother and durable surface.

Fortunately water is abundant in Puerto Vallarta. And now, thanks to a new radial well in the Ameca river, our source will soon double, enabling the destination to continue its growth without water concerns.

Puerto Vallarta Mexico offers a multitude of things to do and places to see, but there are also some great two-day or weekend trips nearby available. These getaways are for those who frequent Puerto Vallarta Mexico or perhaps live here full-time and are looking for something new. You can travel by car, bus, boat or by airplane, and the accommodations can range from small countryside inns to luxurious villas long the coast - something for all budgets.

All around PV, just minutes from downtown, there are easily reached areas of great natural beauty, ideal for a day’s outing or a picnic. Some even have there own hotels where it is possible for a visitor to "get away from it all" for a few days. Some of the favorite spots are Bucerías, Mismaloya, Quimixto and Yelapa, most of these only reachable by boat.

The real estate market for Puerto Vallarta Mexico continues to expand, not only in terms of value but also in the size of territory. Real estate agents now realize they have to be knowledgeable with what is happening in real estate with properties as far south Boca de Tomatlán, and as far San Pancho. It no longer is just Puerto Vallarta Mexico. For some time now we have referred to this area as Costa Vallarta.

For shopping and strolling, downtown Puerto Vallarta Mexico can't be beat. It has what must be the best boardwalk (Malecón) in all Mexico, lined with restaurants, nightclubs, and fine shops. There is also an open-air market with artists. In this area is where you'll find many of Vallarta's landmarks such as the Church of Guadalupe, the sculpture of the boy on the seahorse and the open-air theater of Los Arcos. Right through the center of Puerto Vallarta Mexico runs the Cuale River. In the middle of the river is Isla Rio Cuale, a picturesque island with shops and restaurants scattered throughout. This is a great place to take a break from busy day of shopping and sightseeing.

The area between Marina Vallarta and downtown is where you can find most of the hotels and three shopping malls with over 100 shops offering everything from traditional souvenirs to fashionable boutiques and modern grocery stores as well restaurants and coffee shops.

Marina Vallarta is Mexico's most sophisticated marina and one of the most popular. It includes an 18-hole golf course, a 450-slip marina, a waterpark, several 5-star & Grand Tourism hotels. Along the marina boardwalk are numerous shops, boutiques, galleries, cafes, and restaurants.

South of Puerto Vallarta Mexico are some of the most prestigious residential areas, featuring homes with spectacular architecture nestled in the jungle, with fabulous views of the Puerto Vallarta Mexico and the bay. This is where the Sierra Madre mountains meet the shores of Banderas Bay, creating an environment of beautiful beaches with a rich jungle backdrop.

The Federal Government, in conjunction with the state governments of Jalisco and Nayarit as well as some private enterprises, have begun an important program for the development of tourism in the entire Banderas Bay area.

Puerto Vallarta has nurtured and protected its natural habitat so that the visitor can enjoy a variety of activities such as watersports and baycruising, whalewatching, mountain rides and hiking, birdwatching, horseback riding, deep sea fishing [annual tournament held during the second week of November], private tours to agriculture areas, plantations, remote towns, art gallery walks. The visitor's greatest pleasure is the variety of excellent restaurants available. The International Gourmet Festival drawing chefs from all over the world is also held in November. Ecellent chose for couples, singles, families and group conventions!.

Today, Puerto Vallarta occupies an important position among the rest of the world’s international tourist resorts.