Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Area Beaches

Playa de Oro. Playa de Oro is a wide, sandy beach with a few rocky areas interspersed. This beautiful Puerto Vallarta beach is very popular with tourists and locals alike because of its diversity of water sports.

Los Muertos. Puerto Vallarta's most popular and lively beach, Playa de los Muertos is a long sandy beach on the South Side. Located just south of the Rio Cuale in Old Town, this funky and wildly popular beach is lined with shops, restaurants and bars where you can grab a chair and table, and is popular for parasailing. In the evenings, mariachi and other musicians play along the beach. From Los Muertos, many pangas depart for beaches further south. Weekends are bustling with activity, sun worshipers by day and the dining and nightlife crowd after dark. The beachfront bars and restaurants in this area are a great place to catch one of the incredible Vallarta sunsets.

Marina Vallarta. Catering to those staying at the resort hotels, the wide, sandy beach of Marina Vallarta offers beautiful views of Puerto Vallarta and its undulating mountain backdrop. Check out Nikki Beach, a sexy and cool restaurant/bar/beach club where you can eat and drink right in bed!  [Top]

Nuevo Vallarta. Lined with sprawling resort hotels, this gorgeous, wide sandy beach hugs Banderas Bay for as far as the eye can see. This peaceful beach is a beautiful spot to soak up the sun, swim and relax. Nuevo Vallarta also offers a wealth of diversion from the sun and sand, including three professional golf courses, a water park, a yacht club, marinas, shopping and many excellent restaurants.

Puerto Vallarta Hotel Zone. Lined with resort hotels, this beautiful, wide sandy beach stretching from Marina Vallarta to the Sheraton is a tourist playground. The beach offers every amenity and water sport – from parasailing to whale watching – you desire. It's easy to have an adventure on this beach, simply by strolling and stepping into whichever beach-front bar, restaurant or venue that catches your eye.

Bucerias. Golden sands stretching for miles and gentle waves make this an ideal family beach - with oceanfront palapa restaurants and an interesting small town to explore. Boasting the longest beach on the bay, "The Place of the Divers" is known for its freshly shucked giant oysters and sublime seafood. Catch some rays in front of the beach restaurants and enjoy the constant breeze that makes the beach feel fresher and cooler. The town offers many waterfront restaurants and a colorful outdoor market by the main plaza, which is a fun way to absorb the local flavor.  [Top]

San Francisco/San Pancho. Just a few miles outside the bay, this pristine beach on open sea is gorgeous, windswept, primitive and long and wide, with deep creamy sand and rougher waters than inside the Bay. A long-established adventure resort attracts outdoor enthusiasts from around the world, offering every activity you can imagine, including surfing, kayaking, sport fishing, horseback riding, mountain biking and hiking, and tours to Matachen Bay, which boasts the world's longest surfable wave. The town’s main street is really cool, with an Internet Café and great restaurants.

Sayulita. A surfing mecca of international renown, the shoreline of this picturesque village is dotted with coves and beaches where surfers hang ten. Riding the gentle breakers to shore, most of the action happens off the main town beach, with lessons and board rentals available. Well known in the surfing world, the long, wide beach boasts a women only surfing school. Those looking for privacy will likely find it in one of the area's small coves, each conveying the sense that is yours alone. After a day of swimming and sunning, you’ll find palapa restaurants on the beach, comida-corrida spots, as well as gourmet dining. A funky fishing village with dramatic wild beauty, Sayulita offers an appealing town square, as well as trendy shops and businesses.

Playa de Conchas Chinas. Located 3 minutes from Puerto Vallarta's downtown just south of Los Muertos Beach, Conchas Chinas starts at the water's edge and stretches up to the top of the Sierra Madre Mountains. This beautiful, exclusive beach community is one of Puerto Vallarta's most prestigious areas where luxury homes and villas are nestled on the mountainside along Mexico's Pacific coast, offering tremendous views of the bay, the mountains and the town of Vallarta. Called Vallarta's ultimate luxury escape, Conchas Chinas offers peace, tranquility and enchanting vistas. Playa de Conchos Chinas offers gorgeous sandy strands for relaxing, ocean breezes and incomparable sunsets with a myriad of beautiful colors.  [Top]

Destiladeras. A local favorite with families and surfers, Destiladeras offers a wide and white sand beach, large waves and fresh seafood at outdoor palapa-shaded restaurants at the water’s edge. Surfers and boogie boarders flock to its long, five-foot swells, while beachcombers enjoy strolling along the long, sandy stretch. This is a wonderful beach for relaxing and savoring beautiful sunsets. The large flat rocks at Destiladeras can be used as picnic tables.

Boca de Tomates. A half hour north of Puerto Vallarta, Boca de Tomates is a peaceful, long sandy retreat where you’ll see more crocodiles, sea turtles and exotic birds than sun worshippers. An ecologist's paradise, the Tomates estuary is one of this area's most important refuges for wildlife. The beach is popular with boogie boarders and offers funky palapa restaurants.

Garza Blanca. Located off the Barra de Navidad road on the way to Mismaloya, this small, tranquil white sand, city beach is framed with palms and crystal clear water that laps the shoreline. Garza Blanca is popular with the locals on weekends and the perfect spot for a picnic and enjoying the sand and surf.

Gemelas. “Twin" beach is comprised of two small crescent-shaped beaches at the foot of the Sierra Madre Mountains. At Gemelas the surf is gentle for swimming, surfing and all kinds of water sports. A nice restaurant is located at the beach hotel.  [Top]

Mismaloya. A small sandy beach on a beautiful jungle-fringed cove south of Puerto Vallarta, where the Mismaloya creek meets the ocean, Mismaloya is the beautiful remote strand where the "The Night of the Iguana" was filmed in 1963. Mismaloya features a beautiful white sand beach, several restaurants, little palapa bars, and a major resort - a perfect place to relax. You can even walk around what remains of the old movie set.

Boca de Tomatlán. With a primitive feel, this small sandy cove at the edge of the jungle three miles south of Mismaloya is where the mouth of the Tomatlan River meets Banderas Bay. The last beach that is accessible by road, Boca de Tomatlan is very quiet and peaceful and is a great swimming beach. The beach offers Palapa restaurants, small seafood restaurants and taco stands that serve fresh-caught fish and Mexican fare. You can hire local pangas here to take you to Yepala, Las Animas or Quimixto.

Punta de Mita. Punta de Mita is a magical destination located 40 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta - on the northwest peninsula of Banderas Bay. Puerto Vallarta’s point of simple pleasures, Punta de Mita offers an unrivaled Mexican vacation experience with magical islands and peaceful, enchanting beaches. The gorgeous, pristine beaches of Punta de Mita are considered the most beautiful on the Bay and possibly all of Mexico. Punta de Mita Beach on the northern tip of the Bay is the ideal beach for strolling and absorbing the incredible beauty and tangy sea air. The second public beach, El Anclote, is a bustling beach and seaside community with great swimming and surfing. Since the strong waves break in front of the shallow, shelving beach, these beaches are excellent surfing and windsurfing spots. A favorite weekend getaway, this soft sand beach offers nice restaurants, activities such as kayaking, catamaraning, and snorkeling and kayak/boogie board rentals. Rent a boat to Las Marietas Islands nature preserve where snorkeling and diving are excellent. Hire a panga to take you whale watching in the Bay.   [Top]

Photos by Mark Callanan http://www.callananphoto.com