Welcome to Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit are two of Mexico's most popular tourist destinations - equally popular with both national and international visitors. Puerto Vallarta has been consistently voted by Conde Nast readers as one their top ten favorite international destinations for years and Riviera Nayarit consistently obtains some of the highest occupancy rates in the country. VirtualVallarta.com is your guide to this wonderful region and communities nearby - some within the Bay of Banderas and others a little farther away along what we refer to as Costa Vallarta.
We think you are going to enjoy this site. There literally is more information here about Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit, and their many communities, than you'll find anywhere else. And you may notice changes taking place while you are browsing, as from April until August of this year we are dedicating our full staff to completely reviewing and updating the site with fresh content. So check back regularly!
Local News
Our friend Allyson Williams of JaltembaBayLife.com shared a heart warming story with us about a recent rescue of a hawksbill turtle off shore near Rincón de Guayabitos, a small community 70 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. “Upon hearing news about the incident, I had the opportunity to get personally involved in the rescue process,” she commented via phone interview.
A few months ago, the popular TV show House Hunters International visited Puerto Vallarta to document the process of finding a home away from home in Puerto Vallarta with local realtor Timothy Real Estate Group. The episode, which aired on US TV last month will be screened at Daiquiri Dick’s as a fundraising event to benefit Asilo San Juan Diego, A.C., Becas Vallarta, A.C., and Toys for Tots.
Here are the newbies! Thirteen restaurants are participating for the very first time in this year’s edition of Restaurant Week, offering foodies all over the bay excellent reasons to try out new restaurants and explore their enticing discounted menus, May 15 - 31. We present seven of them here, and wrap up our countdown next week.
The annual Festival del Viento, or Wind Festival, an excellent opportunity to observe some of the region’s top kite surfers ride the waves and wind, returns to Bucerías, in Riviera Nayarit, on May 18 - 20. Less than 30 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta, Bucerías has become a preferred destination for kitesurfers largely due to its favorable winds.
A new Jack Nicklaus Golf Academy will be inaugurated in the region, at the Nicklaus-designed Nayar Golf Course in Riviera Nayarit, in late June of 2012. The Nicklaus Academy in Riviera Nayarit will be the Nicklaus group's third such facility in Mexico and fifteenth in the world.
The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch website reported that nearly 600,000 tourists visited Mexico during the recent Spring Break period. Among them, 382,376 American citizens who, despite travel warnings issued by certain US jurisdictions, enjoyed a vacation in Mexico over the holiday period, a 7.3 percent increase from last year.
Adriana Quinto’s new Contemporary Dance Performance “Estratégia de la Ruptura” is like paintings of distinct situations of every days life: passionate tales of love and loneliness with great touching rock music of the 60’s (Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Queen).
Without counting restaurants participating for the first time, this year’s Restaurant Week, May 15 - 31, will feature 12 restaurants offering three-course menus at $189 pesos per person (drinks and tip not included). In the fifth of a seven-part feature, we focus on the second group of $189-menu restaurants, wrapping up the series with all the restaurants participating in Restaurant Week for the first time.
Trip Advisor’s 2012 Travelers’ Choice Awards have chosen Puerto Vallarta as the overall best destination in Mexico. Additionally, Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit ranked among the top ten best beach destinations in Mexico.
The eighth annual edition of Restaurant Week to take place May 15 - 31 was officially announced to local members of the press through a conference held at Lobo Lui’s BBQ Shack, one of this year’s participating restaurants.
