Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta is a Mexican seaside resort on the Pacific Coast, on the northern border of Jalisco State, just south of Nayarit. It first entered common parlance in the United States with the 70s era TV program Love Boat, where Puerto Vallarta was the main port of call in Mexico of the storied cruise ship.
Over 250,000 residents call Puerto Vallarta home. It is on the beautiful Bay of Banderas. Tourism has been its main activity for several decades. Before that, it was for over a hundred years an important agricultural center in the rich valley of the Ameca River, and it served as a transportation hub for the active mining activities that went on above the coast, up in the Sierra Madres. Corts conquered the indigenous people, largely of Azatln descent, in a bloody battle in 1524. During the period of the Spanish galleons, Puerto Vallarta was often a haven for the large vessels, and also for the many pirates that preyed upon them. It was called Las Peas until the name was changed in honor of a former governor of Jalisco.
In 1945, tourism began to flourish in Puerto Vallarta. The airport started to welcome DC-3s from the United States and Mexico. During the 1950s the port became a sort f writers and artists colony for Americans unhappy with McCarthyism and the witch hunts for communists, which reminded them of Germany in the previous decades.
From 1960 onwards, Puerto Vallarta has taken its place as one of the prime tourist destinations of Mexico. A new airport opened up the city to international travelers from many countries, and it also became a favorite location for Hollywood. By 1980, Puerto Vallarta had become a city with world class hotels, the first of which was the Sheraton Buganvilias. A new marina attracted pleasure craft from California, and the cruise ship pier became a source of much additional tourism income. Today, many retired persons from Canada and the United States make Puerto Vallarta their winter home.
Today, the city boasts innumerable restaurants, nightclubs, tourist attractions and hotels of all sizes and degrees of luxury. Air connections with Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle make it an especially desirable vacation location for those on the West Coast of the United States. If you enter the port from Nayarit, the welcome sign says, The Friendliest City in the World. Almost anyone who visits there will readily agree. And for those who enjoy the sun and the sea, Puerto Vallarta offers unequalled beaches for miles and miles, deep-sea fishing, and some of the best food and drink that Mexico has to offer.