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Puerto Vallarta occupies a particular kind of geography that shapes everything about it: a crescent bay on Mexico's Pacific coast, backed by the Sierra Madre Occidental and facing the open water of Banderas Bay, one of the largest natural bays in the Americas. The mountains come down almost to the shoreline in places, and that compression of jungle, river, and sea gives the city a density of natural drama that few resort towns on this coast can match. Jalisco is better known internationally for Guadalajara and tequila country, but Puerto Vallarta has carved out its own identity entirely, one built around the water, the old town's cobbled streets, and a cultural life that has grown considerably since the city first attracted international attention in the 1960s.

The Zona Romántica, the neighbourhood south of the Cuale River, remains the area most first-time visitors find themselves drawn to. Its low-rise streets, the Malecón seafront promenade, the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe with its distinctive crown-topped tower, and the concentration of galleries and restaurants give the city a walkable, human scale that larger Mexican resort destinations often lack. The Malecón itself is lined with public sculptures that have become landmarks in their own right, and the stretch between the old town and the marina district offers a useful orientation for understanding how the city is organised along the bay.