Pros and Cons of Life in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Mar 31, 2026 | Private List update

Yes, there is cartel activity.

This is all I really want to say here.

This video was recorded before cartels started blowing up cars, shooting cops and blocking roads last month.

Zero foreigners were injured, but admittedly being under lockdown due to street battles is not ideal.

Mexico is lovely. I like to spend time there, and will continue to do so, but people must simply be aware that once in a while, in some regions, there are flare-ups.

In this video with Paul we discussed the pros and cons of charming Puerto Vallarta.

https://youtu.be/f00-81YmlX8?si=UnXxIybHOuUS0Mvi

Pros and Cons of Life in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (https://youtu.be/f00-81YmlX8?si=UnXxIybHOuUS0Mvi)

Otherwise Puerto Vallarta is great

To a World of Opportunities,

The Wandering Investor.

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Transcript of “Pros and Cons of Life in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico”

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello everyone, Ladislas Maurice of The Wandering Investor today in Puerto Vallarta in Mexico together with Paul. Paul, how are you?

PAUL: Good. How are you?

LADISLAS MAURICE: Good, good. So we’ll be discussing the pros and cons of living here in Puerto Vallarta because people are increasingly moving here and actually living here, not just coming on vacation. And Paul, you’ve been living here for how long?

PAUL: I’m five years in.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Five years in. Originally from?

PAUL: New Zealand.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. So big change from New Zealand, right?

PAUL: Yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: So what made you come from New Zealand to Puerto Vallarta? Because that’s pretty obscure.

PAUL: It, yeah, it could be considered crazy. Look, I spent my 20s in New Zealand. I never traveled, and I got to that point where I really wanted to do something exciting. I had a Mexican partner at the time and we moved here and started a life and it worked out.

Cost of living and real estate prices in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, fantastic. So you know the area well, so we can have a candid conversation on really the pros and the cons. Let’s just start off with a con.

PAUL: The perception sometimes with Mexico is that it’s quite cheap. Puerto Vallarta is not that cheap. And we’re talking real estate purchase, but we’re also talking day-to-day living, the restaurants, you know, getting around, things like that, tourist activities. Now, I’m not going to say it’s overly, overly expensive, but you, you just need to manage your expectations. If you’re living in New York or one of the West Coast cities of the US, then you are going to come here and you’re going to go, ‘Okay, yeah, this is good value. I get more for my money here.’ But then there’s a lot of places in the world where you come here and you go, ‘This is not that cheap.’ You know, my parents came here last Christmas and they’re from New Zealand, they live in New Zealand. They was kind of surprised just how expensive it was.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And it’s not like Auckland is particularly cheap either.

PAUL: No, I mean New Zealand is considered an expensive place to live. So it depends where you’re coming from. Don’t come thinking that you’re going to be overly surprised and happy about it being cheaper.

LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, so we’ve got this one out of the way. So let’s go into something a bit more pleasant here.

Weather in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

LADISLAS MAURICE: What are some of the pros?

PAUL: Puerto Vallarta has the most incredible weather in the winter. So from November through to April, it is perfect weather, blue sky every day. It’s really enjoyable. So it’s not too cold, not too hot, and it’s very livable. Other parts of Mexico can be hot and humid all year round. So the humidity leaves. And I think that’s what brings a lot of the snowbirds back to PV because life is great during those, those months.

Amenities and shops in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

PAUL: So you’ve got the weather. You’ve got the amenities that we’re used to from our countries or the US. Got the Costco, got the Walmart. You’ve got great supermarkets, great farmers markets, organic foods, things like that. Good restaurants, cafes, nightlife, things like that.

International airport and connectivity in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

PAUL: You’ve also got an international airport that can get you around Mexico very quickly, but also there’s direct flights to certain cities in the US and Canada. And then you can get to Europe and wherever very easily. So that’s, you know, and we’re here in the romantic zone, the airport’s 30 minutes away. There’s a lot of places in Mexico where people, expats land, and you’re, you’re two hours away from an airport, you know, you’re two hours away from a hospital.

Healthcare services and medical tourism in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

PAUL: That’s another great thing about PV. We’ve very good healthcare options, good hospitals, good doctors, and a wide range as well, you know, there’s medical tourism here. So people come here for their dentistry and things like that.

LADISLAS MAURICE: I think this is really, really important because when you’re back in Canada, say, or in the US and you need to see a specialist, sometimes you, you have to wait months to see a specialist. Here it’s like same day. On WhatsApp. You book on WhatsApp and then same day you can see a specialist.

PAUL: Yep. And you can often be, you talk directly with your doctor, which a lot of people are like, ‘Wow, you’ve got access to your doctor.’ Yeah. That’s the, the medical, great airport.

Tourist activities in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

PAUL: And then you’ve got the tourist activities. So we’re by the beach, you’ve got the water activities. There’s a marina here, you can go whale watching, surfing. You’ve got all of that. Then you’ve got the inland activities like the hiking, the A V tours, there’s waterfalls to explore and all that sort of stuff. You know, the, the beaches are fantastic. We’re in a big bay. Also one of the good things is because we’re in this big bay, we’re actually pretty protected from hurricanes. That’s a good thing.

LADISLAS MAURICE: I think the point about the airport is really important. You’re literally just a two-hour flight from the West Coast in the US, so people can just come down here for the weekend. So this is very convenient from that point of view.

Is Puerto Vallarta, Mexico a destination for North American or European expats ?

LADISLAS MAURICE: Connectivity to Europe, I feel is a bit limited. You always have to go through another airport, through Mexico City or through the US, etc., which complicates matters a bit more for Europeans. For Europeans, typically Cancun, Riviera Maya makes a lot more sense. You don’t see a lot of Europeans here, actually, not that many, right? You even the, the exchange offices for cash, they barely show the Euro. It’s just like Canadian dollars, US dollars. Sometimes you’ll see the Euro, but not that much. It’s very North American in many respects. A lot of Canadians, a lot of Americans, a few oddballs such as yourself that are not from, from the area. But yeah, connectivity is good to North America and the rest of Mexico, really, really good.

Travel from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to Guadalajara and Mexico City

LADISLAS MAURICE: And I think also what few people tend to realize when they come to PV is how close the city has become to Guadalajara because now it’s just a short ride down to effectively one of Mexico’s biggest cities.

PAUL: Hmm, you’re three and a half hours on the, on the motorway.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. A pleasant highway. Easy drive. And there it’s a city of…

PAUL: About five million.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Big Mexican city. All the malls, all the services. If you feel PV is a bit small for you after you’ve spent a bit of time here and you just want to go for a city escape, you know, your little road trip away from a major city. And Mexico City is also a very short flight away, a bit over an hour, and then you are in one of the Americas’ largest cities. So you’ve been living here for a while. Is there something that you or your friends do on a regular basis going to Guadalajara or Mexico City?

PAUL: Absolutely. Every year I’m at least doing a weekend trip to both places. You know, the big concerts come to Guadalajara, so that’s a reason to go there. I think the shopping is not wonderful in Puerto Vallarta, so of course you go to Guadalajara to the, the big malls and the, and the nice shops. Yeah, there’s always a reason. Good food. It’s a good break.

Infrastructure in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

LADISLAS MAURICE: Paul, hit me with a few more cons here.

PAUL: You know, like any city that’s growing a lot, I would say the infrastructure of Puerto Vallarta is a little behind. We’re lagging a little behind. They are working on it, but that that always comes behind the development. You got to be a little patient around the infrastructure. They are working on it and it’s coming along nicely, but that’s, you know, it’s behind.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Generally speaking, in Mexico, you have to be patient.

PAUL: Right, right. And also with having so much growth as well, there’s more cars on the road. There is, there’s more traffic than there was five years ago. And now that the highway to Guadalajara being a three-and-a-half-hour journey, PV’s now a weekend getaway for people in Guadalajara, whereas it used to be six hours drive, it was a coming for Easter, coming for Christmas. So that’s also bringing more traffic and more people to the city as we grow.

Banking in Mexico

PAUL: You know, and naturally in Mexico, there’s frustrations when you’re dealing with opening up a bank account, also. The bureaucraticness of that can be a little frustrating. That’s, that’s countrywide. It’s just something we have to live with. We come here for a reason, we love the country, but yeah, setting up a bank account can be a little frustrating and things.

Obtain residency in Mexico

LADISLAS MAURICE: Having said this, you know, there are a lot of administrative hurdles here in Mexico. Obtaining residency is not really one of them. It’s one of the easiest countries to obtain residency in, if you can, if you can qualify. I mean, there’s a bunch of ways you can get residency in Mexico. We help with this process. There’s a link below with more information on how to obtain residency in Mexico. It’s easy and effectively it’s a good plan B for people.

Investment, rental yields and Airbnb regulation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

LADISLAS MAURICE: And I think that’s also a lot of your, because you’re a realtor here, a lot of your clients not don’t necessarily full-time here in Puerto Vallarta, but they do it part-time and then they put their properties on Airbnb. Can you talk to us a little bit about this?

PAUL: Yeah, I mean, this is a pro and a con. So like we’ve talked about in other videos, PV is not the most amazing place for a rental return investment. That tends to come in at like three or four percent after expenses.

LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s rarely something you hear from a realtor.

PAUL: Yeah. At the same time, there’s no restrictions on Airbnbs. There’s many, many property manager options in town. They speak English. They have really good systems. They have good plumbers and electricians. So for expats who own a property here, it’s not hard or difficult to kind of just hand it over to a property manager. ‘Please rent it out for me.’ The income is not going to be amazing, but it’s certainly going to cover expenses. It’s certainly going to give you a little bit in the, in the pocket. And you don’t have to worry about it. So not having any restrictions on Airbnbs like other cities in the world, that side of things is easy. Like it’s very, very doable to buy a place here that’s going to be your vacation home, maybe your retirement pad one day or your backup plan or, or whatever. It doesn’t have to be a stressful experience because there’s, there’s a lot of property managers that can deal with all that.

Lifestyle in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

PAUL: And that brings me to, you know, I’ve had clients over the years, Americans, Canadians that have gone to other places in Mexico because it’s cheaper. You know, I had clients that had a beach house for a couple hundred thousand dollars, but they spent a couple of years there. They were two hours from an airport. There was no supermarket nearby. You had to have a car. No one spoke English in the village. It was hot all the time. They had kind of a miserable existence. It wasn’t working for them. And so they sold up and their money only brought them a, you know, one- or two-bedroom condo inland in Puerto Vallarta. Their whole, like this was the experience they were looking for. All of a sudden they could fly up to LA to see their family easily enough. All the amenities that they were hoping for when they first moved here. So I always talk to my clients about that if they’re looking at different places. Not to put them off other places, but just to really think about the things we don’t think about. Like, you know, flying in and then having to somehow get to your destination two hours away when there’s not many taxis, not many bus options. To think about all those, you know, you got to think about all those things. And PV is well set up to be as easy as possible for an expat to have a place here or to live here or to vacation here.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, I think this point about infrastructure which you were raising earlier saying it’s not fantastic in the big scheme of things for Mexico, it’s actually quite good. Because even public transport you can use. When you’re in the Riviera Maya, in Cancun, Playa del Carmen, etc., you’ll never really see any expats taking the local bus or anything because the system is a little complicated. Here, when you take the local bus you see expats all the time. It’s easy, it’s cheap. You can take a 50-cent bus straight to the airport and you’re there in 20 minutes. This is quite convenient and it’s what a lot of people look for, especially North Americans because they get to live in an area with, in a city with walkability, which is quite rare in North America apart for a few key cities. So they get to live here, it’s peaceful, it’s pretty safe, too. I mean it’s safe. Let’s, you know, Mexico isn’t always the safest place, but PV is not unsafe. It’s very safe. You can walk around at night, not an issue. And then you can just, you walk, you take the bus, you can have that sort of city, walkable lifestyle.

Expat community in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

LADISLAS MAURICE: And can you tell me more about the expat community here? What type of people are moving here?

PAUL: Firstly, the, like where we are here in the romantic zone is definitely a world-renowned gay destination. That’s one pocket of Puerto Vallarta. We’ve also got like the Marina for people that love their boats and it’s a little more manicured. The streets are a little more manicured. It’s a little more Americanized. So for people that are wanting that type of lifestyle. We’ve got El Tigre up in Nuevo Vallarta which is like a country, country club type lifestyle living on a golf course. Ah, then you’ve got Sayulita and San Pancho up north. More bohemian, hippie kind of going with the flow life. We actually attract a wide range of people. And so when people contact me, I always say go and go explore this whole bay because there is so, there’s a handful of neighborhoods or little towns that are completely different. And you might go to, you know, I have clients they go to the Marina and go, ‘I hate, I don’t like the Marina, it doesn’t feel good.’ But then they go to Sayulita and it’s ‘Wow, this is, this is what I’m looking for.’ Or, or the romantic zone. ‘Yeah, I love this.’ You know, you got to explore the, all the different vibes and you’ll likely find your place here, you know.

LADISLAS MAURICE: That’s a good point. That’s, you’ll find your tribe here.

PAUL: Yeah. When you do find your neighborhood, so, you know, say the romantic zone is for you, then when you have friends come to town or you’re just wanting to do a day trip, you could do a day trip up to Sayulita and have a completely different experience and then you return back to your home and, you know, or there’s San Sebastian inland for the mountain experience. So there’s also a lot to do here.

Real estate market in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

LADISLAS MAURICE: So, Paul, you’ve been in the, the real estate game here for quite a few years. Can you give us a, a little market summary?

PAUL: I’ve been selling here five years and I sold in New Zealand before I came here. You know, during COVID we had a big boom in this market here. Prices went up a lot. There was a lot of attention on Mexico and Puerto Vallarta. And obviously that’s softened like a lot of markets. A lot of my clients, Americans and Canadians are buying here many reasons. One, you know, they, they’re unhappy with the political climate where they are. That’s driving a lot of people here. But also, you know, the lifestyle and all the things we’ve talked about. Being a softer market now, there’s, you know, buyers are not under the competition that they used to be so you can really take your time to find a good place, negotiate a good deal. There’s good deals to be had at the moment. PV during the COVID times, there was a lot of pre-construction because there was not a lot of resale options. Now we’re in a market where, you know, there’s a lot of pre-construction options out there, but there’s also a lot of resales. And so buyers are kind of going to the resale market. And so you need to be careful with pre-construction. You need to choose the right agent that is going to guide you through on that well because, you know, you’ve just got to be careful with pre-construction purchases. The good thing is now you’ve got the option to buy resale.

LADISLAS MAURICE: We were having a chat yesterday with Paul and you’re telling me a speech you gave to one of your clients. It’s like, ‘You’re buying pre-construction in Mexico. You’re an adult.’

PAUL: I like people to know what they’re getting in for. I, I can guide them to the, the better options and I can guide them away from the dodgy options. But also you’re putting money down on a property that is potentially still a piece of dirt and you’re buying into the developer and their reputation and their ability to produce that and there’s a lot of options now. I was selling 10 different projects back during COVID maybe. Now there’s 40 and the new 30 that weren’t there are likely to be new developers going, ‘Let’s have a go at this.’ You definitely got to be careful getting into that market.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. So it’s not a market for, for quick easy money to flip, to make high rental yields.

PAUL: Not, not at the moment. Look, people have done historically very well here in pre-construction, before COVID, during COVID, absolutely. But now I, I think there’s, there’s more risk involved in pre-construction.

LADISLAS MAURICE: So I wrote a whole report on the Puerto Vallarta real estate market, the pros, the cons, the neighborhoods you should look into, the neighborhoods you should avoid. So there’s a link below in the description. And if you’re looking for real estate here in Puerto Vallarta, do get in touch with Paul. He’ll be happy to help you with the whole process from A to Z. Paul, thank you very much for sharing all your insights today. Really appreciate it.

PAUL: You’re very welcome. Very welcome. Thank you.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Make sure to download my free ebook, 12 mistakes to avoid when investing in international real estate, which you can find on my website, link below, and feel free to follow me on Instagram @thewanderinginvestor. I look forward to hearing from you.

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