What to Pack for Puerto Vallarta

Light clothes, real shoes, and a few things people always forget.

By Sam Med · Last updated September 2026

Steps above Old Town, Puerto Vallarta — Steps above Old Town — the reason shoes matter here. Photo: Dennis Sylvester Hurd, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

Puerto Vallarta is warm year-round, so packing is mostly about humidity, sun and those cobbled streets. Check the weather guide for your month, then use this.

Clothing

Puerto Vallarta has two quite different halves of the year, and they call for different bags.

	Dry season (Nov–May)	Green season (Jun–Oct)
The problem	Strong sun, cool evenings	Humidity and afternoon rain
Add	A sweater or light jacket for evenings and boat trips	A light rain shell, a second pair of shoes, a second swimsuit
Skip	Heavy rain gear	Anything that needs to stay dry or crisp
Fabrics	Anything light	Cotton and linen only — synthetics cling

In the green season, assume nothing fully dries overnight. That is the single fact that should shape your packing: duplicates of the things you wear against your skin, and shoes you can afford to have wet.

Shoes — this one matters

Old Town's streets are cobbled, steep and uneven. Bring comfortable walking shoes with grip; leave the heels and smart leather shoes behind — the cobbles will ruin them and you in them. Flip-flops for the beach, water shoes if you plan to visit the rocky coves at Conchas Chinas.

Sun & sea

Reef-safe sunscreen — required at some protected sites like the Marietas, and better for the bay.
Hat and sunglasses — the sun is strong even in winter.
Beach towel, unless your hotel provides one — check first; most resorts do, but not all hotels let you take theirs out.
Dry bag for boat trips.

Things people forget

Insect repellent — mosquitoes are worse in the green season.
A power bank for long boat days.
Cash in small notes — see money & tipping.

Electronics and plugs

Mexico uses the same sockets as the United States and Canada — flat two-pin (Type A) and two-pin-plus-earth (Type B), at 127 volts, 60 Hz. If you are coming from the US or Canada you need nothing. From Europe, the UK or Australia, bring an adapter; check that your chargers are rated 100–240 V, as nearly all modern phone and laptop chargers are.

Medication and the pharmacy question

Bring prescription medication in its original labelled packaging, with enough for the whole trip plus a few days. Pharmacies are everywhere and many medicines that need a prescription at home are sold over the counter here, but do not plan around that — the specific brand or dose you take may not be stocked. A small kit covering rehydration salts, an anti-diarrhoeal, painkillers, antihistamine and blister plasters saves a trip out on the one evening you need it.

What not to bring

Formal wear. Almost nothing here has a dress code beyond "not beachwear". A few Old Town restaurants and rooftops warrant one smart-casual outfit, and that covers every restaurant on this site.
Valuable jewellery. Nothing you would be upset to leave on a beach.
A hairdryer — effectively every hotel has one, and it is the heaviest thing people pack unnecessarily.
Large quantities of cash in dollars. ATMs are everywhere; see money, cards & tipping.

Documents

A passport valid for your stay, and your FMM tourist permit details — these days usually recorded digitally on entry rather than issued as a paper slip, but keep whatever you are given. Carry a photo of your passport on your phone and leave the original in the hotel safe. Travel insurance details should be somewhere you can reach them offline.