Gay Puerto Vallarta - Gay Cruises, Tours,
Excursions and Getaways

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The gay-owned and operated cruises, tours and excursions in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico are generally scheduled weekly during the "high season" winter months from November through April or May, with the gay cruises running at least once a week year-round. There are also a number of lovely getaways that may also interest you listed below the gay tours. Note: You may want to check the More Activities web page for other activities such as biking, diving, ecological tours, whale watching, and tennis that are not gay or lesbian owned or operated but may nonetheless be enjoyable and of interest to you. Gay Cruises and Tours Boana Horseback Riding   2:30pm-6:30pm   any Day of the Week From a ranch east of town you take a leisurely ride up the Cuale River, among the tropical deciduous forest and a river, where you can stop for a dip at the cascade. Further on you stop a little ranch provides some lunch and refreshments. Gay groups can be arranged, mostly mixed gay/straight, with a english speaking guide. Includes lunch and transportation to and from the ranch. Contact Suzanne or Gloria, Tel: 222-6695 or 222-0999.  $40.00 Boana Gay Cruise   any Day of the Week Private charters available for any day of the week, sunset cruise or overnight. Contact Denis for prices and availability. Tel: 222-0999 or 222-6695. Diana's Gay Vallarta Cruise   9:30am-5pm   every Thurs On a 48 ft. katamaran, for a good time on Banderas Bay, with snorkeling, swimming and sunbathing. Cruise includes continental breakfast, open national bar, snacks, lunch at Las Animas beach, swimming and snorkeling. During the winter includes some whale and dolphin watching. Goes to a South Shore beach, Colomitos. The cruise is popular and often sold out. Diana is noted for her good service. Gay and lesbian. Advance reservations required, $75 USD. Boarding at Los Muertos Pier. Cruise runs every Thurs year round (except mid July-mid Aug, 2009) and runs every Thurs and Fri starting Thanksgiving week through winter months. Now in her ninth year with the cruise; $80 USD starting Nov 2009. contact Diana at dianastours.com or local Tel: 222-1510 Jungle Secret Oasis   12:30pm-6pm  Thurs, Fri and Sat The clothing-optional jungle resort. River white beach, nude swimming, cascades, waterfalls, hiking, nude sunbathing, open bar and a light meal included, 25 minutes from Vallarta up the Cuale River. Bus departs Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 388 Lazaro Cardenas street, near the bar Frida. No reservations needed. $40 US. Jan-Apr only. website: secret-oasis.com or Cell: 044-322-168-9377

PV Sunset Party Cruise   4:30pm-9pm  every Friday
Party party!! Includes open national bar and food buffet, music and hot go-go boyz (photo at left). Leaves from Los Muertos beach pier and cruising south and north to see some of Vallarta from the bay. $65 USD. Pre-sale tickets are available at La Noche bar and Blu by Len hair salon. Some of the very attractive go-go boys from the cruise are also on the gay beach promoting many days. Continues through the winter season until early May 2009. Be at Los Muertos pier not later than 4:15pm. Website: pvsunsetpartycruise.com or Cell: 044-322-150-4755

PVR Gay Cruise   10am-4pm   every Friday
Aboard the comfortable sailboat this cruise cruises across and around the Bay for a day of fun, music, sun and drink. Includes continental breakfast, lunch, beer and open bar, snorkeling equipment, dolphin watching and sailing (if conditions permit). $70 USD.  Tel: 222-0638

Whale Watching with Ocean Friendly Tours   8:45am-3pm (Dec 15-Mar 31 only)
Oscar Frey is an Oceanologist and whale photographer and started whale watching tours in Banderas Bay in 1994, while also running a research program involving humpback whale distribution, numbers and behavior in this area of the Mexican Pacific. Oscar is a consultant to the Department of Oceanography and Eco-Tourism. Tour includes lunch (subs, fruit and snacks), refreshments (non-alcoholic) and hydrophone system (underwater microphone to listen the whales songs and dolphins while aboard). Oscar is gay but the tours are open to all, for 4-8 persons.  Advance reservation required. I know Oscar personally and have received excellent reports of his tours. Highly recommended.  Dec 15-Mar 31 only. $90 US. Office: Paseo del Marlin 510-103, Colonia Aralias, Puerto Vallarta. Website is at oceanfriendly.com and local tel: 225-3774

Ecology Note: We ask our friends and clients to boycott the jet skis, which pollute the air and water, threaten public safety, endanger wildlife, destroy natural quiet, and diminish visitor enjoyment.  Reports show that at least 25% of their fuel goes directly into the water and we would like to help the efforts to clean up the Bay.
 

Getaways - Excursions
If you want to get away, there are cruises and tours that will take you out of Puerto Vallarta, some of which are listed above in Activities. Here below are a few of the lovely places you can visit to further enjoy your stay in Vallarta and the Banderas Bay area. For further info and photos on the beaches of Banderas Bay go to this page.

Puerto Vallarta Botanical Gardens
With agaves and other native plants, orchids, restaurant, river swimming - Approximately 12-14 miles (at km 24 Highway to Barra de Navidad) south of Puerto Vallarta in the Sierra Madre mountains. Located on 20 acres of land, the botanical collections feature over 3,000 different species of plants. "Our gardens are in a unique tropical dry forest ecosystem at 1,300 feet above sea level. Against the breathtaking backdrop of soaring mountain peaks, there is much to experience: Palm Gardens, Rose Garden, Tree Fern Grotto, Orchid House, Jungle Trails, Tropical Bird Watching, Agave Gardens, displays of Mexican Wildflowers and the Carnivorous Plant Collection. Bringing your swimsuit and enjoy a refreshing dip in the crystal clear Rio Los Horcones." Since 2005. 50 pesos admission. Tues-Sun, 9am-5pm  website at vallartabotanicalgardensac.org

Mismaloya
It was here in the village of Mismaloya, approximately 10 miles south of Vallarta, that the movie "The Night of the Iguana" was filmed by John Huston in 1963. A part of the original set is still in existence, and if one knows the movie, walking onto the set can be an experience. Nearby is a restaurant named in its honor, with good food and views of the bay. The small beach at Mismaloya has several restaurants and there are boats for rent for a trip to the rock formations at Los Arcos. The movie Predator was also filmed in Mismaloya in the 1980s. Horses are available for jungle rides, and a trip up the Mismaloya River to the restaurant Chino's Paradise is popular.

Paco's Paradise
Closed for some years now, and taken over by Vallarta Adventures.

Quimixto
A small village on the south bay past Mismaloya, accessible only by boat. Many of the day cruises drop anchor here for several hours so that their passengers can horseback ride up to the popular waterfall in the mountains.  Several palapa roofed restaurants line the cove in Quimixto. If you want a quiet and still undeveloped area for relaxing and taking in some of the natural beauty of the Bay, try this getaway for an afternoon. You can get to any of the south bay villages by water taxi from the small village of Boca de Tomatlan. Or hire your own boat in Boca or in the nearby village of Mismaloya, and then you can take a spin to some secluded beach or village!

Majahuitas
Majahuitas (photo left) is a secluded, picturesque cove surrounded by verdant hills between Quimixto and Yelapa. A quaint beach resort hotel and restaurant can provide accommodations and food. The small beach is one of the loveliest in the south bay and the area is excellent for swimming and snorkeling. Majahuitas is famous among scuba divers for its underwater canyon just outside the cove.

Yelapa
Yelapa is the most remote fishing village on the South Shore of the bay, also accessible only by boat. It is popular because of its beauty and the slow pace of life, and is known as something of an artist retreat and hippie hangout. Several day cruises stop there for a few hours and like Quimixto there is a river and popular waterfall. Yelapa is very laid back and has real charm, with palapas and seafood restaurants on the beach and small bungalows and houses that dot the jungle hillsides. There are few telephones and no cars, gracias a Dios. Electricity has recently made its way to the village, which used to go dark around 10pm after everyone turned off their generators. One of the restaurants becomes something of a night spot/disco in the evening. Lodging is still reasonably priced. There are water taxis from Puerto Vallarta and the village of Mismaloya which go to Yelapa that run in the morning and afternoon. Here's the general schedule, but you should double check these times before making your final plans: Leaving Los Muertos pier to Yelapa: 10am, 11am, 11:30am, 12:30pm, 4pm and 5:30pm; leaving Yelapa to Vallarta's Los Muertos pier: 7:30am, 8:30am, 9am, 10:30am, 3pm, 3:30pm and 4:30pm. PlanetOut has some info and recommendations for Yelapa

Bucerias
Bucerias is a village of several thousand people located about 15 miles north of Puerto Vallarta in the state of Nayarit. Bucerias is more relaxed than Vallarta and has a small expatriate community. Many pleasant accommodations with moderate prices are on or near the water and the town has the longest stretch of beach on Banderas Bay. Now popular with many Canadian tourists because of its more economic prices for food and lodging, Bucerias' architecture is noted for cupolas (domes), and there are hundreds of them on buildings throughout the town. Open air palapa roofed restaurants serve fresh seafood and the uncrowded beaches have gentle surf. Joann Quickstad and Patricia Mendez (photo right), who lived in Vallarta for many years, now reside in Bucerias and manage Casa Tranquila with one bedroom apartments. Joann practices massage with Swedish, reflexology and aromatherapy. Tel: (329)-298-1767

Sayulita
Twenty miles or so beyond Bucerias, but on the Pacific coast, is a favorite gringo getaway, the small picturesque village of Sayulita with its two thousand inhabitants. Surfers like it because the cove there gives good waves pretty much the whole year (the best waves are Nov-Apr), and it is the favorite surf spot in the Banderas Bay area. Several of Mexico's finest (and handsomest) surfers live and surf here; long board and short board are both popular. There are pleasant beach front restaurants, including the upscale Don Pedro's and the popular Capitan Pablo's, as well as bungalows, villas, guest houses and camp grounds. The dusty streets of the town all converge on the small town square, which has several restaurants, an ice cream shop and grocery store, a coffee shop, the church and town billiard hall, a row of houses and a bar or two facing it. This is the look of hundreds of small villages in Mexico. As Janelle Brown reported in the NY Times in 2003, the town still "retains its traditional lifestyle: residents buy fish off the beach, chicken from the woman in the square, and everything else (mops, strainers, plastic chairs) from the trucks that occasionally drive around town." The town is being rather rapidly developed, alas. The Sayulita beach is long and lovely and is one of my favorite getaways.  Go to this page for Sayulita photos.
 

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