Get more from your vacation in Puerto Vallarta! Visit all points of interest including Guadalupe Church, City Hall, the Malecon (Seawall), Rio Cuale, and many more picturesque sites on this great introductory Puerto Vallarta city tour.
The tour starts on the north side of the city, where you'll see the newest tourism complex of Marina Vallarta, its residential zone, the golf course and the yacht club, stopping for a few minutes to take pictures.
Then, you'll continue on to the city's downtown, driving through 'El Pitillal', one of the popular suburbs. At the sea horse, you'll get off the bus to take an information walk, looking at some of the important buildings and monuments like the city hall and the main church. On this part of the tour, you'll have time for shopping.
On the way back to the bus, you'll walk through the Cuale River Island, a beautiful botanical garden. After this, you'll travel to the south of the bay, where you'll visit a raicilla (tequila) factory to learn about the elaboration process. Last but not least, you'll drive into the rainforest and stop at a restaurant surrounded with lush, green vegetation next to a river, with the chance of having lunch (optional) before returning to your hotel.
We have taken many of your,tours and they have all been wonderful This tour was OK but did not cover much of what was discussed in the advertisement. We never stopped at the Marina area. When we were downtown the guide only mentioned the city hall and never talked of,the architecture of any buildings. We did go to the church but spent most of,the time in a jewelry store. We never saw any botanical gardens. It was called a city tour but most of,the day was not in the city. The guide spoke both Spanish and English and I think he did not give us all the info in English. The trip for lunch which was very good was up a very long windy dirt road that was a little scary in an old big bus. I don!t think I would recommend this tour unless the description is changed to reflect what you actuallly see and do.
Review by: don433498, November 2017
1st on a scale of 1-10 this tour is a minus 25, according to your email our tour operator was to be OLYMPUS Santiago Plascencia decide to sub out this tour to TROPICAL ADVENTURE. Our air conditioned coach 8 open window space at 40 MPH with SAGGING SEATS, BROKEN FRONT WINDSHIELD, an a SUPENSION FROM THE HORSE AND BUGGY age , other than making stops to pick up passenger in the city, we made a total of 4 stops 2 jewelry shops one on a bridge to hear about a house that 5 blocks away and one to see the seahorse statue with words PUERTO VALLARTA in color, before we headed to the tequila factory and lunch. The list of sitess and areas list in the brochure are BADLY MISS LEADING, NO NORTHSIDE, NO GUADALUPE CHURCH, NO MALECON, NO MARINA VALLARTA, NO BOTANICAL GARDENS. Major sale pitch at the Tequila shop not even close to a factory glad we bought lunch, we have 4 choices while the others had a wide variety to choice from. Plus we had to have our picture take as a requirement from the restaurant. Im think of submitting this to TRIP-ADVISOR also. Not only would I not recommend this tour I'm thinking about using another vendor for further booking. your description on the item is so miss leading as your vendor did not even come close to most of the item that we were to visit. Tropical Adventure is not much more than a rip off want to sell jewelry at their preferred stores instead of let you shop some were else. VERY DISSAPPOINTED WITH THEM, OLYMPLUS AND VIATOR.
Review by: Erika G, November 2017
The description of the tour made it seem like we would walk around the city but in reality only wandered the malecon for a few minutes, saw a church and then off we went to a tequila tasting. Overall, most of the time was spent in the bus traveling to the tequila tasting or the lunch in a jungle and back to the hotels. This was not a tour of the city.
Review by: Linda S, October 2017
Was not impressed with the tour. The interior of the bus was in poor physical condition and it was hot. The tour was a series of stops to purchase something. The jewelry showroom the sales people were pushy, the tequila tasting place was not up to par. The lenght of time spent at the lunch stop, El Eden, was much too long. The guide did most of her commentary in Spanish not a good mixture of English and Spanish. I would not recommend this tour.
Review by: Douglas C, October 2017
We purchased the tour from Viator, who used Olympus Tours, who used Tropical Adventures. The buses were quite old and there were mechanical problems, which required us to change buses twice. Jamie was our guide and he did a good job in both Spanish and English.
Review by: L Jones, September 2017
The Tour driver was very friendly, knowledgeable and on time. Enjoyed the sites and the lunch stop was wonderful.
Review by: L Jones, September 2017
Love this tour and would recommend to others.
Review by: Brian W, August 2017
This tour was really good. We enjoyed the town, the tour of the church was great. Then topped it off with a incredible lunch. I wish we had know all about the stuff to do at the lunch site. At first I thought it was kind of small but until you get into it you don't realize all that is involved.
Review by: LAMONT, July 2017
Very informative, we learned a lot about Puerto Vallarta local cultures.
Review by: stevehouston1, June 2017
Nice to get to see the main sights, but is in an open bus and can get dusty, exhaust from trucks ahead as you drive up the windy mountain to the Eden site. The tequila man was great, informative and excited about teaching us the varieties of tequila flavors! This is NOT the tour that goes to the botanical gardens.
Review by: Aisha C, May 2017
The tour was a neat way to see PV. The best part was stopping at the Tequilla plant. towards the end of the tour we stopped for lunch and thought it was supposed to be like some kind of rain forest but It was pretty much a restaurant and ziplining. We stayed there for 2 hours with nothing to do.
Review by: jeanineshule, April 2017
I was disappointed with this trip. It was supposed to include some shopping. We were taken to an expensive jewelry store, and wasted a lot of time there. There were so many other shops and vendors, but we were only given about 15 minutes to even look. It was more a grab and go experience. I would not recommend this.
Review by: John B, March 2017
This outing was a scam. All the other bad reviews are right. Sponsored by jewelry store and restaura. went to the Malacon for 10 minutes. Then we went to an overpriced jewelry store, a church and a tequila factory. The restaurant has a minimum $50 USD minimum. The bus was bad. A days vacation stolen
Review by: Cindy S, March 2017
Was not impressed....Don't know why they call it a city tour when you don't really see the city. Bus was in poor shape. Cracked windshield, ripped seats.
Review by: Ray S, March 2017
The city tour was not what we had expected. We drove from one side of town to the other to pick up all the tourists and then stopped at 2 stores that we were able to use the restroom and they were hoping we would buy, but these weren't the store most of us were looking for. We then drove through the city and just stopping to listen to the tour guide explain the statues from a distance. He also told us about the church, but we never got close except on our own. Then we went to a very specific distillery and tried certain types of tequila, but we can only purchase that brand there only. Then we went on this hike, which was nice, but not expected for this tour. I ended up sliding on the gravel and getting a road rash on my calf.
Review by: kimbra_922, March 2017
THE BEST BY FAR.OUR GUIDE JUNE KNEW A LOT ABOUT THE CITY AND ITS HISTORY . I LEARNED A LOT ABOUT PUERTO VALLARTA, BEAUTIFUL CITY...A MUST SEE IS THE CHURCH .
Review by: E D H, February 2017
First of all, the tour received is not the tour we booked - It was an 8 hour tour of PV and we did see/do most of the things as expected however, there were several differences: 1 We basically drove-by Marina Vallarta there was no touring to see the area, let alone an opportunity to take pictures 2 We did not see PV City Hall famous wall mural not sure if it was even mentioned or that it was pointed-out if we drove nearby 3 While it was enjoyable, the tequila factory was not a factory at all, it was an retail outlet with a briefing of the production process and tasting of tequila 4 The freetime to shop was very limited, we expected that would include the Mercado however, it basically was a long stop too long at a Silver Jeweler with very high priced items in an area that had very limited other shops a t-shirt shop nearby and 5 The other thing that was quite unexpected was that the lunch stop in the deep forest was nice, very authentic Mexican restaurant however, we did not expect to spend over 2 hours there, nor were we aware that there was an eco-hike option, or swimming, or zip-lining none of which we wanted -- we would have preferred a stop at the Mercado on the way back in to town granted, they did offer to drop off in downtown area at the end of the tour, but then it would be longer than 8 hours and require getting a taxi back to our hotel.
Review by: vim, January 2017
I was not impressed with this experience. The first couple of hours of the tour was just picking people up and waiting at a store. We then spent a few minutes going through Malecon and visited a church. We went to another jewelry store, which was pretty much useless. The tequila tasting was nice and informative, but not especially that interesting. Finally, we spent several hours hiking and and eating lunch at jungle area. I wish they had spent more time at scenic areas and less time visiting businesses. The tour guide was friendly and the bus was comfortable.
Review by: Cathy, January 2017
Fun trip ... Tour guide was great. Only problem was our group was mostly Spanish speaking and our Tour Guide would change from one language to the other which was at times hard to follow. The stops on the City Tour were great and the food was good - very much worth the money spent for an all day trip plus wise to include lunch. We really enjoyed the Tour.
Review by: Vim, January 2017
I was not impressed with this experience. The first couple of hours of the tour was just picking people up and waiting at a store. We then spent a few minutes going through Malecon and visited a church. We went to another jewelry store, which was pretty much useless. The tequila tasting was nice and informative, but not especially that interesting. Finally, we spent several hours hiking and and eating lunch at jungle area. I wish they had spent more time at scenic areas and less time visiting businesses. The tour guide was friendly and the bus was comfortable.
Review by: Ihabd4, December 2016
Excellent tour. Highly recommended.
Review by: Samantha M, September 2016
This trip is as stated and doesn't last 8 hours,_br/_ We did not visit marina Vallarta or go down town to the malecon._br/_ We picked every one up stopped for toilet break, got back on the bus stopped at the malecon for 5 minutes which really should of been up to an hour because the malecon board walk area is full of really nice sculptures. We the walked over the road to a church stayed about 5 minutes got back on the bus were the bus drove for 5 minutes and stopped for toilet break in really ridiculously over priced jewellery shop were we stayed about 30 minutes plus constantly be bothered by the staff to buy silver, im sorry i took 300 spending money for 2 weeks alinclusive holiday so no im not buying jewellery._br/_ then after a very impatient wait took us too the tequila gallery Mister Tequila which was actually supposed to be at the end of the tour, however this was the best part Free tequila shots and no pressure to buy any thing although I did buy Coconut tequila which is amazing, I also met some one from there who I will have in my life always._br/_ after this we moved onto the zip-lining area this wasn't scheduled we took a hike through the non jungle as they will say it is jungle but actually it is not for about 30 minutes if your quite elderly or disable you cant go they make you stay on the boiling hot bus and there is nothing else for you to do there which is very unfair._br/_ They took us to a restaurant in the zip-lining area which is so expensive 2 ladies had to share 1 meal as it cost 56 Dollars, if you prepay with this ticket you get a piece of fish with salad. We stayed sitting in the restaurant because really there was nothing to do for 2 hours._br/_ I recommend that if you do city tour its 2 buses from Nuevo Vallarta maybe 10peso minimum each bus and take your time just taking a walking around the marina and the malecon area. I would only take a taxi if its after 9pm as the bus stop at certain times from the hotel zones
Review by: visualdna, September 2016
I enjoyed the city tour of Puerto Vallarta. You get to visit a church and a couple stores for shopping. The tour felt a little rushed as we were unable to get the photos we wanted due to time constraints. The city tour is well worth it if you want to see different parts of the country and observe the culture.
Review by: akash, May 2016
It was just good.
Review by: Michael C, April 2016
The tour was excellent and the tour guide especially good. _br/_ I had a problem getting details of the tour and finally had to have someone at my hotel call the local office to find out where and when I was to meet. Most travelers have e-mail access but few have active cell phones or printers.
Review by: karen c, March 2016
This is the worst tour I have ever been on. The guide arrived late and took us to her office which was outside in the plaza a block from our hotel. She said something about breakfast and coffee but how that would have ever happened on a street corner is beyond me.The bus was dirty, smelly and uncomfortable with cracked windows, filthy springless seats and window blinds that couldn't be opened. So really why both with window seat? We requested an English tour and ended up with a bilingual Spanish-English tour. And the guide's English was nowhere as good as his Spanish. Oh my God do you have any ideal how painful that can be??? We stopped briefly by the Malecon and the church and then were driven to some opal store which we were told was a bathroom stop. Some bathroom stop... 1 toilet and a bunch of sales people. Next stop was somewhere outside the city which meant we would have had to endure a long excruciating ride on that bus which I doubt would have passed a safety inspection in Canada. Even though our tour included lunch we bailed. I have done a lot of tours with you guys and never ever have I been subjected to such a poor quality product.
Review by: Dale R, March 2016
Labeling this a city tour is a misrepresentation. Too little time was spent in the city, too much at a tequila factory and we were not told that there would be the opportunity to swim in a waterfall so did not bring bathing suits._br/_ We had a nice time but it was not really what we signed up for.
Review by: BRIAN B, February 2016
This Tour was not what we expected! We had a confirmed pick up time of 9:40 am in front of our hotel we were not picked up by 10 am, and had to call to get picked up. Our tour guide, who gave us three names to call her by one of them being Maria was kind and knowledgeable. The tour began with stroll on the board walk and to the Cathedral. From there we took the bus to ONE jewelry store this company must get a percentage? The bus then took us to a tequila factory that was the best part of this tour. The tequila factory guide gave us a great deal of knowledge on the history of making tequila and how to tell the difference between tequilas. Not to mention the tequila tasting! must try the chocolate From here we went up the mountain into the forest, climbed stairs to what we were told was the set of the Predator movie. There was ONE restaurant up there again a percentage? We were in this cafe for TWO AND A HALF HOURS!!! This tour was named a City Tour! We did not stop for souvenir shopping except for the one jewelry store, visit the Marina Vallarta, nor did we see a botanical garden, or stop the bus for pictures of any city views, and learned very little of the city history.
Review by: John V, February 2016
This tour was disappointing. We learned nothing about the different areas of the city or its history. We saw the church, then were dumped at a silver store then and hour into the jungle for more commercial attempts including the Predator location and lunch. Although we wanted an Englush guide, most if the conversation was in Spanish. This tour did not come close to the Viator tours we have enjoyed around the world. A complete waste of money, d not bother to go on this one.
Review by: Randy P, January 2016
This is a great start to your vacation: learn your way around early on, it will help you find your way around. It is also a great preview of things to do in PV!
Review by: Mico, September 2015
Our guide was excellent and knowledgeable, and made the trip fun and interactive. However this is a bit of a tourist trap. The first stop is 20 minutes in a jewelry store, and while we and the other couple traveling with us took the option without lunch included, we were forced to stop for an hour at a specific restaurant in an isolated place, so there was no other practical option but to buy lunch there! I know the lifeblood of Puerto Vallarta is tourism but this was a bit too much by blatantly pushing certain businesses to us that was not really the part of the tour we signed up for!
Review by: Lzermani, July 2015
Not happy with our tour, basically was in the van most of the time with 15 minutes at the Malecon--no mention at all about the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe one of the main historical landmarks, we had to go search it out on our own in 15 mins, then got out to the Romantica Zone to shop at an opal store...much more than 15 minutes, but then you know the tour guide is getting a commission of sales, same with the tequila factory and even at the restaurant. We had paid for the lunch with our tour 15 US each we decided on the fish platter and we're definitely prepared to pay the difference, but we were charged double the amount...this was brought to the guides attention and he argued with us and told us not to discuss with the restaurant owner--so basically the lunch cost us a total of 60 US when it was 600 pesos 38.40. It was apparent to us that the guide was more concerned that we spend time at places where he would collect his commissions. We booked this tour based on the other reviews, so this might be an isolated case. Not recommend based on our experience.
Review by: Bunny, July 2015
The bus had steps up to the back 8 seats where there was no view. We didn't see the Malecon. Just the church and a jewelry shop. Then took a long bus ride to a distillery. The bus needs shocks. Did not like the fact we drove all the way into the marina over all the speed bumps just to find out the people that were to be picked up had gotten a different ride. How about communicating that to the tour guide through a dispatcher?_br/_
I thought Part of the tour was to see the marina, we just saw a house that was for sale. Lame.
Review by: Jeff M, June 2015
Covered only about half of the sites advertised. Had a difficult time getting on the tour bus because they had no record of our reservation.
Review by: Dianne S, March 2015
A great way to see the area and to decide what you want to look at more closely. Our guide was knowledgeable and conducted the tour in english and spanish for an argentianian guest. Well worth the price!!
Review by: prerasi, March 2015
The City tour was good. When I spoke to someone in Viator office, they had mentioned that the city tour would cover the Botanical Garden too, but they never took us to the Botanical Garden. That was little disappointing or deceiving us.
Review by: Nikki C, March 2015
Kudos to Carlos, who was also our guide on our tour to San Sebastian. It is evident he loves his country and is proud to relay to us his exceptional knowledge of her history and customs. He does this with a quiet sense of humor as well, and added a lot to both tours in this way. Always good to take a city tour in a new city to get a good overview and see what you would like to come back to. Fun to go up in the hills for lunch, and of course the obligatory tequila tastings on both tours is always fun. Would highly recommend.
Review by: Jason S, October 2014
This tour was amazing!
Review by: Albert R, June 2014
The tour was about a5 out of ten. Bus was old and eventually broke down on the way back. We had to wait for another bus to "rescue" us._br/_
Guide was nice and knowledgable._br/_
We are not very impressed with ?Mexico and would never return in our lifetime!
Review by: Katie S, February 2013
This was a glorified shopping trip conducted at a snail's pace. It is perfect for culturally anemic senior citizens (which was everyone, but us!). My husband and I are huge fans of Viator, but I'm sad to say we surrendered our investment and left this tour within 45 minutes of it's start.
Review by: Melinda L, October 2012
Loved it! We were fortunate to get Gavino, a native born Puerto Vallartan for our tour guide. We enjoyed the entire day.
Review by: MUNEHIRO S, October 2012
If you speak Spanish, it is OK. Because 90% of explanation was Spanish. They look enjoying.
Review by: Carmen H. G, October 2012
Let's start off by saying the tour bus was late in picking us up at the location stated. They picked us up on time from our hotel, then transported us to another hotel to wait for the tour bus. Everyone was ready and the tour bus was still nowhere to be found. It finally arrived after like 25-30 minutes after the stated time and we hopped on board. We booked the Spanish tour because we speak and understand Spanish perfectly and prefer having a tour guide we can understand. We had people in our group that did not speak or understand Spanish so the tour guide Nancy had to do a bilingual tour. This is why we specifically booked a Spanish tour so we wouldn't have to listen to a horrible translation. From what we could tell, they had a very hard time understanding what she was saying; in several ocassions, we had to do the translation for her because they weren't understanding her. It was a good tour and the food offered for purchase at the restaurant was great. It was definitely worth it, except for the translation problem the tour guide had. To the tour company, please plan your tour groups accordingly and if for any reason you need to merge the two, get a tour guide that can speak English correctly and has less of an accent.
Review by: Carmen H. G, September 2012
Let's start off by saying the tour bus was late in picking us up at the location stated. They picked us up on time from our hotel, then transported us to another hotel to wait for the tour bus. Everyone was ready and the tour bus was still nowhere to be found. It finally arrived after like 25-30 minutes after the stated time and we hopped on board. We booked the Spanish tour because we speak and understand Spanish perfectly and prefer having a tour guide we can understand. We had people in our group that did not speak or understand Spanish so the tour guide Nancy had to do a bilingual tour. This is why we specifically booked a Spanish tour so we wouldn't have to listen to a horrible translation. From what we could tell, they had a very hard time understanding what she was saying; in several ocassions, we had to do the translation for her because they weren't understanding her. It was a good tour and the food offered for purchase at the restaurant was great. It was definitely worth it, except for the translation problem the tour guide had. To the tour company, please plan your tour groups accordingly and if for any reason you need to merge the two, get a tour guide that can speak English correctly and has less of an accent.
Review by: Lana, August 2011
This was a good tour. MOst of the time was spent on the bus, but enjoyable. Although, if you don't have lunch included.. I suggest that you bring a lunch if you don't want to spend some $$ at the restaurant the tour guide takes you to... there was only one restaurant there so you don't really have a choice. Also note... tour doesn't break for lunch until about 2 or 3pm so for those who need some food at around noon, best to bring some food with you.
Review by: Sheldon O, August 2011
We really enjoyed the trip. Good value for your money. Very informative and educational. Very impressed with the knowledge of our tour guide.
Review by: Arden L, May 2011
It was very good. One thing I would say is that the tour ended way earlier than we were told. It was nowhere near the 7 hours advertised.
Review by: melissa1709, May 2011
Really enjoyed the City Tour. Very interesting and insightful. Beautiful scenery. Recommend.
Review by: Lana, April 2011
This was a good tour. MOst of the time was spent on the bus, but enjoyable. Although, if you don't have lunch included.. I suggest that you bring a lunch if you don't want to spend some $$ at the restaurant the tour guide takes you to... there was only one restaurant there so you don't really have a choice. Also note... tour doesn't break for lunch until about 2 or 3pm so for those who need some food at around noon, best to bring some food with you.
Review by: Sheldon O, January 2011
We really enjoyed the trip. Good value for your money. Very informative and educational. Very impressed with the knowledge of our tour guide.
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