Festival Gourmet International
The event that put Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's culinary map: ten days of guest chefs every November. In 2026, from 12 to 22 November.
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Held each November, the Festival Gourmet International is the oldest and best-known food event in the region, and a large part of why Puerto Vallarta has the reputation it does for dining. Participating restaurants each host a visiting chef from elsewhere in Mexico or abroad, and the two menus are cooked together for a series of one-off dinners.
The 2026 festival
- Dates: Thursday 12 to Sunday 22 November 2026, as listed by the Puerto Vallarta Tourism Board.
- The programme and the list of participating restaurants are published by the organisers in the weeks before; dinners are booked restaurant by restaurant.
- A busy middle weekend: 14 to 16 November is Mexico's Revolution Day long weekend, so book that Saturday's dinners and your room early.
- The same month: Día de los Muertos ends on 2 November and the International Fishing Tournament runs from 11 to 14 November; see the events calendar.
What actually happens
- Guest-chef dinners. The core of the festival — each participating restaurant pairs its own kitchen with an invited chef for a one-off menu, usually with wine pairings. Most restaurants run several nights.
- Chef's Table and winemakers' dinners, hosted by individual restaurants. A Chef's Table is smaller, more expensive, cooked and explained in front of you; a winemakers' dinner is a menu built around a producer, with the winemaker present.
- Wine tasting and Cheeses of the World — standalone tasting sessions rather than seated dinners.
- The Sunday Gourmet Brunch — one of the most popular single events, the most sociable, and the one that sells out first.
- The Gala Dinner — the formal close of the festival.
Is it worth planning a trip around?
If food is a main reason you travel, yes. The appeal isn't a street festival atmosphere — most of it happens inside restaurants, at proper sit-down dinners you book individually. That makes it a quieter, more grown-up event than the city's religious festivals, and it falls at an excellent time of year: November is the start of the dry season, before the Christmas crush and price peak.
How to do it
There is no festival pass. Each participating restaurant sells its own dinners, and you book directly with them. That means you can attend a single event or a dozen, and you can mix price levels — a guest-chef dinner at a high-end restaurant one night, something more modest the next.
- Book dinners early. The best restaurants and the headline events sell out; the brunch and the gala go first.
- Stay central. Many participating restaurants are in Old Town and around the Marina; walking home after a long tasting menu beats finding a taxi.
- Pace yourself — these are multi-course menus with wine pairings; two or three across a week is plenty.
If you're not here in November
The city's everyday food scene is the real attraction and it runs all year. A food tour covers the street-level side, and where to eat in Old Town covers the rest. Restaurant Week in May and June is the other big food event.
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