Puerto Vallarta Centro

El Centro / Gringo Gulch

El Centro (Downtown) is the most famous area of ​​Puerto Vallarta throughout the world. That image of the typical Mexican town, with its cobblestone streets, tile roofs and the crown of the Guadalupe Cathedral standing there, as an eternal vigilante between the Sierra Madre and the Pacific Ocean, has traveled all around the world, and it is what distinguishes PV from all the other beach destinations in Mexico. Equally residential, touristic and commercial, El Centro is, without a doubt, the heart & soul of Vallarta. A few blocks higher up, at the foot of the mountain is Gringo Gulch, a neighborhood inhabited by American expats who made their life and home in Mexico. Its Mexican houses and its sloping cobbled alleys offer the most incredible ocean views.

Puerto Vallarta Centro & Gringo Gulch Lifestyle

No other region in Puerto Vallarta will provide residents with the authentic mexican small town lifestyle as Downtown PV, better known as El Centro. This is the real thing… Where the real descendants of those pioneer families who founded this picturesque town still live. The kind of place where all the neighbors have known each other since their great grandparents’ times. Where everyone says “buenos días” with a smile on their faces as they cross paths while walking through its narrow, cobblestone streets. If you choose to live here you will have everything you need and more within walking distance, including its wide Malecon, its world famous art walk, an incredible local and international gastronomic offer, the arts & crafts market, world class shopping, fine jewelry, as well as the most fabulous sunsets and ocean views all year round. It is also a very touristic area, as El Centro is the number one “must” in the whole bay.  

Gringo Gulch

North of The Malecon, Gringo Gulch was named by the expat community. It has tiny cable stones streets with amazing ocean views and has a style of its own. This famous area is situated just a few blocks from The Malecon. In the early 1950´s Fernando Romero a well-known architect, had the vision of a more typical ¨Pueblo Style Design what later became known as “Vallarta Style”.

What made Gringo Gulch famous in the 1960´s was The Vallarta Love Story between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

If you are social, as you may already know, Puerto Vallarta has a huge expat community with established activities, social events with lots of mingling.

What kind of properties could I find in Puerto Vallarta Centro?

Ten years ago, the answer to this question would have been, “old traditional looking Mexican houses and small buildings”… Fortunately, you may still find many of these properties, which hold a colonial architectural style, with tall white walls, red tiled roofs and colorful domes, nevertheless, in the past decade, the famous face of Puerto Vallarta has gone through a very interesting transformation, providing possible buyers with an awesome variety of astonishing new buildings whose contemporary designs blend beautifully with the older, traditional style. and the beautiful natural surroundings. Today, you may find – literally – hundreds of new, luxury, state of the art apartment buildings in the same place where just a few years ago, there was a rusty, old house. On top of all these benefits is the fact that all this new development has brought incredible capital gains to owners and, of course, an exciting, new life to the Downtown area.