Pacific Coast
Discover Pacific Coast
Introduction
Mexico’s Pacific side runs for well over a thousand kilometres from Nayarit down to the Guerrero coast, with the Sierra Madre coming down close to the water for most of it. That is why the resorts here sit in bays rather than along open beach: Puerto Vallarta in the broad Bahía de Banderas, Manzanillo on its twin bays, and Acapulco in a near-enclosed harbour that made it Spain’s Pacific port for the galleon trade with Manila for two and a half centuries.
Inland, Guadalajara is the second city of Mexico and the cultural anchor of the whole region — mariachi was born in this part of Jalisco, and so was tequila, which can only legally be made here and in four neighbouring states. The agave fields around the town of Tequila itself are a UNESCO World Heritage site, and they are an hour from the city.
The coast is warm all year and wettest from June to October. Humpback whales come into Banderas Bay to calve between December and March, and the surf breaks south of Puerto Vallarta and along the Guerrero coast are serious enough to draw people specifically. Between the towns there are long stretches of very little, which is the appeal for some visitors and the reason others stay put.