Los Muertos Beach Pier

Los Muertos Beach Pier is the sail-shaped pier at the heart of the Zona Romántica, a short walk from Puerto Vallarta’s gay hotels, bars and Playa Los Muertos. It’s a favorite sunset spot, and it’s where most of Puerto Vallarta’s gay boat tours and the water taxis to Yelapa and the south shore begin. This page covers which boats leave from here, when, how boarding works and where each one brings you back. To compare the tours themselves, see our guide to gay boat tours in Puerto Vallarta.

🛥️ Gay Boat Tours That Leave From Los Muertos Pier

Days and times change with the season. Always confirm with the operator when you book.

⚓ How Boarding Works and Where Tours Bring You Back

The big tour boats don’t tie up at the pier. Check in at the pier entrance (outdoors) or at the meeting point your operator gives you, and a panga (small shuttle boat) takes you out to the boat waiting offshore. Arrive at least 30 minutes early, because boarding closes before departure. Dock fees are included in tour tickets, so there’s nothing extra to pay to board.

Coming back: daytime tours bring you back to Los Muertos Pier by late afternoon, a short walk from the Zona Romántica hotels. Tours that return after sunset come back to the Marina instead. The shuttle pangas leave the pier just before sunset, and evening waves and tides make stepping from a panga onto the pier unsafe. From the Marina, plan on about 30 minutes by taxi or Uber back to the Zona Romántica, unless your ticket includes a ride home.

🚤 Water Taxis to Yelapa and the South Shore

Water taxis (pangas) leave from the pier for the beaches and villages of the south shore that you can only reach by boat. Tell the captain which stop you want. The stops, from closest to farthest:

Water taxi schedule: departures from the pier run mostly until mid-afternoon; confirm times at the pier. After that, boats only come back. The last water taxi back from Yelapa usually leaves around 4:00 PM, so go early and confirm your return time when you buy your ticket. Water taxis to the south shore also leave from Boca de Tomatlán, south of town, which is a shorter ride.

🎣 Other Boats From the Pier

Local panga operators at the pier also offer snorkel and dive trips to Los Arcos, sportfishing charters, whale watching in winter (roughly December to March) and private boat rentals to the south-shore beaches. Operators wait at the pier entrance, so agree on the price, the return time and what’s included before you board.

🧭 What Doesn’t Leave From Los Muertos

Not every boat tour starts here. Marietas Islands tours leave from Marina Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta or Punta de Mita, closer to the islands, and only authorized operators can take visitors. Rhythms of the Night and most large tour boats leave from the Maritime Terminal or the Marina. Check your ticket before you walk to the pier.

🌅 Visiting the Pier: Sunset and Lights

The pier is free and open 24 hours. The best time to go is sunset: bench seats circle the base of the steel sail, facing the bay. After dark the sail lights up in rainbow colors, though the lights are sometimes out. Playa Los Muertos, the beach bars and the Zona Romántica’s restaurants are all steps away.

🏛️ A Short History of Los Muertos Pier

The pier began as a simple dock in the 1960s, used to ferry the film crew of The Night of the Iguana (1964) to the south-shore locations. The film, directed by John Huston and starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, put Puerto Vallarta on the world map. The old wooden and metal pier was replaced by today’s design by architect José de Jesús Torres Vega: a long walkway leading to a curving steel sail. It reopened in early January 2013, and in 2014 CNN named it one of the most beautiful piers in the world.

Just five weeks after it reopened, on February 11, 2013, the pier hosted the city’s Mardi Gras Masquerade Party, a free, masks-required night of music and one of the first community events on the brand-new pier. GAYPV founder Tim Wilson was there that night. The pier has also been a stage for Vallarta Pride, with a Pride music festival on the pier in 2016 and the Vallarta Pride Fashion Show, which turned it into a runway, in 2023.

Why “Los Muertos”? The beach and pier take their name from local legend. The best-known story tells of pirates ambushing mule drivers carrying silver down from the mountains. Another says the area was once an Indigenous burial ground.