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Transportation in Puerto Vallarta

Transport header

Transportation in Puerto Vallarta is very easy, we have a very good public system as well as many taxis and even UBER.

Transportation around Town by Local City Bus

We are blessed with a great public transportation system covering the whole town and beyond.

A bus stop look like this, but some have disappeared or are hidden pretty good. Just look for a crowd of people on the street, usually a corner, since the busses run very frequently, it will be easy for you to spot the stop. In the Colonias, away from tourist areas and “Transito” (traffic police), the bus will stop at every corner, or even in the middle of the street.
To get the bus to stop, point to the middle of the street in front of you, waving may just get you a returned wave.

New Busses.

We have a lot of new busses, clean natural gas powered and some are air-conditioned. The fare is now 10 pesos to everywhere in the city, Many of the new busses coming from the north of downtown, do not enter the city but will stop at the Sports Stadium and Parque Hidalgo. Here you get onto a bus going through the city using the ticket you kept from the 1st one as a ‘transfer’,
No longer do you share your ride with live chickens, at least we haven’t seen any lately. But you may have live entertainment, now for for 10 Pesos! plus a tip for the entertainment.
If you are travelling light, the bus stop at the Airport is right outside by the pedestrian bridge, look for a group of locals – they will be waiting for the bus, this bus can be quite crowded and avoid the one that has Pitillal on the windshield, unless you want a ‘Magical Mystery Tour’.

Puerto Vallarta Bus Routes

To get to downtown from the Hotel Strip take the bus that says ‘Centro’ and does not have ‘Tunel’ on it, the first one will take you through Downtown and on to the south side terminal. The ones which have ‘Tunel’ bypass downtown, but still end up at the terminal on the South Side by Parque Lázaro Cárdenas.So if that’s where you want to go it’s faster than going through downtown and you will see another side of Puerto Vallarta. These signs are usually at the bottom of the front window.

Busses going south,  to Mismaloya and Boca de Tomatlán, 10 Pesos, start from the South Terminal at Constitución and Basilio Badillo, see photo below.

 

 

The bus above will also take you to the Zoo, get off at Mismaloya, The Barcelo Hotel, cross the highway and follow the signs to the Zoo.

Busses to El Tuito, 50 pesos, this bus will also take you to our Botanical Gardens, leaves from the corner of Aguacate & Carranza, for 50 pesos. See Map

Hold On ! a lot of busses will take off quickly, even while still making change. Get to a seat as quickly as possible. Note: the two or four seats behind the driver, often painted yellow, are reserved for the aged, infirm or pregnant. It is good manners to say Gracias (Thank You) to the driver when you exit.


As you can see by the photo of the bus stop sign  on the left some of the locals have quite a sense  of humour.
Anyone interested in a Magical Mystery Tour,  just jump on a bus and take it to  it’s final destination, cheap 10 pesos there and  the same for the return to where you started.

Walking

The ‘centro’ bus will go straight into town and then make a left just after the sports stadium and followed by a right turn onto Peru. Get off at Parque Hidalgo and walk the one block down to the beginning of the Malecón (seafront promenade). Stroll down this in the same direction the bus was going (south) and you will reach the Main Plaza, Town Hall and Church, see Map. If you continue walking south (or stay on the bus) you will cross the Rio Cuale and enter the ‘south side’ of town, lots of good restaurants, bars and coffee bars. Generally everything is cheaper on the south side of Puerto Vallarta than downtown. Go inland to see a typical local neighbourhood or go down to the beach and have a drink down by the pier at Cuates y Cuetes or Langostinos, while you watch another incredible sunset.
Every week there’s a Free City Tour of our Historic Center. at 9am plus 12pm every Tue & Wed. and Sat. at 9am. Tourist Office on the outside corner of City Hall on Juarez. Map Info 222-0923

UBER IS HERE !
Still a little hassling by the Taxi Drivers, but many here are using the service without problems and much cheaper.

City Yellow Taxis
From the Southside to the South From the Southside to the North
Hyatt Ziva Resort 70 pesos Marine Terminal 100 pesos
Mismaloya 140 pesos Marina 130 pesos
Mismaloya Zoo 160 pesos Airport 155 pesos
Boca de Tomatlan 190 pesos Nuevo Vallarta 230 pesos
Botanical Garden 300 pesos RUI & Flamingos 270 pesos
Travel within one zone is 40/50 pesos
Or 260 Pesos per. hour, but make a deal for a half or full day. Full Price Chart

Puerto Vallarta City Taxi.

Before entering the taxi, ask the driver what the fare will be to your destination, if it isn’t close to the guidelines on this page, go to another taxi. Tips are not required, unless you feel it is warranted. The local custom is not to tip, unfortunately many visitors do not know this and tip as they do at home, the result is that the locals have a hard time getting a taxi when they may urgently need one, the taxi will bypass them looking for a tourist who will tip them and pay more for the trip than necessary.
Tips from drivers on where to eat etc. are not reliable (they will be getting a kickback). There have been some recent complaints of taxi drivers taking people to different places than requested because of this. If the driver tells you the place is closed or he doesn’t know where it is – take another taxi. If he takes you somewhere else anyway, find police officer – they all speak English, this will help us get rid of the bad drivers. Also taxi drivers may not know the street names. Even local residents don’t know the names of the streets, We’ve had neighbors who didn’t know the name of the street two blocks away. They do know places, We’ve been given directions like “Turn right on the street just past where the car wash used to be” So we suggest you print out our Maps, each one has a printer friendly version.

Bay Busses

Are slightly longer route busses that can take you to some very nice beaches on the north side of the bay, beyond the bay and to El Tuito, a small town to the south that is older than Vallarta.

The easiest way to travel north from town is from the bus stop in front of Walmart, The stop in front of Sam’s is for city busses, so from town you can take the city bus to Walmart and walk 50 feet further to the ATM stop. Map. There you’ll find someone with a clipboard who will get you onto the right bus.

NOTICE ! Changes are being made to change the location of the ATM stop, north to Las Juntas. They are still traveling through to the north side of town as of Sept 1st.
ATM
 (Autotransportes Medina de Puerto Vallarta) leaves it’s terminal at Brazil #1410 (at the south side of the Sports Stadium), every 7 min. to Punta de Mita and every 10 min. to Nuevo Vallarta. The busses stop across from Copal (in front of HSBC Bank ), in front of Walmart and across from the airport. Look for the ATM sign on the Maps.
The Nuevo Vallarta bus goes to all the hotels in Nuevo. To reach downtown PV from Nuevo Vallarta you’ll have to change from the ATM bus to a local one. The easiest place to do this is at the Marine Terminal (across the road from Walmart/Sam’s), just get off there and wait for the next city bus going to ‘Centro’.
Fares are Bucerías – 16 pesos, Nuevo Vallarta Directo (southern entrance) 15 pesos, Nuevo Vallarta (northern entrance) RIU resorts, 18 pesos, Valle de Banderas – 15 pesos, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle 21 pesos and Punta Mita (El Anclote Beach) – 26 pesos.

The Compostela-Pacifico line (White & Green) goes beyond Nuevo Vallarta. Fares are Bucerías – 14 pesos, to Sayulita – 40

pesos, the Sayulita bus takes you to the Sports Stadium in Sayulita. It leaves from the same stop as the ATM Line at Walmart, on the return the last stop is at Plaza Genovesa. The same bus line also has service to San Francisco (San Pancho) and Rincón de Guayabitos, but not into the towns themselves, just the access road on the highway.

El Tuito. The bus to El Tuito leaves from the corner of V. Carranza and Aguacate, see Map. The fare is 36 pesos and takes about 50 min. A nice excursion you can take for yourself to an old colonial town and a source for Raicilla. See Raicilla
The Botanical Gardens are also on this route, just past Las Juntas y Los Veranos, Map, and costs 50 pesos.

South. The bus to Mismaloya and Boca de Tomatlan, 10 pesos (water taxi to Yelapa) leaves from the corner of B. Badillo & Constitución and at B. Badillo & Insurgentes.

Intercity Busses

These busses, many of them very luxurious, can be found at the Main Bus Terminal just north of the airport, Map, see this Link with a nice plan of the place, including links to the bus lines.

The busses to Manzanillo also stop for passengers on the corner of Aguacate and V. Carranza, The Cihuatlan, Pacifico Line also runs 2nd class busses south. There’s a lady on that corner that sells tickets, Mary, she has curly hair, usually reddish blonde, you can reach her on her cell at 044-322-138-8343 from a land line. or at home 223-2477, if you have any questions. Map.

First class service to Manzanillo:
The Primera Plus Line has a First Class bus at about 8:20am. 4:20pm and 7:10pm. Web Site. at the location above.
The Chiuatlan – Pacific Line runs two Primera Plus Class busses per day, one at 16:00 (4:00 pm) and at 23:30 (11:30 pm).
Lots more second class service:
Flecha Amarilla – Servicios Coordinatos run Second class busses at 7:00, 16:00, 19:45 22:30 23:30 and 01:30
Cihuatlan,Pacific Line run second class buses at 05:00, 06:00, 07:30, 08:30 09:30, 11:30 12:30, 14:30, 15:30, 17:30 and 19:30
These are all bus station times. Web Site.
Futura – also has some busses, see Web Site.

THIS TABLE IS UP TO DATE
ETN PRIMERA PLUS VALLARTA PLUS
Guadalajara $610 pesos $441 pesos $441 pesos
Mexico $1,255 pesos $917 pesos $593 pesos
Aguascalientes $990 pesos $742 pesos

Mazatlan can be reached in 7.5 hours, via Tepic on TAP for 540 pesos, regular service. Web Site

ETN, the most luxurious bus line, 500 pesos, leaves for Guadalajara at
00:30, 01:00, 07:45, 8:45, 10:15, 11:45, 13:00, 14:00, 14:45, 15:30, 16:15, 17:00, 24:00       ETN site is in English !

Another option in traveling to Guadalajara is ‘Vallarta Plus“, a line that takes you to their own terminus in Guadalajara – not the Bus Station that is not near the center of town. Only 441 pesos each way. Web Site. The terminus here is on the right of the access road to the Central Bus Station. Map

You can book your bus trip at Superior Tours located in Plaza Romy. L. Cárdenas and I. Vallarta. Map

NOTE: Due to continually changing fuel prices, the fares will fluctuate also.

You can now travel the scenic route to and from Guadalajara, via Mascota and Talpa de Allende. Not a direct trip, you’ll have to change in Mascota or Talpa. Six busses a day from PV with ATM Red Line to Talpa and nine buses a day from Talpa to Guadalajara. ATM Web site Red Line terminal on this Map.

These special Federal licensed taxis are only allowed to service from the Airport to Hotels and Condos, more expensive than city taxis, they must pay for the expensive plates/permit and can only pick up at the airport, so they return empty. Here’s a guide, These rates are of January 2015.
There are yellow cabs across the highway at the other end of the pedestrian bridge where you’ll find a guy with a clipboard handling the taxis there, you save about one third off the Federal Airport taxis.

AIRPORT TAXIS
 Zone 1A 1 2 3
 Area Marina Vallarta Hotel Zone
Downtown
South-Side/Old Town South-Mismaloya
Normal – up to 3 persons $240 pesos $260 pesos $343 pesos $412 pesos
Van – up to 5 persons $460 pesos $518 pesos $688 pesos $805 pesos
 North
Punta de Mita
South – Nuevo Vallarta North-NV
Decameron
 Normal – up to 3 persons $1,000 pesos $343 pesos $412 pesos
Van – up to 5 persons $2,000 pesos $688 pesos 805 pesos

Los Muertos Beach to Yelapa 220 pesos 1st class pier to pier – no chance of wet feet, but a longer ride, 50min, than below.

Take a Taxi $10.00 (200 Pesos ) or Bus .40c (8 Pesos) to Boca de Tomatlan then water taxi from the pier there.
Boca de Tomatlan to Las Animas 80p, Quimixto, Yelapa 100, pesos or Pizota for a bit more.

 

WATER TAXI SCHEDULE FOR YELAPA FROM BOCA DE TOMATLAN
TIME LOCATION BOAT NAME BOAT TYPE COMMENTS
8:00 am Pier/Beach Water Taxi With Stops
9:00 am Pier/Beach Najeli Water Taxi With Stops
10:00 am Pier/Beach Mar Carinosa Water Taxi Sometimes waits, and leaves at 11:00 am
11:00 am Pier/Beach La Cascada Water Taxi Sometimes waits, and leaves at 12:00 am
12:00 pm Pier/Beach Water Taxi With Stops
1:00 pm Pier/Beach Mas Carinosa Water Taxi With Stops
2:00 pm Pier/Beach La Gaviota Water Taxi With Stops
3:00 pm Pier/Beach Najeli Water Taxi With Stops
4:00 pm Exept Sundays Pier/Beach La Guera Water Taxi With Stops
5:00 pm Pier/Beach Water Taxi With Stops
6:00 pm Pier/Beach La Cascada Water Taxi With Stops

WATER TAXI SCHEDULE FOR YELAPA FROM LOS MUERTOS BEACH PIER – MAP
TIME LOCATION BOAT NAME BOAT TYPE COMMENTS
11:00 am Los Muertos Pier Yelapa Water Taxi Co-op Water Taxi With Stops
11:30 am Except Sundays Hotel Rosita Beach Yelapa Water Taxi Co-op Water Taxi Leaves at 11:45 am from Los Muertos Pier
1:00 pm Los Muertos Pier Yelapa Water Taxi Co-op Water Taxi With Stops
3:00 pm Los Muertos Pier Yelapa Water Taxi Co-op Water Taxi With Stops
5:00 pm Los Muertos Pier Yelapa Water Taxi Co-op Water Taxi With Stops
FROM DAVIS´S Yelapa.info Site