Puerto Vallarta ( or simply Vallarta) is a Mexican resort city near the Bahía de Banderas on the Pacific coast of the Mexican state of Jalisco. Puerto Vallarta is the second largest urban agglomeration in the state after the Guadalajara metropolitan area. The city of Puerto Vallarta is the government seat of the municipality of Puerto Vallarta, which comprises the city as well as population centers outside of the city, extending from Boca de Tomatlán to the Nayarit border (the Ameca River). The city is located at . The municipality has an area of . To the north, it borders the southwest of the state of Nayarit. To the east, it borders the municipality of Mascota and San Sebastián del Oeste, and to the south, it borders the municipalities of Talpa de Allende and Cabo Corrientes.
Puerto Vallarta is named after Ignacio Vallarta, a former governor of Jalisco. In Spanish, Puerto Vallarta is frequently shortened to "Vallarta", while English speakers call the city P.V. for short. In Internet shorthand, the city is often referred to as PVR, after the International Air Transport Association airport code for its Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport.
History
Bahía de Banderas (Bay of Flags)
thumb|right|120px|[[Vasco Núñez de Balboa was the first European to discover the Pacific Ocean. Balboa is believed to have later worked as a pirate along the Pacific central coast of Mexico in 1519 and is likely the first European to discover the village of Tintoque.]]
Pirates were known to sack villages and attack ships along the Pacific Coast of Mexico early in the 16th century. As early as 1510, rogue conquistadores and their slaves turned to piracy shortly after establishing the village of Santa María la Antigua del Darién, now in Panama. Just 50 miles west, they discovered the Pacific Ocean. To escape growing Spanish control in Darién, a contingent relocated to Acla. In 1518, they used the Pacific's Panama Bay as a base for pirating operations. Native tribes later attacked Darién and briefly retook control in 1524. Just two years earlier, a new group of rogue conquistadors established pirating operations on Terarequi Island in the Gulf of Panama and later Santo Domingo, Nicaragua.
In 1524, the nephew of Mexico's most famous Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés, led the first official Spanish exploration into the Tintoque region (now Valle de Banderas) on foot with a troop of soldiers. Upon entering the village, Francisco Cortés of San Buenaventura and his soldiers were surrounded by an angry mob of indigenous warriors carrying weapons. According to local legend, pirates had already been anchoring in this bay, pillaging local villagers, and burying treasure in the hills. These attacks instilled a fear of outsiders by local villagers. A Catholic friar accompanying the Spanish troops began praying to the Lord for help. The warriors immediately lowered their weapons, allowing the explorers to pass peacefully. According to reports, the warriors were mesmerized by the flags (banderas) the soldiers carried. The encounter with villagers is believed to be how the bay was named. In the following years, Bahía de Banderas became a major port and safe harbor for ships traveling the Manila galleon.
Playa de Los Muertos (Beach of the Dead)
In 1531, conquistador Hernán Cortés set out to explore the Pacific coast of Mexico and establish a safe harbor for cargo ships sailing the planned Manila Galleon Trade Route. He used the earlier established port of Acapulco to resupply his ships. While anchored in Acapulco, Cortés sent two of his ships North to explore the coastline without him. Just several hundred miles North, his ships located the large bay his nephew had discovered earlier. One of his ships wrecked in what is now known as Bahía de Banderas, and all but three men were reportedly killed. It is believed that the corpses of the lost sailors washed ashore. Native villagers encountered numerous corpses on the beach for days after the wreck. The encounters with the dead crew are believed to be how the beach was named.
Pre-Hispanic times to the 19th century
Few details are known about the history of the area prior to the 19th century. There is archaeological evidence to suggest continuous human habitation from 580 BC, and similar evidence (from sites near Ixtapa and in Col. Lázaro Cárdenas) that the area belonged to the Aztlán culture which dominated Jalisco, Nayarit and Michoacán from . The limited evidence in occidental Mexican archeology have limited the current knowledge about pre-historic life in the area.
El Carrizal and Las Peñas – 19th century
The official founding story of Las Peñas and thus of Puerto Vallarta is that it was founded by Guadalupe Sánchez Torres, his wife Ambrosia Carrillo and some friends such as Cenobio Joya, Apolonio de Robles, Cleofas Peña and Martín Andrade, among others, on December 12, 1851, and was given the name of Las Peñas de Santa María de Guadalupe since it was the day dedicated to the virgin of Guadalupe. Although the purchase record of the property by Guadalupe Sanchez is dated 1859, his family lived there prior to the purchase year.
There is however no doubt the development of Las Peñas into a self-sustaining village of any significant size happened in the 1860s as the mouth of the Cuale area was exploited to support the operations of the newly enfranchised Union en Cuale company. As such 1859 marks the beginning of Puerto Vallarta as a village. Twenty years later, by 1885, the village comprised about 250 homes and about 800 residents.
The modern resort – 20th century to present
thumb|Closer view of the churchThe Mexican government invested significantly in transportation improvements, making Puerto Vallarta an easy travel destination. To make Puerto Vallarta accessible by jet aircraft the government developed the city's international airport. Ground transportation significantly improved. Government invested heavily in the development of highway and utility infrastructure. Another vital improvement for the city was the El Salado wharf (where the current cruise terminal is), inaugurated on June 1, 1970, making Puerto Vallarta Jalisco's first harbor town.
During the mid-1980s, Puerto Vallarta experienced a rapid expansion of impromptu communities poorly served by even basic public services. This very low standard of living leveled out Puerto Vallarta's resort boom. In the late 1980s Puerto Vallarta's government worked to alleviate the situation by developing housing and infrastructure. But the legacy of the 1980s boom remains, as the outlying areas of Puerto Vallarta suffer from poor provision of basic services (i.e. water, sewage, roads).
In February 2026, it was reported that Puerto Vallarta was most affected by retaliatory attacks which resulted from the death of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias "El Mencho".
Geography
thumb|right|Beaches of Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta lies on a narrow coastal plain at the foot of the Sierras Cuale and San Sebastián, parts of the Sierra Madre Occidental. The plain widens to the north, reaching its widest point along the Ameca river. Three rivers flow from the Sierra through the area. From south to north they are the Cuale, the Pitillal, and the Ameca. A number of arroyos also run from the Sierra to the coastal plain. Many of the valleys of these rivers and arroyos are inhabited. Also development has to some extent spread up the hillsides from the coastal plain.
The city proper comprises four main areas: the hotel zone along the shore to the north, Olas Altas – Colonia Emiliano Zapata to the south of the Cuale river (recently named Zona Romántica in some tourist brochures), the Centro along the shore between these two areas, and a number of residential areas to the east of the hotel zone. The oldest section of the town is the area of Col. Centro near the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, especially Hidalgo street.
Seismic history
Puerto Vallarta, like much of the west coast of North America, is prone to earthquakes, though Puerto Vallarta tends to experience only peripheral effects of earthquakes centered farther south. On 9 October 1995, an earthquake located off the Colima coast shook the crown from the top of the Roman Catholic Church.
Climate
Puerto Vallarta has a Tropical wet and dry climate (Köppen climate classification Aw), with dry winters and rainy summers. The average daily high temperature is ; average daily low temperature is ; average daily humidity is 75%. The rainy season extends from mid June through mid October, with most of the rain between July and September. August is the city's wettest month, with an average of 14 days with significant precipitation. Even during the rainy season precipitation tends to be concentrated in large rainstorms. Occasional tropical storms will bring thunderstorms to the city in November, though the month is typically dry. There is a marked dry season in the winter. February, March and April are the months with the least cloud cover.
Hurricanes seldom strike Puerto Vallarta. In 2002, Hurricane Kenna, a category 5 hurricane, made landfall about northwest of Puerto Vallarta, and the city suffered some damage from the resulting storm surge. In 1971, Hurricane Lily, a category 1 hurricane, caused serious flooding on the Isla Cuale, prompting the city to relocate all of its residents to the new Colonia Palo Seco.
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Hurricane Patricia
Hurricane Patricia, a Category 5 storm, became the most powerful cyclone ever measured in the Western Hemisphere with sustained wind speeds up to . Hurricane Patricia was forecast to make landfall at Puerto Vallarta on the evening of October 23, 2015, with catastrophic damage predicted for the town and surrounding areas and the potential for mud slides. The storm changed from a Category 1 to a Category 5 in just 24 hours, thus catching some vacationers off guard and leaving many trapped in the town. The Jalisco state government put together 30 buses to evacuate tourists from the coast to Guadalajara, a 5-hour ride inland. Manzanillo, Colima was also near the forecast catastrophic damage zone. Ultimately, Patricia weakened and made landfall south of Puerto Vallarta, sparing the city from any significant damage.