"Ladies, we got ladies here," barked a man outside of a strip club in Puerto Vallarta's gay-friendly Zona Romantica neighborhood as I walked by two weeks ago.
"But I like men," I responded.
"You like men?" he asked and I nodded. "Oh, sorry, senor, we only got ladies here," he replied. "But gay good, no problem," the man added as he smiled and gave me the thumbs up sign.
That reaction is typical in Puerto Vallarta where gays and their money are very much welcome �" even by a doorman at a straight men's strip club.
Over the past 20 years, Puerto Vallarta has evolved into Mexico's most popular gay destination. And it is getting gayer all the time. Last year, the city hosted its first gay Pride parade and festival on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, which was the weekend before Guadalajara's gay parade.
Puerto Vallarta is gearing up for its high season. Not surprisingly, the busiest time in the city is between Thanksgiving and Easter when the snowbirds head south.
The biggest gay circuit party is held over the Thanksgiving holiday. Will Gorges, the southern California promoter of the original Latin Fever, is organizing what is called PVR 2013 Music and Culture. It runs November 27-December 1.
Bears will have their day with the Beef Dip 2014 circuit party from January 26-February 2.
Puerto Vallarta has nearly a dozen gay hotels and more than a couple dozen gay bars and nightclubs. All but one gay hotel and one gay bar are located in the Zona Romantica, or the Romantic Zone, which is the area just south of downtown on the south side of the Cuale River. It is about a 20-minute cab ride from the airport.
Gays were a big part of the revitalization of Zona Romantica in the early 1990s and thanks to recent capital improvements, that trend very much continues. The neighborhood now has its own brand-new landmark, the Los Muertos Pier, which opened in January. The pier is a dramatic design with a circular walkway and benches lined around a tower that is clad in metal mesh siding designed to look like a sail.
The city is gradually replacing the neighborhood's patchwork sidewalks with uniform sidewalks with small black stones embossed in wave design down the middle. You can stroll from Zona Romantica along the waterfront to the city's famous oceanfront walkway known as the Malecon. It was redone a couple of years ago so the street that fronts the waterfront is now a pedestrian walkway.
Daylife
Puerto Vallarta's unofficial gay beach is called the Blue Chairs Beach and is in front of the Blue Chairs Hotel, near the southern end of Los Muertos Beach. The gay beach includes the blue chairs directly in front of the Blue Chairs Hotel as well as the larger section of green chairs just south of the blue chairs. You can sit on one of the lounge seats under a palapa as long as you buy something from the Blue Chairs or Green Chairs restaurants. Or you can lay a towel anywhere along the beach.
For more than a decade, Diana's Tours has been a must-do attraction for LGBTs visiting Puerto Vallarta. The cruise runs every Thursday and sometimes on Fridays if demand is high. If you want to go, be sure and make your reservation early to be assured a space. The cruise is run by a French-Canadian lesbian, Diana DeCoste, and is mostly gay male but is very lesbian- and straight-friendly. The all-day cruise first makes a snorkeling stop at the giant hollowed out rocks known as Los Arcos that are symbols of the city, then on to a private beach, and finally a beachfront restaurant before heading back. Snacks and unlimited drinks are provided along the way.
The Wet and Wild cruise runs on Saturdays and Wednesdays in season. It bills itself as a "gays gone wild" cruise. It is unabashedly sexually charged and is targeted toward gay men. It takes a similar route as Diana's. The cruise has a large staff of good-looking locals who work for tips and will make sure your glass is never empty and will chat you up if you feel like company.
From November through April, the Boana Hot Springs Tour is a men-only tour that takes visitors to natural hot springs in the jungle outside the city. The $59 tour includes unlimited food and drink at the clothing-optional springs. It is a romantic setting to take a partner or meet a new friend.
Gay oceanographer Oscar Frey runs the Ocean Friendly Whale Watching tours, which run December 8 through March 23.
Transplanted gay Bay Area residents are very much a part of the fabric that helps keep tourists coming back every year. A San Francisco man, Bob Price, co-founded and runs the nonprofit Vallarta Botanical Gardens, another former San Franciscan, Gary Beck, publishes "Beck's Best Restaurant Guide" to the city while a former East Bay resident, Mark Page, publishes the gay guide to Puerto Vallarta, "Gay Guide Vallarta." One of the world's most highly rated gay boutique hotels, Casa Cupula, is in Puerto Vallarta and is owned by San Franciscan Don Pickens.
The Vallarta Botanical Gardens is a must-see stop for any visitor to the city. The 20-acre rainforest sanctuary includes a wonderful restaurant and beautiful gardens and walking paths. Price started it in 2004 and it is the area's newest and treasured attraction. The gardens are 1,300 feet above sea level, so it is a refreshing escape from the heat and the humidity you may experience in the city. You can get there by a public bus for about $1.50 or a taxi will run about $20 from Zona Romantica. Vallarta Adventures offers a wonderful tour from Puerto Vallarta to the Botanical Gardens, Sierra Madre Mountains, the charming small town of El Tuito, a couple of distilleries, and a hidden rock with ancient pre-Hispanic petroglyphs. The company has a great reputation for quality tours by knowledgeable and entertaining guides.
If you are staying in Zona Romantica, you can easily walk to downtown, the oldest part of the city. That is where you will find the city's landmark, Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, with the steeple in the design of a crown. On the hill behind the church, a famous pink "love bridge" connects the houses once belonging to Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. By the way, that couple helped put Puerto Vallarta on the map when they carried on a scandalous affair during the filming of the Night of the Iguana in 1964. If you want to check it out the address is 445 Zaragoza Street.
The Hacienda Dona Engracia tequila distillery and restaurant is a great stop to enjoy nature and get a glimpse into how tequila is made. You can take a guided horseback ride through the beautiful country surrounding the property.
Puerto Vallarta is situated on Banderas Bay, which is teeming with dolphins. Wildlife Connection offers tours to help you responsibly observe the mammals. The tours take visitors in a small boat close to where the dolphin pods are and you can jump in and swim alongside them.
Foodies new to Puerto Vallarta will appreciate the Vallarta Eats Food Tours that run every day except for Mondays and Tuesdays.
The Go Gay Puerto Vallarta site (http://www.gogaypuertovallarta.com) is a good resource to book a number of gay-friendly tours and travel services.
Puerto Vallarta's LGBT center is called SETAC. It is in Zona Romantica and offers a number of bilingual services including AA meetings, HIV and STD testing, Spanish and English classes, and movie nights. Visit the center's website for more information at http://en.setac.com.mx/.
Nightlife
Five new gay bars and nightclubs have opened in Puerto Vallarta over the past year. The Karma nightclub is the only gay club in the city outside of Zona Romantica and is a late night space that is open only on weekends. You may notice its rainbow striped facade on the road from the airport. The other newcomers are the Stonewall, Margarita, Enter, and Cueva bars. Enter is a cavernous dance club that is an "after-after" hours bar that stays open on the weekends until 10 a.m. Margarita is an upscale lounge bar that took over part of the space once occupied by La Noche, which is still next door. Stonewall and Cueva attract a great mix of locals and tourists alike. Cueva is operated by the same people who ran No Borders downtown. The owners of No Borders sold the business to the employees, who moved it to Zona Romantica. They changed the name to Cueva and it attracts much of the same crowd who kept No Borders busy. La Noche expanded upwards and now boasts a beautiful rooftop lounge.
For the uninitiated, in Puerto Vallarta, like most of Latin America, smaller bars usually are busiest in the early evening up until about midnight or 1 a.m. The bigger nightclubs don't get busy until after 1 a.m. Paco's Ranch, CC Slaughters, Karma, and Enter are the gay nightclubs. Drag shows are also a mainstay in nightclubs in the late night. There are no exclusive lesbian bars in Puerto Vallarta but the Apaches bar is lesbian-owned and very women-friendly and the bigger nightclubs including Karma, CC Slaughters, and Paco's Ranch are very women welcoming.
All the city's bars have their own devoted groups of regulars. Frida's is one of the oldest gay bars in the city and serves up tasty and inexpensive comfort food daily. Its affable owner Tom Finley holds court nightly.
Reinas (Queens in Spanish) is where Frida's used to be and as you might have guessed, proudly boasts a royal motif and a very friendly vibe.
The Sama martini bar is the perfect place to sip Puerto Vallarta's best martinis. Longtime manager Alex Ramirez keeps customers coming back every night. It is a great place to meet new people as you sit out on the sidewalk lounge.
The gay men's sauna, Spartacus, opened over the past year where the Picante bar used to be. It's open until 11 p.m. weekdays and midnight weekends.
Gay nightlife is an ever moving target. Be sure to check out Gay Guide Vallarta when you get into town. It's available at gay places everywhere. The Gay Guide also produces a weekly guide to what's happening. You can check the guide out online at http://www.gayguidevallarta.com. The site also offers apps you can download to mobile devices.
The gay bar hop tour is on vacation now but resumes October 18 with tours every Friday and Saturday night. The $75 cost includes dinner, drinks, tips, VIP access, and a wristband good for discounts around town. A day hop tour is offered on Tuesdays.
Accommodations
The gay hotel, Hotel Mercurio, is in the heart of Zona Romantica just a half block from Olas Altas, the neighborhood's main drag. It is mostly gay male but is very lesbian- and straight-friendly. It has budget prices but a better than budget feel. Mercurio is very generous. A delicious free hot breakfast is included. The happy hour by the pool bar is a great way to mix it up with locals even if you aren't staying there.
The aforementioned gay hotel, Casa Cupula, sits on a hill above Zona Romantica. It routinely ranks near the top of all boutique hotels, gay or straight, in Puerto Vallarta. Its fabulous gourmet Taste restaurant is worth stopping by even if you are not staying there.
If you would prefer to stay at a mainstream gay-friendly and very family-friendly mixed hotel, the San Marino is a good option. The beachfront property is in front of the Los Muertos Pier. The San Marino makes it very easy with an all-inclusive plan. You pay one price and all meals in the hotel are included. The hotel proudly displays an LGBT section on the front page of its website and is a member of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association and has TAG certification from the San Francisco-based Community Marketing Inc. for being gay-friendly. It is a great place for gay families with kids who wouldn't appreciate being dragged around to restaurants anyway.
The gay-male only and clothing optional Vallarta Cora hotel is known as party central. If you are not staying there, its early anything goes poolside evening happy hour draws regulars and visitors alike after the beach. The small cover charge includes a free drink.
If you haven't been to the Blue Chairs Hotel in a while, you haven't been there. The rooftop bar and restaurant expanded to three levels and the hotel will soon add new rooms as a second building springs up next to the main one. It sits directly in front of the Blue Chairs Beach. The hotel's concierge desk is open to guests and non-guests alike for information and bookings on gay tours.
Now that the Abbey Hotel has closed, the only other large high-rise gay hotel is the Boana Torre-Malibu. It officially considers itself straight-friendly and you won't find a built in gay bar on property but you will find inexpensive condo-sized rooms, many with ocean views. Like the Blue Chairs, it has a concierge desk where you can get info and book gay or gay-friendly tours. The Hot Springs Tour departs from there.
The only gay accommodation in downtown Puerto Vallarta, Villa David Bed and Breakfast, is male only and clothing optional. It is on a hill overlooking the historic church and downtown. The property is impeccably maintained. The American owners have kept the character of the old building intact while adding the modern fixtures and conveniences that finicky travelers demand.