Since early 2020, the furthest I’ve ventured outside of Washington State is Bend, OR. I also haven’t been on a plane during this time. It was nice to take a couple weeks off for a family vacation, and what felt like the first real vacation from work in a very long time. Since I started biking, when I have the opportunity to travel, I like to check out the bike infrastructure to see if there is a trail I can use with a rented bike. No such luck with Puerto Vallarta. Not much bike infrastructure to speak of, although it looks like improvements are being made. One of the main roads has a protected bike lane on one side of the street which wasn’t there a couple years ago. This gave me no other option than to look for a local expert to show me around. Luckily I found Puerto Vallarta Cycling, which comes highly recommended based on the reviews online. They have road bike tours and fat bike tours. I originally scheduled just one tour, but I had such a great time, I decided to do another one the next week.
Nuevo Vallarta to El Colomo
I started out with a fairly flat and easy route – Nuevo Vallarta to El Colomo. This route is about 45 miles. You can also tack on a few more miles to La Fortuna. Clarence is a great guide, and the tours include transportation to the start and lunch after the ride. We had a great day, some nice cloud cover to make it a comfortable temperature and reduced the exposure to the sun. Nuevo Vallarta is a bit north from where we were staying, and it seems like a newer development with many condos. There is also a winding bike trail in the median of the road, but we were there to road bike, so we were on the road the whole time. After cycling past all the condos, we hit Bucerias (where you can also start the ride from to make it shorter). It is a sizable town, but it doesn’t take long to get into a very rural area. The flat route allows you to take in the great scenery – lots of green all around and mountains on both sides. There is a small town before you reach El Colomo, itself a small town. It feels good to get out of the touristy side of Puerto Vallarta and have a more authentic experience. Wherever I go, I find the bike is the best way to have this experience.
Puerto Vallarta to El Columpio
For the second week, I was staying closer to the center of Puerto Vallarta and wanted a route along the coast. The Puerto Vallarta to El Columpio is a great route to see the blue of the Pacific Ocean, but it does turn inland and that is where the climbing begins! If you want to climb for a few miles more, you can go all the way to El Tuito! This was a shorter route at 35 miles, but plenty of climbing made it a challenge. We started at Playa Palmares, which is a great place to start a ride around sunrise. During the climb, there was a good amount of shade thanks to the trees and plants, so not too much sun exposure even though we didn’t have the cloud cover this time. At the top there is a bakery which reminds me of biking to Black Diamond. This bakery has an oven in the side of the hill. The climb reminded me of going up Sunrise on Mt. Rainier. Like that ride, this took hours to get the top, but less than an hour to get back to the start. After we went to get fish tacos at a taco truck, which is the perfect post ride meal.
These rides were a couple of highlights from my trip. I want to go back and try some of the other routes! I also think it would be fun to do a fat bike ride with a group. The cars there were also respectful, not too many close passes. If I’m ever back in Puerto Vallarta, booking a ride with Puerto Vallarta Cycling will be my first order of business!
Seattle Bike Routes 