Puerto Vallarta Travel Guide (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)

Apart from the beaches , and the tourist shops that pack the centre of town, there's not a great deal in the way of sights in Puerto Vallarta, but you can fill a very pleasant hour or two wandering around the area between the two plazas and on the island in the river. The zócalo , where everyone gathers in the evenings and at weekends, is backed by the Church of Guadalupe , its tower a city landmark, topped with a huge crown modelled on that of Maximilian's wife, Carlota, in the 1860s. Just down from here on the malecón, the old seafront, is the Plaza Aquiles Serdán , with a strange little amphitheatre and four arches looking out over the sea, like a lost fragment of the Roman Empire. A short stroll northwards brings you to another Puerto Vallarta icon, the seahorse statue . In between the plaza and the statue are many new, fantastical sculptures.

On the Isla Río Cuale a small park surrounds a clutch of shops and restaurants. At the seaward end there's a tiny, irregularly open, local archeology museum (Mon-Sat 9am-2pm & 4-6pm), with half a dozen cases of local discoveries. Further inland, expensive restaurants and galleries line the middle of the island towards the Insurgentes Bridge. Beyond, past John Huston's statue , there's a park and a patch of river where women come to do the family washing, overlooked from the hillsides by the opulent villas of "Gringo's Gulch".