Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta has Mexico's highest gay density per head, and the whole scene fits inside the Zona Romántica: more than forty gay-owned bars, clubs, restaurants and services in a few blocks you can walk one after another. The offer covers every taste, from clubs such as Mantamar, Anónimo and Paco's Ranch to leather bars, nightly drag shows, gay-owned Mexican cantinas and terrace restaurants.

The evening starts early, with sunset cocktails at Mantamar, and stretches to dawn in the clubs. Drag culture is the local trademark, with daily shows at several venues. And all of this in a municipality of around 292,000 people, 479,000 counting the wider area, which explains why calling it the San Francisco of Mexico does not sound like an exaggeration.

Vallarta Pride has been held every May since 2013, timed to the US Memorial Day weekend, the last of the month, to catch the tourism from the north. It is five days of pool parties, concerts, drag shows, beach parties and the march. The scale is out of proportion for a municipality of around 292,000 people, 479,000 with the wider area: it looks more like the Pride of a mid-sized European capital.

The other big date is Bear Week, in late January or early February, because Puerto Vallarta is an international reference destination for the bear crowd. Outside those dates, the gay high season runs from November to April, with dry weather and US and Canadian tourism, and the nightlife works all year.

The Zona Romántica, also called the old town, occupies the strip south of the Cuale river, between the bay and the hill. The core streets are Olas Altas, Lázaro Cárdenas, Basilio Badillo and Francisca Rodríguez. Playa Los Muertos is the main public beach, and its southern end, in front of the Mantamar Beach Club, works as the gay beach and as a gathering point for LGBT visitors.

Since the nineties the area has settled as an international gay destination, with the first wave of gay-owned bars and hotels. Today it is a complete ecosystem: hotels, bars, clubs, restaurants, shops, drag venues and beach clubs. It can be crossed on foot end to end in a quarter of an hour, and in high season it does not stop all day.

The municipality is actively pro-LGBT and has been declared an officially gay-friendly destination. Among health services, the Hospital San Javier and CMQ Premiere are private and see tourists, and the international clinics accept US and Canadian insurance without difficulty. Post-exposure prophylaxis is available in private emergency departments, within a 72-hour window. Among the local organisations are the Sociedad de la Diversidad Sexual de Puerto Vallarta and Compa Vallarta, which supports LGBT tourism. And because of the number of visitors from the north, US and Canadian consular support is very present.