The Beaches of Puerto Vallarta

One bay, very different beaches — from the party of Los Muertos to coves you can only reach by boat.

By Sam Med · Last updated October 2026

Puerto Vallarta sits on Banderas Bay, one of the largest and deepest bays on Mexico's Pacific coast, and its beaches change completely as you move around the shore. The town beaches are lively and walkable; head north for wide resort sand, or south for dramatic coves reachable only by boat. Here's how to choose, and our detailed guides to each.

Town beaches — lively and walkable

Playa Los Muertos in Zona Romántica is the busy, sociable heart of the scene: beach clubs, vendors, the pier, and the busiest stretch of sand in the city. Just south, Playa Conchas Chinas is a series of small rocky coves with calmer, clearer water — quieter and prettier for swimming, a short ride from Old Town.

The Hotel Zone — wide resort sand

North of downtown, the Hotel Zone has the widest, calmest beaches, fronted by the big all-inclusive resorts. Good for long walks and easy swimming, less so for atmosphere — there's little to walk to beyond the resorts.

The south shore — boat-only coves

The most beautiful beaches are the ones you can't drive to. Las Ánimas, Quimixto, Majahuitas and the village of Yelapa line the wild southern shore, reachable by water taxi from Los Muertos pier or Boca de Tomatlán. These are the beaches for a real escape — jungle behind, clear water in front, and no road.

Our beach guides

For the clearest water in the region you have to leave the shore: the Marietas Islands and Los Arcos are both boat trips.

Which beach for which day

Beach safety

Banderas Bay is large and open to the Pacific — not a calm sea — and conditions vary a lot along it. The open stretches — Los Muertos and the Hotel Zone — get real surf and rip currents, especially in the green season. The sheltered spots — Conchas Chinas, the south-shore coves — are calmer and clearer, which is also why they're better for snorkelling.

Lifeguarded beaches fly a coloured flag, and it's worth taking seriously — most incidents involve people swimming at red flags, often after drinking.

If you are caught in a rip current, don't swim against it — swim parallel to the shore until you're out of the pull, then come in. More in is Puerto Vallarta safe?

Water quality: the official tests

Mexico's health regulator, COFEPRIS, tests the sea at popular beaches two weeks before each of the three main holiday periods: Easter, summer and winter. It measures enterococci, bacteria that signal faecal contamination. Following the World Health Organization's guideline, a beach is rated apta (fit for swimming) up to 200 per 100 ml and no apta above that. Each result combines six samples taken at the same spot.

Around Puerto Vallarta, ten beaches are tested: Yelapa, Quimixto, Las Ánimas, Mismaloya, Playas Gemelas, Los Muertos, Playa del Cuale, Playa Oasis, Playa Las Palmas and Camarones. On the Nayarit side of the bay, the list covers Nuevo Vallarta, Bucerías, El Anclote at Punta de Mita, Sayulita, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and San Pancho. In each round, nearly all of them pass. These are the beaches rated no apta since 2024:

Figures are enterococci per 100 ml, where published. The latest round is the one that counts: the next is due before the winter holidays.

What a no apta rating means

It's a health warning, not a closure. The beach stays open with a banner reading "Playa bajo vigilancia sanitaria. No se recomienda su uso recreativo", and COFEPRIS advises against swimming or any other direct contact with the water. Once the cause has been dealt with, the beach is re-tested, and the warning is lifted when the result is back under the limit.

COFEPRIS names the usual causes as storm drains, treated sewage discharges, runoff, settlements without proper sewerage, informal trade and crowds. That fits the pattern above: most failures come in the summer round, at the start of the rainy season, and at beaches where a river meets the sea, such as Playa del Cuale at the mouth of the Río Cuale.

Swimming with this in mind

• Check the latest round before you go, in the free Playas MX app from Mexico's environment and health ministries, or on COFEPRIS's clean-beaches page.
• Swim in the designated areas and don't swallow seawater: that's the advice of Jalisco's health agency, COPRISJAL.
• After heavy rain, general public-health advice is to keep away from river mouths and storm-drain outlets for a day or so.

A Blue Flag is a different thing: an international award, renewed every year, that covers water quality but also environmental management, safety and services. For 2025–26, Playa Camarones won its flag back, in the same summer that it failed one COFEPRIS round, and the Nuevo Nayarit beach in Nuevo Vallarta has held one since 2013. Each test is a snapshot, so the latest COFEPRIS round is the better guide to the water on the day.

Beach practicalities

• All beaches in Mexico are public, including those in front of resorts — access is a legal right. Where it isn't obvious, look for signed access paths between properties.
• Beach clubs don't usually charge for a lounger — you order food or drinks and the lounger and umbrella come with it. There's rarely a formal minimum, but don't take a bed and order nothing.
• Vendors walking the sand are part of the experience on Los Muertos: jewellery, hats, grilled fish, hammocks, massages. A smile and "no, gracias" is entirely normal and respected.
• Tipping beach servers is customary, roughly as in a restaurant.
• Your own towel — many hotels don't allow theirs off-site.
• Reef-safe sunscreen — required at protected sites and better for the bay.
• Water shoes for the rocky coves at Conchas Chinas.
• Cash in small notes for vendors, loungers and water taxis.
• Don't leave valuables unattended — opportunistic theft is the most common problem visitors have.

Best time for the beach

The dry season, November to April, has the most reliable sun and the clearest water — rain isn't washing sediment into the bay, which is why snorkelling is best then. In the green season expect warm sea, lush surroundings and a decent chance of an afternoon downpour — mornings are usually fine.

The water is swimmable year-round. It's warmest at the end of the rainy season, around September, and coolest in February and March.

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