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GETTING AROUND IN VALLARTA
The first thing to consider when speaking of getting around in Puerto Vallarta, is that there is essentially one main road that runs through town, heading south from the airport. “Getting around,” therefore, does not take a lot of imagination. If you left the airport and started heading south, you would pass the Marina, Wal-Mart, the Hotel Zone, various stores and restaurants, and curve around the Malecon and be in the vicinity of the flea market, the Rio Cuale, Olas Altas/Amapas, and head out Carretera Barra de Navidad towards Mismaloya and los Arcos. PV has about 300,000 residents (when the high season tourists don’t hit town), and is a fairly compact city. Farther away from the water, heading east towards the jungle, the roads rise steeply up the hillsides, and you encounter the many neighborhoods where locals live. Most tourists will not be venturing in that direction, more for lack of time than any other reason. It is fun to walk around the neighborhoods, stop in at small restaurants, chat with the natives, practice your Spanish, and see how people live who are not staying in resorts! Those of us who spend more time in Vallarta probably do venture out, but by the time you have been there long enough to know your way around, you wouldn’t need a lot of help with doing that.
For now, let’s assume that you are arriving in Vallarta for a vacation of anywhere from a few days to a month or more. Since a large percentage of PV residents do not own cars, there is a wonderful public transportation system in place. Taxis are everywhere, are safe, and the drivers are friendly, helpful, and mostly at least moderately conversant in English. Some taxis are air-conditioned and some are not (an important consideration in July, August and September, when it tends to be the hottest and muggiest), and if they are, they sometimes charge more because of the obvious fuel cost considerations. Since taxi drivers are eager to please, they will load all your parcels from shopping or luggage from the plane into the trunk, and even help you carry these same items to where they need to go at your final destination. There is no “per person” charge with a taxi, and since you can get from one end of town to the other (e.g. the airport to Mismaloya) for something in the vicinity of $10-15, they are extremely reasonably priced. Most trips you will want to take will cost you between $ 3 and $ 6, US. Drivers always quote fares in pesos. So fifty pesos is just under $5, US. A bargain by any standards! Always ask how much the fare is to wherever you are headed before getting into the cab. Conventional wisdom indicates that drivers might charge you more than the usual fare if you fail to do this, and so I repeat the advice. To be honest, though, I have never had a bad taxi experience, other than one somewhat grumpy driver I can recall (and the fact that I can recall him says a lot for the friendliness of all the others). There are pretty set fares for rides to anywhere in town, and all the drivers adhere to them. Price gouging would put a person out of work fairly quickly, and everyone knows that. An important consideration, then, is tipping. Drivers work predominantly for tips, as the fares pay the owner for the gas, maintenance, etc. So failing to tip a driver is failing to pay him for his work. 15-20% is appropriate, unless you have an excessive amount of baggage or in some other way cause the driver more work. Common courtesy then dictates that you tip more. Wages are quite low in Vallarta and, by comparison, prices are not, so helping families earn a decent wage is part of how we give back for the enjoyment of such a beautiful place.
Once you know your way around Vallarta fairly well (which is to say, you have come to recognize that one main road), and once you have slowed down a little from the hectic pace that took you from your home and work through the airports and to your final Vallarta destination), you may decide to try the buses. Except when it is REALLY hot and humid, or when it is pouring down rain, we tend to ride the buses with the locals everywhere we go. Buses are NOT air conditioned, and sometimes the windows open, and sometimes they do not. At certain times of day (e.g. when the locals are getting off work or when the stores close at night), there will be standing room only on the buses. You can go along for the ride if you have good balance (buses do not appear to have shocks) or you can wait for the next bus. It is all part of the adventure! The general areas they go to are posted on the front window of the bus, and if you are not sure, you just confirm with the driver before boarding the bus that he is headed in the direction you want to go. [A side note about my repetitive use of the pronoun “he” to describe all the drivers is the fact that I have never seen a female taxi or bus driver in Vallarta. Remember, in Mexico, you will still see Want Ads saying, “Help Wanted, Men” or “Help Wanted, Women.” Fifty years ago, it was the same in the US, but we have often forgotten those days, if we were even born then. For now, you can assume that all your drivers will be men. ] Buses cost 5 pesos most everywhere in Vallarta (translate: about fifty cents), and on the south side headed towards Mismaloya, the bus company that operates those buses recently started charging 5.5 pesos. When you pay your fare, you will receive a small paper ticket that you must retain throughout your ride. Inspectors do occasionally board the bus to make sure that all passengers have tickets. Another interesting feature of buses in Vallarta is that a person may board the bus and stand up front and tell jokes (all in Spanish), sing songs, do magic tricks, or play a musical instrument, and then walk through the bus to collect donations for the entertainment before exiting the bus and getting on another one in the opposite direction to repeat the performance. The driver does not charge the person for the ride. It is a solidly established part of PV culture. Some “entertainers” are good, some are bad, and some are amazing.
The question of rental cars inevitably arises. To begin with, if you really feel you can’t live without one for the total duration of your trip, whatever you do, make a rental reservation before you leave the US or Canada. You will pay far less for your rental than you will if you decide to get a car once you arrive at the airport. And if your plane arrives late, like after 10 PM, know that the car rental agency will be closed and you will have to take a taxi to your condo or hotel and return the next day via another taxi to rent your car. In any event, you absolutely MUST purchase insurance for driving the vehicle in Mexico, no matter what kind of insurance you have back home. A word to the wise: this insurance will be VERY expensive. Gasoline is not really much less costly than back home, and it is priced by the liter, not the gallon. Then there is the issue of driving in Vallarta. There is a funky little system they have set up where you get in the right lane, turn off onto a frontage road, and then turn left at the next intersection, or make a U-turn, if you want to go left. If you forget this, and just try to turn left, as you would “back home,” you might cause an accident (you don’t even want to go there) or at the least, bring on a cacophony of car horns announcing the drivers’ displeasure with you. Remember, too, that stop signs and stop lights are not always easy to see or placed in the same location as they are at a previous intersection, but you are still liable for knowing they are there. Finally, there is the issue of parking. Parking spots are far from plentiful, although there are an increasing number of paid parking buildings going up in the town center. It is so easy to just hail a cab or hop on a bus that rental cars hardly seem worth the effort. If you decide to take a day trip to some place nearby, just rent a car for the day if you need to and it is too far to seem practical to take a taxi. Or if you have a disability that confines you to a wheelchair and public transportation just doesn’t seem to meet your needs, then you might need to rent a car. Otherwise, when in Vallarta, do as the Vallartans do—catch a cab or ride the bus!
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