Over the last 10 years, PV has gotten gayer and gayer! "This is what the Castro used to be 20 years ago," said Clay Berger, a hair stylist at Puerto Vallarta's upscale blu by len salon and spa. The former Santa Rosa resident was referring to the gayest part of the city, Zona Romantica, where blu prominently displays the rainbow flag. The shop is on the neighborhood's main street, Olas Altas, and across the street from two gay bars and a gay restaurant.

An article in the Bay Area Reporter  stated,"A couple of guys from Los Angeles, Peter Deep, and his business partner, Shaun Butler, made a huge impact on Puerto Vallarta's gay nightlife when they opened the Manana nightclub in November 2006. It quickly established a following among locals who were ready for a change from the established Club Paco Paco. And where the locals went, the tourists followed, making Manana the most popular gay club in Puerto Vallarta. A handful of other smaller gay bars have opened over the past couple of years and there are even more gay and gay-friendly hotels and bed and breakfasts to give LGBT travelers plenty of options.

 

Unlike longtime gay enclaves like Palm Springs, Provincetown, and Key West, Puerto Vallarta's evolution is relatively recent. In 1989, Paco Ruiz, the then-owner of his namesake, Club Paco Paco, had his one-man Stonewall rebellion against the police who frequently raided his club. He stood up to the cops and was sent to jail. The case received media attention and the public sympathy that followed helped pave the way for the city's current gay-friendly environment. That climate grew warmer this year with the inauguration of a gay-friendly mayor, Javier Bravo Carbajal.

Puerto Vallarta is centered on Banderas Bay, on Mexico's west coast. It's less than a four-hour flight from the Bay Area. Zona Romantica, where the gay clubs, bars, hotels and just about everything else gay are centered, is in the southern end of Banderas Bay. It's also where you will find Playa De Los Muertos, the city's largest public beach, and home to Blue Chairs Beach, the unofficially gay section of that beach.

Zona Romantica boasts over a dozen gay or gay-friendly hotels and over 20 gay bars and nightclubs. Everything is in walking distance; don't even think of renting a car. Cab service is plentiful and cheap. You can take a cab anywhere within the zone for about $3. But be sure to establish the price of the ride before you get in the cab; taxis aren't metered."

 
(Photos  by  Discover Vallarta! - a great gay travel guide!)

Nightlife is hotter than ever in PV.

The upscale Mañana club has an indoor disco but its centerpiece is its open-air pool surrounded by a dance floor and seating areas. It's open until 6 a.m. during the week and until 8 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

A big part of Mañana's runaway success was that it was able to obtain a late-night operating permit. That attracts locals who work in the restaurants and hotels and need someplace to go after the night shift. Buses don't start operating until around 5 a.m., so it's critical to have a place where they can stay late. Tourists, in turn, want to go where there are a lot of locals.

Other new additions to Puerto Vallarta's nightlife include the high-tech video lounge bar, Stereo. Plasma, with a notorious dark room, is popular with the leather and bear crowd. Another new edition is Encuentros, an upscale bar and pizza restaurant. The aforementioned Bench and Bar, like the Palm bar it replaced, is a popular showcase for local gay-centric entertainment.

Whether you want to relax at the beaches, do some romantic fine dining, shop the art galleries, go whale watching, nightclubing...it's all here!  See you there!