Spotlight On Marina Zone
One of Puerto Vallarta’s most celebrated new neighborhoods is the city’s Marina Zone, spanning the area just past the airport to the northern end of the Hotel Zone. While it is significantly outside downtown Puerto Vallarta, requiring a short bus or taxi into the heart of the city, the standing of this neighborhood as a base for expanding development makes it a city center in its own right.
Marina Zone Basics
The Marina Zone is one of the newest neighborhoods in Puerto Vallarta, built inland from the city’s major port that welcomes cruise ships and other visiting vessels to the area.
Getting to Marina Zone
The Marina Zone is one of the neighborhoods served by the city’s major thoroughfare, Boulevard Francisco Medina Ascencio. This means that arriving to this area of town is convenient using multiple methods of transportation, including the network of taxis that serve incoming travelers from the airport as well as area residents. Taxi rides from the city’s airport to Marina Vallarta can cost from 80 to 240 pesos depending on whether a city cab or dedicated airport taxi is used.
Travelers can also arrive in Puerto Vallarta’s Marina Zone by taking one of the city’s public buses. Buses marked both “Tunnel” and “Centro” pass through Marina Vallarta, and although a rider may have to make a connection at the unofficial transit center located outside WalMart, accessing the residential areas of the Marina Zone is relatively simple via any mode of transportation, and the neighborhood itself is very walkable.
Marina Zone Amenities
The carefully designed nature of the Marina Zone puts it at the center of an unbeatable selection of familiar amenities for visitors. Not only is the area home to a WalMart superstore and the freshly built Galerias Vallarta with its range of high end shopping options, the marina itself hosts dozens of boutiques, restaurants, cafes and other entertainment venues to give local residents an array of options for enjoying their stay.
This neighborhood’s position on Puerto Vallarta’s beachfront gives it access to several of the city’s shores, and many sunny afternoons can be spent on the inviting sands that separate this colonia from the Banderas Bay and Pacific Ocean beyond. Marina Vallarta is also home to a world-class championship golf course, establishing the city as a global destination for lovers of the links. The area even features the city’s largest casino so thrill-seekers can get their gaming fix during their stay in paradise.
This Neighborhood is Best For
The recently developed infrastructure of the Marina Vallarta area trades the cobblestone streets and occasionally tricky sidewalks of other neighborhoods in Puerto Vallarta with wide, flat expanses of sidewalk designed for easy navigation with an emphasis on street signage. This makes it an outstanding choice for visitors with limited mobility, as they will have a much easier time getting around the Marina Zone than practically anywhere else in the city.
The amenities and convenience of the Marina Vallarta neighborhood make it a popular choice among expats, and as a result a thriving community of long term visitors from around the world has developed in the area. As a result, the Marina Zone is a particularly appealing landing destination for retirees, remote workers and other visitors who are considering making the city of Puerto Vallarta into a permanent home for themselves and their families.
The Marina Zone of Puerto Vallarta is one of the city’s most recently constructed neighborhood, and was developed specifically for the comfort of the thousands of visitors that pass through the city on a yearly basis. This makes it a great possibility for visitors who want more of a familiar experience during their stay in Mexico, and although the neighborhood is outside walking distance to the city’s most celebrated attractions, the convenience it is designed to provide make the trade off more than worthwhile for many tourists.
