Getting from Licenciado Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport to the city

One instruction: buy it inside

• The airport lists three authorised ground transport companies, and all three have desks inside the terminal building, in the arrivals ambulatory: Aeromovil PVR, Aerotransportaciones Terrestres and Trip Vallarta.
• They are open 08:00 to 22:00.
• The design is deliberate. You buy a fare to a named zone at a counter, inside, and then walk out to the vehicle. There is no negotiating on the kerb.

Why this matters here more than elsewhere

• Puerto Vallarta is a timeshare town, and the arrivals area has a long-standing reputation for people offering "free" airport transfers and discounted tours in exchange for attending a sales presentation.
• They are often positioned before you reach the exit, wearing branded shirts and holding clipboards, and they are not airport staff.
• The airport's own authorised operators are behind counters with company names on them. If someone approaches you in the walkway, that is not one of them.
• The simple rule: pay at a counter, take the receipt, and decline everything offered to you on the move.

What else exists

• Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico operates the airport and publishes the list of authorised operators, with phone numbers and websites, on its ground transportation page.
• Ride hailing has had a difficult history in Vallarta and the position at the airport changes; the authorised desks are the reliable route.
• Hotel transfers are common and most resorts in the Nuevo Vallarta and Marina strip run their own.

The airport itself

• PVR is about 8 km north of central Puerto Vallarta, on the coast road, between the town and Nuevo Vallarta.
• Nuevo Vallarta and Punta Mita are north of the airport, in the state of Nayarit, which is a different state and, for part of the year, a different time zone from Jalisco - check before you book a morning flight.
• The Malecon, the old town and Zona Romantica are south, 15 to 25 minutes depending on traffic.