Arriving
in Puerto Vallarta by Air
Have your tourist card ready,
you would have filled this out, together with your customs form, on
the plane. Our airport now has a Web
Site. even if it's all "Under Construction", except Security Rules, which is in Spanish 
.
At Immigration (Migración) you will show your passport
and receive a stamped portion of your Tourist Card (FMT), don't loose this,
it will cost you if you don't have it to hand over when you leave.
After Immigration you will go and claim your luggage, proceeding to the Red
and Green light system of Customs. This is where you try your luck, every family
gets to push a button and see whether they get a Green Light = Proceed without
Inspection, or the Red Light = Get Inspected, (note: stay together, only one
person per family has to do this, if they are in a group). If you get a Red the Customs
Inspection is usually cursory.
CAUTION. The next test is, by
far, the worst. After exiting the automatic sliding doors after Customs you
enter two, obviously secure parts of the airport, with counters around the
sides, uniformed attendants and other 'official' looking people sporting badges
with their picture. They will immediately try to usher you towards the counters
on some pretext.
This is all TIMESHARE. Now, if
you want to waste 20 minutes there, arranging a timeshare viewing (never less
than 4 hours of High Pressure Sales), for a free breakfast and a discount on
some tours, go ahead and let them lead you away. If, on the other hand, this
doesn't sit well with you, put your head down and get out of there, through
the automatic sliding doors to your left. Those who are more creative, could
perhaps show some other form of behavior, for this attempt to deceive, an elbow to the throat comes to mind
Having made your escape, you will find
there are 2 ATMs in the airport, but one is in Departures.
In general using your ATM card and withdrawing the maximum that you can, will
spread what your
bank
charges
for
an
International Withdrawal over the amount you took out. Note: Tell
your bank that you will be using the card in Mexico or they may flag
it and your card will stop working. The local ATMs are now charging
on withdrawals (progress?) but it's a very small amount and adjusts the exchange rate you get, but they will give you a good rate of exchange and are also very convenient.
Out of Customs, through the timeshare trap, got your pesos, you'll
see three taxi ticket booths, rates are posted and one maybe a little less. Ignore the
crowds of people yelling 'Taxi' and go straight to the booth, buy your
tickets, the price is pretty well set and about double the city (yellow)
taxi, but it's a Federal Zone, requires expensive Federal Plates and
they have to come back empty, since they can not pick up in town. There's
a rough guide to prices on the Transport page. Crossing the road to get a yellow city taxi will not save you much and not worth the hassle.
Get to your accommodation and start enjoying your stay.
I would not recommend booking your city tours via the cruise ship, these tours will take you to the establishments (stores and restaurants) that have paid a hefty fee to the cruise line, this fee is passed on to you as higher prices, some restaurants even have a separate menu for cruise ship customers. Many cruise lines try and frighten their passengers into taking the ship sponsored tours, claiming that the passengers will get sick or cheated otherwise.
Only passengers who have bought tours through the ship, will be allowed to disembark first, the other passengers have to wait about an hour before they can leave. Keep in mind that most cruise ships keep to a 'ship time' which is one hour earlier than 'local time', so if the ship docks at 7am, it's could actually be 8am
Tony's Tours can pick you up at the dock and he provides many types of private tours in a very nice air-conditioned 14 passenger van, at very competitive prices.
The same goes for other tours, such as the very popular Canopy Tour Los Veranos. If you book on-line for this tour and others, you'll save yourself a lot of money.
If you want to go on the Canopy Tour, don't try and book for the 9am or 10am trips, they will be full of the passengers who bought the tour through the cruise ship - at very inflated prices , better to take the 11am, 12 noon or even later ones. This tour takes about 4 hours and you'd still have plenty of time to get back to the ship.
You may notice that I don't book all
of the many tours available here.
I offer discount prices and on-line booking for the tours that provide,
what I think is the best experience for visitors and that I've had first hand
experience with.
But, I don't book the following tours:
Dune Buggy/ATV tours: with ONE exception see below
I've not heard of one Dune Buggy tour operator that has had no complaits, they all appear to be pretty dodgy, with many badly maintained vehicles.
The locals hate these people, the customers are supplied with bandanas to cover their nose and mouth from all the dust they kick up. Then they drive through some of our Colonias and all that dust is spread through the houses and onto the usual roadside food stands. Residents from one Colonia blocked the road in protest not long ago. They also drive up river beds doing untold damage to the ecosystem.
The one exception is a responsible ATV tour, just using the abilities of the vehicle to go to places that are usually difficult to reach and putting something back into the small comunities, see Unique ATV Tours.
Booze Cruises:
If your idea of fun is to be confined on a boat with a lot of drunk (and usually throwing up) people, I'm sure you can find it, just not here.
Air Conditioned Bus Tours:
You might as well stay home and go to Disneyland. The customers are let out at specific stores and/or restaurants, where they will be paying the premium prices that those places will charge. Yes, prices for these groups - especially the ones from the cruise ships - are inflated in order to cover the considerable payment the businesses have to pay the tour operators to bring them there.
If you want a bus tour, take a local bus, for 6.5 pesos it's an exciting experience, sorry no air conditioning.