My Recap of Puerto Vallarta During the 'Low/Rainy Season' Shawn T - TripAdvisor
go to original September 26, 2016

I've been to PV before in Dec/Jan and fell in love. I saw some great hotel deals and leaped into buying them before checking out conditions during Sept. After some research I heard many say it was the worst time to go. Well, I just got back and I thought I fill others in on what I thought about the "worst time" to go.

Background, I'm 42, over weight, and not in the best shape. We live in Texas outside of Dallas. It is hot in our area and we already do a few outdoor activities so i am kind of used to heat- at lease as much as a fat guy can be. We arrived 9/3 and left 9/10 and stayed at Mayan Palace in NV.

Weather - The biggest thing I hear about is that it is unbearably hot. I didn't check temp every day but it was mostly lower 90s and upper 80s. It was definitely more humid than Dallas but temps were lower than our hot part of the year. We were very active, going hiking, shopping, and general exploring via foot etc outside. I did not find it unbearably hot. On the day we hiked from boca to las animas, and the day we went to the botanical gardens we did sweat a lot, but we were hiking outdoors. We packed extra waters, took some breaks, and of course had a cold beer where they were available. As for rain, I was disappointed. I was hoping for a good hard rain, but we never got one. In fact, I only actually saw it rain one day. It may have lightly rained at night as I noticed the streets were wet at the resort in the morning but I never saw it rain. I did hear thunder a few nights. It was cloudy during many parts of the day, although the sun did peak out alot. We ate dinner on the beach as much as possible and did notice around 7pm or so that the wind died down, and the sun got low enough in the sky that it was blocked less by the umbrellas at the tables. It got a little hotter than I want to be while eating but again, not unbearable with the ocean breeze.

The extra clouds were really pretty against the mountains. The day we drove to san sabastain was great with all the clouds through the mountains. Some days when you aren't doing something extra strenuous you still end up sweating....like walking to the pool, or walking around town. that was noticeable.

Restaurant closing and low amounts of customers - We ate out every meal. Most were in Bucerias and a few around town in PV. Often we were one of the only ones in the entire restaurant. We always got to pick our seat where eve we wanted in the entire restaruant. If restaurants did have other patrons, they appeared to be local Mexican nationals, not American/Canadian tourists. One exception to this was some of the street taco places. Those were frequented by locals and the ones I picked were packed. The other exception was Sayulita- the street restaurants at some attendance by tourist. Many restaurants were closed. For the most part this wasn't a big deal as there are many to choose from. The only one I really wanted to do that couldn't easily be replaced was ocean grill which is between Boca and Las Animas.

Hotels - We stayed at Mayan Palace in Nuevo. That is a huge complex with all Vidanta resorts (I think its 5 or 6 resorts) That place is gigantic. In your mind think of gigantic, and then double it. The place was a ghost town. At one point I went to the pool and it was literally vacant. The entire pool for Mayan Palace is approx 150 yards long, maybe longer and there was no one. There was one old guy playing ping pong with one of the joy squad guys and another one doing some sort of arts and crafts. I went to the beach, again absolutely vacant. They had 3 rows of beach lounge chairs with probably 40-50 chairs in each row and there was absolutely no one. I couldn't believe so I actually took a picture (attached). There was a life guard in the life guard shack trying to stay awake. i went back later and there were maybe 10 people at the pool and 1 person at the beach. We went by a few other hotels that looked similar. We did a sailing trip that stopped outside of a resort at Piedra Blanca and the entire resort looked vacant. There were a few people getting beach massages but the beach was empty.

Shopping - Vendors are always aggressive but this time was even more so. They'd follow you for almost a block trying to make a deal. It was kind of sad actually because they would say it had been really and slow and from what I saw it was accurate. I felt badly for them trying to make a living and especially for the kids trying to sell stuff on the beach.

Attractions - We went to botanical gardens and only saw one other couple there- and they were leaving. There were a few people there that drove in, straight to the restaurant. WE did the hike from boca to las animas and saw no one else but a few people that were either working on the trail or working on a house- we couldn't tell. The beach itself at las animas was pretty busy with a few tour boats showing up and the water taxis. We ate at los arcos at las animas. The upstairs had maybe 5 tables. the downstairs had us and one other group and we stayed there probably 4 hours. Other restaurants had patrons and one was really busy as it had a huge tour boat that had all its people go there exclusively. we got a sailing trip from Ada sailing for almost half price- it had only 7 people on there total. Went to San Sabastain and were the only non local looking people there besides and small Vallarta adventure tour that showed up later. We went to La Cruz and were amazed at how vacant that place was. I felt sorry for the beach restaurant we stopped at. The only exception to being vacant was sayulita. That beach was fairly populated. Based on that, I would not like to go there during the high season although I do want to go there and wonder around a little bit. It appeared to be a pretty neat little town.

Beaches - As stated early, beaches had low attendance short of sayulita. We saw a few people on the vidanta stretch in pockets. One areas had maybe 10 people in the water. Bucerias had some local looking families. Beach vendors seemed fewer but they were more aggressive than normal. None of them were bad, just needed a sale.

Sunsets - One thing I remembered from my last trip that was in January years ago was the sunsets. Being cloudier this trip than last trip the sunsets were not as spectacular. I know I've seen some pretty cool shots on FB lately of sunsets, but we didn't see anything like that. That is probably my only regret on this trip. Part of that may have been our location and timing as our last hotel had a perfect angle for sunsets where this on did not.

General Comments - I've been to PV once before but I thought how much greener and prettier I thought the country side was this trip during rainy season. Butterflies were everywhere once you got out of town. I met Roberto at the botanical gardens. He said they had a big rain the night before (although we got nothing in NV) and told us we needed to check out the butterfly garden because it was on fire. There were 1000s of butterfly. The other place I noticed them in numbers was the road to San Sabastain. That was the morning it rained and as it was drying up, the butterflies really came out. That is a beautiful drive and that added to it. I don't know how the roads are outside of town but I wondered if the rainy season had affected them, the road to San sabastain was awful. We had to dodge 1000s of pot holes. I noticed they were worst next to some steep hills/cliffs and I wondered if that was due to rocks falling and starting the pot holes. We also looked for a restaurant up the river. That road was the cobblestone and it was awful. We went down many roads that had a river running down it. We felt sorry for our gecko rent car as it was taking a beating and was absolutely filthy when we came back.

On our last day, my wife said that she didn't think she ever wanted to come back except during low season. it was so quiet and beaches wide open. I love PV and can't wait to go back. If you are considering going during rainy season, use some caution due to the hurricane risk but don't be too worried. We may have gotten lucky, but I'm willing to roll the dice and try it again. To those who are lucky enough to live there, I'm jealous.

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