Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit

Puerto Vallarta is in the state of Jalisco, at the head of Bahía de Banderas, one of the largest bays on the Mexican Pacific, surrounded by the Sierra Madre mountains covered in jungle. The city grew in the 1960s after the filming of "The Night of the Iguana" in Mismaloya, and it retains a downtown of cobbled streets, white houses with clay roofs and a seaside promenade, the malecón, with sculptures.

The north shore of the bay belongs to the state of Nayarit and is called Riviera Nayarit. It begins at Nuevo Vallarta, with resorts and a marina, continues through Bucerías, a long-beach town, and reaches Punta de Mita at the tip of the bay, from where boats depart to the Marietas Islands. Further north, already outside the bay, Sayulita is the surf town.

Humpback whales usually enter the bay from December to March to give birth, and whale-watching trips depart from Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta and Punta de Mita. The Marietas Islands, a national park and biosphere reserve, include Playa Escondida, a beach inside a crater open to the sky.

English is widely used in tourism.

This destination brings together 5 cities: Puerto Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta, Sayulita, Punta de Mita, Bucerías.