Playa Palmares

Playa Palmares is a public beach on Puerto Vallarta's south shore, right beside Highway 200 a short way before the Garza Blanca resort, roughly 6 to 7.5 km south of downtown depending on where you start counting. It is a few hundred meters of sand at the foot of the hills that run down to the bay, with Punta Negra and the Canto Palmares stretch to the north and the rocky coves toward Garza Blanca and Mismaloya to the south. Unusually for this coast, no hotel stands on the sand itself, so the beach feels open and local rather than like a resort's front yard.

In 2014 Palmares became the first beach in the state of Jalisco to receive the Blue Flag, the international award run by the Foundation for Environmental Education; the city's mayor at the time, Ramón Guerrero, announced it. To earn it a beach has to meet more than thirty criteria on water quality, cleanliness, safety and services, and Palmares has the facilities to show for it: public restrooms and showers, lifeguards, a color flag system for sea conditions, wheelchair ramps down to the sand and a large parking lot. On 23 August 2025 the city opened Tuki Playa Palmares here, billed as Puerto Vallarta's first public beach club, as part of a plan for five such clubs along the municipal coast.

The water is usually calm and clear, with bigger waves on choppier days. The north end is sandier and easier to wade into; the south end is rocky, so water shoes help. Canto Palmares is the only sit-down restaurant on the beach, and vendors walk the sand with grilled seafood, fruit and paletas, while umbrellas, kayaks and paddleboards are for rent. A large sculpture by Nicolas Bertoux, The Sail of the Galleon, marks the entrance. Families from town fill it on weekends and in high season, when the lot can be full by late morning, so come early.