Banderas Bay is the trip. The town is where you sleep.
Which snorkel boat actually reaches Los Arcos. What a day out to Yelapa costs once the open bar is counted. Whether the Marietas permit is worth chasing. Reviews of every tour you can book in Puerto Vallarta.
Four days that decide how the rest of Vallarta goes.
The bookings a first week on Banderas Bay gets built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
- 01The all-in-one dayPuerto Vallarta Best Zipline Canopy + Tequila and Speed Boat RideZip-lines over the Sierra Madre, a tequila stop and a speedboat back into the bay. One booking covers most of the coastline.
02The first eveningWinner 2025 Downtown Vallarta Food Tour with Vallarta Food ToursSix stops through El Centro and the Zona Romántica, all on foot. Turn up hungry; the last one is dessert.
03The day on deckMega Yacht ALL INCLUSIVE Yelapa Waterfall & Snorkeling AdventureOpen bar out, the Yelapa waterfall in the middle, a snorkel stop on the way home. Seven hours, and nobody wants it shorter.
04The cheap swimBoat and Snorkel Tour to 5 Islands of Los ArcosLos Arcos and the coves behind it in half a day. The best value snorkelling anywhere on this bay.
Almost every good Vallarta day starts at a marina gate.
Snorkel run, open-bar cruise, or a sailing day out of Marina Vallarta. Three kinds of morning on the water, what it costs to board each one, and where each one puts you down.
The Puerto Vallarta days more travellers take than any other.
Every Vallarta review →The tours that fill first on this coast, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Puerto Vallarta Best Zipline Canopy + Tequila and Speed Boat Ride
Review of Puerto Vallarta’s 19-line jungle zipline, speedboat ride, tequila tasting, river swimming, wildlife sanctuary, and practical tips.
From · $120
Read our review →
2
Winner 2025 Downtown Vallarta Food Tour with Vallarta Food Tours
from $59
3
Extreme Adventure, Wildest Bridge, ATV & Ziplines
from $129
4
Mega Yacht ALL INCLUSIVE Yelapa Waterfall & Snorkeling Adventure
from $117
5
Food & Mixology Tour:Tequila,Tacos, Mezcal and Agave Cocktails
from $98
6
Outdoor Ziplining, Waterfalls & Speed boat in Puerto Vallarta
from $129
7
Rhythms of the night, Sunset Cruise, Candlelit Dinner & Alma Show
8
Boat and Snorkel Tour to 5 Islands of Los Arcos
from $48
Puerto Vallarta stops at the water. Banderas Bay does not.
The bay runs thirty miles across, and half of what people book here happens on the far side of it: a village with no road in, a beach inside a collapsed crater, granite islands ten minutes off the malecón. Six places the boats go, and the best day out at each.
The Sierra Madre starts fifteen minutes inland and goes almost vertical.
Rivers, mule tracks, a suspension bridge strung high over the Río Cuale, and villages that were silver towns long before anyone came for the beach. This is the half of Vallarta nobody photographs from the plane.
Jalisco invented tequila. Puerto Vallarta is where you drink it.
The agave fields are three hours inland, but the distillery counters, the taco routes through the Zona Romántica and the market kitchens are all within a walk of the malecón. Eat late; nothing here starts before eight.
What a day out of Puerto Vallarta actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good number of the best days on this bay come in under the price of a hotel dinner.
City walks, the hop-on bus, a jungle waterfall hike and the shorter snorkel runs out to Los Arcos.
The full-day standards: the Marietas, Yelapa, ATV-and-zip-line combos and the evening food tours.
Private boats, chartered fishing days and the once-a-trip splurges that earn it.
Humpbacks calve in Banderas Bay, and they keep a calendar.
Everything on the water →
The bay is deep, warm and sheltered, which is why the whales come here to give birth and why the dolphins never leave. Turtle camps run releases on the beaches south of town from late summer. Three trips built around animals rather than scenery.
Humpbacks, December to March
Mothers and calves come inside the bay to breed and stay until the water warms. Boats leave from Marina Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta; the smaller ones get closer and roll a lot more.
Dolphins, all year round
Bottlenose and spinner pods live here year-round, so a sighting does not depend on a season. Read the listing before you book: some of these are captive-facility swims and some are wild.
Turtle hatchlings at dusk
Olive ridleys nest along the beaches south of town, and the camps release the hatchlings at last light once the frigatebirds have gone. Small numbers, no boat, and it takes an hour.
Three things that only happen on this bay.
Beach clubs and zip-lines exist all over Mexico. A bridge you can only reach on a quad, a village with no road, and a beach roofed by a crater rim do not.
The Jorullo Bridge
A single-span suspension bridge hangs high above the Río Cuale, and the only way onto it is on an ATV or a quad — it was built for the ranch road behind it, and became the reason people ride out there at all. The deck moves under you as you cross, which is precisely the point. Everything else on the route is dirt, river crossings and a mountain village at the far end.
- 1Canopy River Zipline Tour and Mule Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 893 reviews
- 2Puerto Vallarta’s Best Canopy Zipline + Jorullo Bridge walk!★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 817 reviews
- 3Sierra Madre ATV Adventure from Puerto Vallarta★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 809 reviews
Yelapa and Las Caletas
Two coves on the south shore, neither of them reachable by car. Yelapa is a working village of a few hundred people, served by panga out of Boca de Tomatlán and a waterfall walk behind the beach. Las Caletas was a private house cut into the jungle before it became a day-trip cove. Both run on boat timetables, and the last one back is not negotiable.
- 1Mega Yacht ALL INCLUSIVE Yelapa Waterfall & Snorkeling Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,515 reviews
- 2Islas Marietas & BBQ lunch at Majahuitas★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,130 reviews
- 3Yelapa Waterfall, BBQ at Exclusive Majahuitas Beach & Open bar★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 760 reviews
The Marietas Hidden Beach
Playa del Amor sits inside a collapsed volcanic crater, open to the sky and reached by swimming through a low sea tunnel at the right tide. Mexico caps how many people may land there in a day and closes it outright when the swell is wrong, so the permit — not the boat — is the thing that sells out.
- 1Islas Marietas & BBQ lunch at Majahuitas★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,130 reviews
- 2Marietas Islands Snorkel Tour & Hidden Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 981 reviews
- 3Los Arcos 5 islands Snorkeling Cliff Jumping and Hidden Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 295 reviews
Four Vallarta bookings that will not wait.
Most of this coast can be arranged from a beach chair the day before. These four run on permit caps, whale seasons and boat timetables that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Marietas Islands Snorkel Tour & Hidden BeachLanding on the hidden beach runs on a daily permit cap, and the boats are selling the permit rather than the seat. It goes first, and bad swell cancels it outright.
- 02Whale and Dolphin Watching with a Biologist in Puerto VallartaHumpbacks are inside the bay from December to March and gone by April. Book outside those months and there is nothing to go and see.
- 03Las Caletas Beach & Adventure Park with buffet lunch and open barOne boat, one crossing, one seating. Las Caletas has no road, so the manifest closes when the boat leaves the pier and there is no later option.
- 04Full-Day San Sebastian del Oeste Tour from Puerto VallartaThe mountain road climbs most of the morning in each direction and the trips run on set days rather than daily. Arrive on the wrong one and it is a week away.
From July the sky opens over the bay most afternoons.
The wet season here is a routine, not a washout: mornings come up clear, the storm arrives late in the afternoon and it has blown through by dinner. Put the boats and the sierra in the morning and keep the second half of the day under a roof — a distillery counter, a market kitchen, a chocolate bench, hot springs up the river.
Sunset is the one thing on this coast that keeps to a timetable.
The bay faces west, so the whole town turns to look at about seven. From the malecón it is free. From a deck out in the middle of the bay it is the reason people book the boat at all, and the dinner-and-a-show crossings to Las Caletas run all year.
Every evening out →
By where the boat puts you down
By kind of day — deck, dirt track, kitchen or dive
Six days out that fit together without doubling back.
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