Features & Amenities
Restaurants
Bars
Umbrellas
Beach Vendors
Swimming
Water Activities
Land Activities
Walking Tour
All Ages
Nightlife
Photo Spot
Romantic Zone
Summary
Los Muertos Beach (Playa Los Muertos) is one of the main attractions in town along with the Malecon/boardwalk, the Guadalupe Parish, the downtown area, and Old Vallarta.
Beach Details
- The most popular beach in Puerto Vallarta
- Well located all along the Romantic Zone
- Easy access along all the streets in the Old Town
- Runs 2050 feet (630 m) between the Pier and The Pulpit
- Olas Altas Beach to the north, Las Amapas Beach to the south
- Popular family, local and tourist beach
More…
- Gay-friendly, one of the popular LGBT+ beaches
- Includes the Los Muertos Beach Pier a popular city attraction
- Offers a number of great restaurants, bars and clubs to enjoy
- Activities on the beach include as sunbathing, swimming, and jet skiing.
- Wheel-chair access to the pier
Introduction
Los Muertos Beach (Playa Los Muertos) pier collage
Playa Los Muertos (Los Muertos Beach, Deadman’s Beach, or Beach of the Dead, the reason for this sinister name a little bit further down this page) is the most popular, the best known, and the most visited beach in Puerto Vallarta.
This beach is very popular among families, the locals, and visitors from neighboring cities and states.
Visitors that enjoy the local culture also hang out here as do the ex-pats, it’s a lively place, full of traditions, and a great place to drink a beer by the edge of the sea, with your feet in the sand, and just watch the, now famous, sunsets.
Los Muertos is 2050 ft long (630 m) and is one of the cleanest beaches in the State of Jalisco, together with Las Gemelas and Camarones and extends from Olas Altas Beach (Francisca Rodríguez street) on the north to El Púlpito (The Pulpit) on the southern end.
The beach’s name derives from one of the first hotels built in this area of the city, called Hotel Playa de Oro. Playa de Oro Beach has soft golden sand (hence the name) that makes it an excellent option for those who enjoy a walk along the shore, followed by a dip in the crystal clear waters.
Playa de Oro Beach is a certified Blue Flag beach, so it has clean waters, plus clear sands, soft waves (most of the time), and follows a number of requirements that insure your well-being and enjoyment as well as protecting the environment, including land and sea life. It features emerald-green waters and inviting clear sands on a medium-width swath that extends south until the mouth of the Pitillal River.
Why visit Los Muertos Beach?
- Location in Puerto Vallarta: Los Muertos Beach (Playa los Muertos) is located in the Romantic Zone/Old Town
- The beach stretches for 2050 ft long (630 m) between the pier and El Púlpito (The Pulpit)
- Los Muertos Beach is one of the most popular beaches in all of Puerto Vallarta and is both a tourist and local favorite.
- The beach is known for being gay-friendly and is one of the most popular beaches for the LGBT+ community.
- The favorite activities on the beach are sunbathing, swimming, making sand castles and jet skiing.
- There are a number of bars and restaurants on the beach (Langostinos, Palapa, El Dorado, etc.) where you can enjoy your food and drinks with your toes in the sand.
- Visit the Los Muertos Beach Pier, a popular stroll, some use it for fishing and it’s the starting point for water taxis and various tours.
- Los Muertos is also known for its active nightlife. After sunset come visit one of the many bars and clubs that stay open late.
- Get some impressive sunset view photos and views from this beach or on the pier.
- Much of Los Muertos beach is easy to get to, a short walk from the downtown PV and also with wheelchair access.
How to get to Playa Los Muertos
You’ll find it south of downtown Puerto Vallarta, the Malecon, and the Cuale River.
The first part of the beach in the Romantic Zone (Old Vallarta) between the Cuale river mouth and the Los Muertos Beach Pier is called Olas Altas beach and south of the pier it’s called Los Muertos beach.
One easy way to get there is by walking south along the Malecon, over the river (use the pedestrian bridge ;-)) and then walking until you get to the pier.
Malecon to Los Muertos route
BLUE
- Pass by the Malecón Arches, The Friendship Fountain (The Dancing Dolphins) and the Naval Museum, continue along the edge of the Malecon II.
- Then walk over the Cuale River along the pedestrian bridge.
- On the other side, you are now in the Romantic Zone, the beach to your right is Olas Altas.
- Continue south along the sidewalk, until you arrive at Lázaro Cárdenas Park, at this point you are not able to see the sea
- Continue south to the corner of the park and Venustiano Carranza street (the corner of Daiquiri Dick’s)
- Turn right, walk down to the edge (The Blue Shrimp to your right) and continue to the pier, you are now on Playa Los Muertos.
BLUE + GREEN
- Another option is once you go over the pedestrian bridge and are at Olas Altas beach
- Then walk off the sidewalk to the beach and follow the water’s edge southward going toward the pier you can now see in the distance.
Los Muertos Beach looking north
What to do at Los Muertos
Los Muertos beach is mainly the top attraction in Old Vallarta, the beach is crowded compared to the rest of the beaches in Pto. Vallarta and even the Bay area, but that also means that if you enjoy people watching, you’ll have fun here. There are vendors, activities, food, beers, parasailing, you can swim in the ocean (the waves normally aren’t big), build castles in the sand with your kids. Here are some options and details.
The Los Muertos Pier/Lookout (Muelle)
Los Muertos Beach and Pier, Romantic Zone, Puerto Vallarta
The spectacular pier was finished and inaugurated in 2013, so now the place is a fun mix of old and new, traditional and modern. Enjoy a stroll along the pier, the fresh wind is great, the views are wonderful, you’ll get lots of great photos too. The pier is also the starting point for many tours and water taxis that can take you to the beaches on the south side of the bay.
Read the complete Los Muertos Pier article (videos, photos, and much more)
Las Pilitas & the Original Seahorse statue
The Boy on the Seahorse (the original one) by Rafael Zamarripa (1960) Las Pilitas
Walk down the beach to the south (when you are looking into the bay, to your left) and visit the original Seahorse statue at Las Pilitas.
More on the original Seahorse statue
El Púlpito (The Pulpit)
El Púlpito at the end of Los Muertos beach
When you are at Las Pilitas, continue down the beach to the little hill that is at the end, it’s called El Púlpito, there is a path up the hill and you can visit the top, where there is a boulder overlooking the bay. Only for sure-footed adults.
Restaurants & Bars
El Dorado Restaurant, Romantic Zone, Puerto Vallarta
Then you can also enjoy the restaurants, bars, and cafés, at night there are quite a few very good ones right there on the beach.
You can enjoy a gourmet dinner right here, a romantic one too with the famous Vallarta sunsets and now with the colorful and impressive pier as a backdrop… picture perfect!
Try the Pescado and Camarones Embarazados
Camarones embarazados
A great tasting local dish here in Puerto Vallarta is the strangely named “pescado embarazado” and “camarones embarazados” (pregnant ship or shrimp) is a playful corruption of en-vara-asado (grilled on a stick). So no pregnant seafood here, just tasty fish and shrimp wonderfully grilled on skewers over firewood and charcoal on flexible and thin wood skewers.
One of the original recipes includes just a sprinkling of flavoured salt, but this is Mexico and many also like to flavour them with either sweet or spicy seasoning.
Why “Los Muertos”, why the ugly name?
Perhaps as a local citizen, you’ll have had time to become immune to the quite horrible name “Playa Los Muertos”, but as a visitor, it is obviously not an attractive nor a welcoming beach name. Who wants to go and spend a supposedly relaxing and happy time on the Beach of the Dead… those two don’t really mix well…! 🙂
This puzzling name was actually acquired long before the founding of Las Peñas in 1851 (the original name of Puerto Vallarta) – a name that, by the way, the authorities have tried unsuccessfully to change a few times – first it was “Playa Las Delicias” and later “Playa del Sol”, but they didn’t stick and it always reverted to the original designation. There seem to be three different explanations for the sinister name (Deadman’s Beach or Beach of the Dead).
Here they are:
Version one
This beach was located near a ranch called “Las Peñas” (the original name of the town) where gold and silver from the Cuale mines in the Sierra would be embarked, one day the local Indians ambushed the crew of transport ship killing them all and leaving the beach covered with dead men, thus, Playa Los Muertos.
Panoramic view of Los Muertos with the old pier, before the year 2000
Version Two
Now with a little bit of Hollywood influence, the legend now even includes pirates. Instead of Indians, now it was the pirates that were responsible for the slaughter, they ambushed the muleteers that brought the minerals up from the Sierra, thus, Playa Los Muertos…
Daiquiri Dick’s Restaurant and Bar, Los Muertos Beach
Version three
Malecon full walking tour
The last version of the reason for the name and the one that seems to be the correct one is that the beach was a sacred cemetery of the local Indians. This was first noticed when residents started building by the beach and started digging up bones in ceramic pots, a local Indian tribal custom when they buried their dead. The most recent evidence provided by Archaeologist Dr. Joseph Bode Mountjoy Harris of the University of North Carolina supports this last theory.
Los Muertos is certainly not a beach for those looking to relax and get away from it all, but if you want action, sun, sand, food, and lots to do, this is it, the heart of it all.
Los Muertos Beach Pier, Romantic Zone, Puerto Vallarta (drone view)
Los Muertos Beach, a little bit of history
By Prof. Carlos Munguia Fregoso (1938-2005)
Official historian of Puerto Vallarta
“On the hills east of Playa Los Muertos lived the fishermen who, every morning before sunrise, would come down with sails and oars over their shoulders to go fishing. One of them, “El Gaviota”, had a “chirito” – a dug-out canoe – that, for a few pesos, he would rent to the young boys learning to be sailors.
At the foot of the hills, there were several “palapas” – palm-frond huts – such as Cloro’s or Murillo’s where coconuts, soft drinks, and the occasional glass of “raicilla” were sold. Farther to the south the leafy manzanilla trees provided shade for most visitors, but some unfortunate swimmers developed a severe rash from being near the tree.
Los Muertos Beach is the most popular beach in Puerto Vallarta. Up until the 1960s, it was the favorite place for Vallarta families and their Sunday picnics. They would gather in the shade of a palm-frond lean-to and eat the tacos they had brought from home in straw baskets, or the tacos that they bought on the beach, adorned with a little bit of shredded cabbage and seasoned liberally with “Tomatlán” sauce.
Los Muertos Beach, sometime in the 1950s. Photo kindly sent by Charles Chapman.
While the adults, sitting in beach chairs, or reclining on woven palm mats, chatted, the children, under the ever-vigilant eyes of their parents, would play in the bay’s crystalline waters.
During those years, the only water that ran into the bay was the water from the palapa belonging to Cloro because he had showers there. The water came by gravity-flow from Las Canoas (up along the Cuale River) and was only used to rinse salt and sand off the bathers. Instead of the unpleasant smell of gasoline and sun-tan lotion, the beach was fragrant with the smells of salt-air breeze.
Puerto Vallarta Romantic Zone, Pirate Ship and Sunset
At the end of the 1950s, when more tourists began arriving in Puerto Vallarta, the local authorities tried to change the name of the beach. They suggested names like “Las Delicias” (The Delights) and “Playa del Sol” (Sun Beach), but tradition won out and to this day it’s still Los Muertos Beach. Many people are curious with regard to the name of the beach and how it came about, a name that, oddly enough, native Vallartans associate with happy childhood memories, not with funerary events.”
When reminded of his life and work as a Vallarta historian, Mr. Munguía rekindled:
“Memories are leaves carried by the Autumn winds, deep scars created in time by past experiences, the sun’s reflections and ghosts of days gone by. They are music that delight you in those slow hours far from what we love. They are the happiness of a man that remembers the years he lived in Vallarta”.
Full walk along Los Muertos Beach in Old Vallarta
Los Muertos Beach location map
FAQ
- What is the safest part of Puerto Vallarta to stay in?
The Marina and the Romantic Zone are considered some of the safest areas to stay in Puerto Vallarta. Both areas are popular among tourists and offer a variety of accommodations, restaurants, and attractions. The Marina is known for its upscale atmosphere, luxury resorts, and high-end shops and restaurants. It has a very secure, controlled environment with 24/7 security personnel. The Romantic Zone offers a more authentic Mexican experience with cobblestone streets, colorful colonial buildings, and a vibrant mix of galleries, cafes, and bars. As a central tourist area, it also has a strong police presence and is considered very safe.
- Where do locals go in Puerto Vallarta?
Locals in Puerto Vallarta enjoy spending time at the city’s beautiful beaches, scenic parks, and lively local markets. Popular beach spots include Playa de Oro, Playa Las Animas, and Playa Camarones for their soft sand and calm waters. Many locals visit the Vallarta Botanical Gardens to enjoy the lush vegetation and hiking trails. They also frequent authentic local food venues like Birrieria las 3 Regiones taco stand, cafes like Cafecito Vallarta, and neighborhood bars like La Cerveceria Union. The downtown Lazaro Cardenas market is a favorite for produce, spices, crafts.
- Is Downtown Puerto Vallarta nice?
Yes, downtown Puerto Vallarta is an exceptionally nice and popular area, celebrated for its vibrant mix of historic Mexican charm and a lively beach town atmosphere. It features a picturesque historic center with cobblestone streets, colorful buildings, and the iconic Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe church. The downtown seamlessly blends into the scenic Malecón, a beautiful oceanfront boardwalk lined with fascinating sculptures, shops, and restaurants, making it perfect for strolling and enjoying the stunning ocean views.
The area offers an excellent variety of dining, from upscale restaurants to authentic street food, along with fantastic shopping in boutiques and art galleries. Adjacent to the main center is the popular Zona Romántica (Romantic Zone), known for its trendy vibe and energetic nightlife. The entire downtown is considered safe and is very walkable, allowing visitors to easily explore its captivating blend of culture, cuisine, and coastal beauty on foot.
Tip: For an unforgettable experience, head down to the Malecón or any beachfront spot about 30 minutes before the scheduled sundown to watch the spectacular sunset over the bay.
- What is considered old town in Puerto Vallarta?
Old Town, also known as the Romantic Zone or Zona Romántica, is considered the historic heart of Puerto Vallarta. It is characterized by its picturesque cobblestone streets, classic whitewashed buildings, red-tiled roofs, and a lively mix of shops, galleries, restaurants and bars. Nestled between the Sierra Madre mountains and Banderas Bay, Old Town has a traditional Mexican village charm with its colonial architecture and slower pace compared to the rest of Puerto Vallarta. Its romantic ambience comes from the area’s natural beauty, outdoor cafes, and charming boutique hotels. Old Town offers visitors a taste of an authentic Mexican neighborhood.
Book tours & support us
- Best prices
- 100% Local Support
- 2 decades+ of experience in Puerto Vallarta
Puerto Vallarta news, tips & content
- New info every two weeks
- Free content, news, videos
- Unsubscribe at any time
Contact us via WhatsApp
- Talk with our reservations expert
- Real local and human support
- Book tours, hotels, transfers, and more.
Last updated on:
Share this article, choose your favorite option!
