Puerto Vallarta Rentals Blog

Playa Los Muertos (Los Muertos Beach) is one of the beaches, or perhaps, the most popular, known and visited beach in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico.

It is located south of the Malecón and the Cuale river, in the so-called Romantic Zone or Old Vallarta. Between the Cuale river and Venustiano Carranza street (where Daiquiri Dick’s is located) the beach is called Olas Altas and south of Venustiano Carranza street to the south it is called Los Muertos Beach (Deadman’s Beach, or Beach of The Dead, we’ll talk about the sinister name a bit further down).

It is an excellent place to relax, walk, eat or have a beer and enjoy the famous Vallarta sunsets.

There is also a relatively new pier and the location’s now a place that mixes a lot of old and new, traditional and modern, it is very active and very Mexican too.

The name, I must admit, is incredibly ugly, in fact, the city officials have tried several times to change it, Playa del Sol (Sun Beach), being one of the proposals, but the new ones have never stuck and people continue to use the traditional name, even though It is not attractive, in fact, quite the contrary, it is scary and does not make you want to visit it at all 🙂

The most accepted version of why this beautiful beach has this horrible name, apparently the most correct and that has most support in documents and expert experience, is that the beach was a sacred cemetery of the local Indians, a pantheon. The local residents noticed it when they began to unearth bones in ceramic containers, a custom of the local tribes when they buried their dead. This explanation is also validated by the archaeologist Dr. Joseph Mounjoy.

All this is quite interesting, but, despite the unattractive name, Playa Los Muertos is the main Old Vallarta attraction, a beach full of people compared to the rest of the beaches of Vallarta and even the whole of Bahia de Banderas, but If you like to people-watching, if you’re sociable, and don’t feel uncomfortable among people, you’ll have a great time: vendors, various activities, shrimp and grilled fish, beer, parasailing, just swimming (the waves are not big), or playing in the sand with your children, there is so much you’ll enjoy.

There are also restaurants, bars and cafes, in the evening you can enjoy a romantic gourmet dinner on the beach and enjoy one of the famous Puerto Vallarta sunsets, and now even with the impressive and colorful Los Muertos Beach Pier, a perfect photo opportunity and souvenir for all your indelible memories of PV.

We invite you to walk along the beach to the south and visit Las Pilitas, El Púlpito and Las Amapas beach during the day, we even recommend a very romantic picnic there. At Las Pilitas you’ll find the original Seahorse statue, the one you find in a bigger version on the boardwalk (Malecon).

Los Muertos is definitely 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 beach is the heart of everything in Old Vallarta.
_
More information about this beach in Pto. Vallarta: https://www.puertovallarta.net/what_to_do/los-muertos-beach