Puerto Vallarta Travel Guide

I've been to PV on Spring Break for the past 5 years and it's worth going back every time!
What the city lacks in beaches, it makes up for in nightlife.
The Collage foam night is epic and shouldn't be missed and some of the bars on the main strip are lots of fun as well. 
It's also probably one of the safer Spring Break destinations in Mexico.  I've always been with friends, and we've never felt threatened or unsafe.

Every year Puerto Vallarta seems to become more popular as a gay vacation spot.  With a great climate, beautiful ocean bay, beaches, mountains and lush tropical jungle as the setting, Puerto Vallarta is a small city devoted to serving the visiting traveler.  While retaining much of it's old style Mexican charm, Vallarta has over the years built up the infrastructure of a modern resort community.  Internet cafes, ATM machines, fine restaurants, excellent airport, modern medical services,  drinkable water supply, and a safe, tolerant environment are now all part of the Vallarta scene.  So visiting a tropical paradise doesn't have to be a choice between a modern but sterile place or the alternative of a quaint but primitive existence.  Puerto Vallarta has all the quaintness, without compromising on any of the modern conveniences. Whether you're just considering a vacation here, someone who has just visited once before, or a virtual resident who comes every winter for months at a time, you'll find plenty of useful information here.    Vallarta now has over a dozen hotels, guesthouses, and bed and breakfasts that cater to our community, several different gay bars and gay clubs, a world famous gay beach, great gay trips on boats, special tours including evenings out at natural hot springs, and some great restaurants.   The gay scene in Vallarta runs the gamut, from gay beach bums, to the A-list couples who winter here and entertain themselves and their friends in high style. Vallarta is popular with all sorts of gay men and women from many places around the globe.  Younger and older, European and from the Americas or Australia, the cosmopolitan mix is part of what makes this an exciting place to see and be seen.  And in case you're worried that this means not meeting some beautiful Mexicans, rest assured that many "friends of Dorothy" from Vallarta and from the larger cities within Mexico, especially Guadalajara, also come here to relax on our famous beaches and grace our clubs at night. Vallarta is in the tropics, on the Pacific Ocean side of Mexico, tucked into a mountainous coastal area.  We're located on one of the largest, deepest, and most stunning natural bays in the world, Bahia de Banderas, which supports almost any form of water recreation imaginable.  This bay is where the humpback whales come every winter, where dolphins nest year round, and deep sea fishing is excellent.  The winds are great here for sailing.  Surfing is good on the north coast of the bay.  And it isn't overrun with development. Almost thirty miles of the bay's coast is completely inaccessible by road and therefore pristine and devoid of development.  The mountains surrounding the bay are lush with tropical jungle, the beaches in some areas are framed by these mountains that come right down to the water's edge, and, best of all, none of it is ruined by pollution or any industrial ugliness.   In Puerto Vallarta the air is clean, the sun shines without rain almost all winter long, and the sunsets - well, they're as spectacular as you could possibly ask for.

If you are gay spend your time in the old part of town, most southerly portion of the large beach. The famous 'blue chairs' are set out in front of or near The Tropicana Hotel. Everyone will want a peice of you! Watch out. Three years ago the crime was light, some poor souls went to buy marijuana on the beach and ended up being set-up! Drugs are sold by informants and the police collect you for a trip to jail or your instant banking account. Bring lots of money. Don't do anything foolish like wearing big gold jewelry around town, especially at night. Breakfast at El Toucan, on the first floor of Hotel Posada de Roger is great. Very close to the beach, shopping, gay bars and other amenities. Roger's is a good hotel too... you can negotiate a price for a longer block of time, in CASH, that is a better deal. If you don't mind sleeping and awakening to the sound of trucks. If you DO MIND, the Tropicana or other beach-front Hotels, will send you into slumber with the hissing mystic sounds of the ocean. During an El Nino a couple of years ago, though, I heard an American couple in the lobby of the Tropicana complaining that the sound of the waves on the shore was TOO LOUD AT NIGHT! Just think about that for a bit...