Puerto Vallarta City Tour With Lunch

We purchased this tour from a Gray Line agent after we arrived at our resort in Puerto Vallarta. We wanted to see some of the city instead of just the resort. After paying for the tour, I checked reviews online to learn more about the tour. I was shocked to find very negative reviews, and nearly cancelled our tour. Fortunately, my wife talked me into going through with it. We had an enjoyable time seeing the Malecon, The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and taking part in a tequila tasting. We also visited a leather shop, and a jewelry store. The last stop was a Mexican restaurant. The food portions are very large, but we were told we could order a half portion. Even the half portion seemed large to us. The food seemed to be very authentic. The guide was entertaining, and it seemed like every stop provided a location for a washroom break. The only really negative thing was that I thought the tour staff could do a better job of keeping track of their guests. We enjoyed our city tour. I think the problem of the negative reviews are because people were expecting more a shopping or sight seeing tour, but this seems to me to be more of a cultural tour.

This was a great overview of some of the main highlights of the city. We did it early on in our trip to get oriented to the city and I’d say it did a good job of that. Our guide, Jaime (“Jimmy”) was hilarious and super kind and knowledgeable about the city. Our driver, Carlos (“Charlie”), kept us safe and got us where we needed to go in a timely fashion. We got to walk along the malecon, visit the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, went to a tequila tasting (learned a lot and the tequila was genuinely so good!!), visited a jewelry shop that specializes in Mexican fire opal and a leather shop with tons of leather goods. The last stop on the tour is lunch at a small restaurant in the mountains. Do make sure to bring plenty of cash because you’ll need it to tip your driver and your guide, as well as the restaurant staff and the musicians at the end of the tour. Most places along the tour either offer discounts if you pay cash or have a minimum purchase amount if paying with a card. For example we wanted to purchase about $300 MX worth of souvenirs but because of the minimum purchase requirement at the shop we had to spend $600 MX - not a huge deal but more than we were prepared for. The tequila place offered a 5% discount if you paid in cash. The lunch at the end is not included in the tour price. While the portions are fairly generous, each platter was around $60-65 USD. The meals are sold as large platters and there isn’t really an option to order something smaller, at least not that we saw. We purchased one platter and it was plenty for two adults. Drinks are sold separately, and tips are not included in the meal price. We have an all inclusive resort so in hindsight if we were to do it again we probably would have just purchased drinks at the restaurant and then gotten lunch back at our resort, but that’s just us. Our favorite part of the lunch was that it was in the rain forest right next to a stream. We got to watch the wildlife as we are which was so relaxing.

I purchased a shore excursion for myself and my party (4 including myself) for a City Tour with lunch in Puerto Vallarta for November 28, 2024. I want to tell you how unhappy we all were with this tour. It started more than 30 minutes late; we were not advised beforehand to expect considerable walking, and our guide told us very little about the city. Except for a brief view of the town boardwalk and a visit to the cathedral where mass was being held so we couldn't visit inside, our guide was very concerned that we stop at several shopping venues where we were left without access to the bus we'd traveled on. All of us felt that the guide was getting kickbacks from the shops for bringing us. Twice we ended up standing on the dirty streets in the heat waiting for up to 30 minutes for the bus to reappear. For lunch, we were taken to a town about 35 minutes away from our ship, arriving just after 3:30 p.m. by which time we were all very thirsty and hungry (no water or snacks available on the bus). After repeatedly telling the guide that our ship's last call to board was at 4:30 pm, we had very little time (10-15 minutes) to eat lunch and race back to the ship, barely getting there before the deadline. All of the people in my party were very stressed out and disappointed with this excursion.

First, we had to do a lot of walking—mostly on cobblestones. No way to identify us or guide except he wore an orange shirt. Tour left 11am after 2/10 mile walk to bus parked on side street. Except for the church, this was a shopping trip to specific shops which I suspect are giving kick backs to the guide and/or company. We didn’t get to go to lunch until 3:15pm at a place about 35 min from cruise terminal. Last call at ship was 4:30!! Very stressful. Food was good as was the location, but very hurried so some mistakes were made. We were late returning to cruise terminal but thankfully didn’t miss the ship. This tour was poorly run and the emphasis was clearly more on lining their own pockets than showing us highlights of the city. Very disappointed!!

We booked a city tour with Gray Line Puerto Vallarta (agent's name Leslie) while we stayed at the all-inclusive resort. Do not book and be very careful. We went with other passengers (15-16 of us from different resorts). They stopped at Malecon for 15 minutes then Church of Our Lady Guadalupe for another 15 minutes. Not enough time to do anything or buy any souvenirs, trust me! Next, the driver and guide took us to a tequila manufacture place. They stayed there longer and constantly prompted us to buy tequila. After that, they took us to a leather store and a jewelry store that were neither a historical nor sightseeing place. We were there for a long time. We all felt like we were held hostages. They took us to places they'd make commission$ off us rather than tourists attraction places. After that, they took us to this eatery place all the way up in the jungle by the creek. The place had tons of flies, no restaurant name, no price list or menu posted and strangely no general public or any other tour groups - just gray line tour groups. Although this city tour was advertised "with lunch", the waiter brought us a bill of USD 89 for one plate of fajita and 3 water bottles when we were done eating. It was not even a bill, just a piece of paper. And the guy singing with a guitar billed us USD 20. I was shocked. And the waiter said to us "you have to leave tip". His attitude was very threatening that I just wanted to get back to the resort safe. That place is opened just to scam Gray Line tour groups. The entire tour was very unpleasant.

Although the guide was very kind, the day felt like we were being held hostage. There was not a lot of time to actually explore the city. It was mainly them driving us to different shops that I'm sure pay them to bring tours in to generate business. Only plus really was that we met a few nice people in the van. Also, LUNCH IS NOT INCLUDED. It is complete tourist bait. They drive you out of town to this small spot that seems like the tours are their only business. The food was okay, but every option was $65+. I would recommend just taking a taxi to downtown and taking your time to walk around instead of this tour. Pretty disappointed we wasted a day on it.

Although the price is right for this tour, and the van was clean, the tour was not great. We went with our two kids, 5 and 10 and it sounded like a fun city tour- and parts of it were, but they didn’t really explain the day very well and were a bit confused a lot of the time. Kids were devastated they didn’t get a little bit of souvenir shopping in. I wish we were told that the one stop by the church was our one chance to buy something. The worst part of this trip was by far the held hostage lunch!! They drove us way out of the city to this strange little tourist restaurant where we were basically told we could buy four options of platters and the bill came to $90 USD! And the food wasn’t even good! Tour after tour came to eat here. Really left a bad taste in our mouths because we had no other option and that was way more than we would have liked to spend. Especially with two kids who had one piece of cheese quesadilla. Some parts were informative, the leather, tequila tasting and church were all cool to see, but definitely not what we had hoped for. Guide was okay, but felt like he was on autopilot. Wouldn’t recommend.

This was a great trip, they took us to some great places and amazing food. 10/10 would recommend. Great prices and great experiences. See Victor

Do not waste your money on this “tour”. We paid the gray line rep at Occidental Nuevo Vallarta $45 usd for two people. We were crammed in the back of a small van with no windows in the back row, so we literally couldn’t see a thing during any of the driving (which turned out to be most of the day). The tour guide shared some information in the van, but it was hard to hear and very minimal. We were taken to shops with little to no explanation of why (other than to buy overpriced items: leather, jewellery, candy). We went to the Malecon for 10 minutes only and there was no information shared about it at all. Then we went to an insanely overpriced restaurant with very mediocre food ($62 usd for a fajita platter). Overall, a terrible experience and cannot stress enough that this tour is a complete SCAM.

Hector and Jose were great. The Tequila tour was fun and interesting. I can't wait to use my purchases as marinades the owner suggested. Hector made sure they didn't charge us more than their advertised prices. Then we continued on to tour around the city. Since our friend had been there before, she asked about an attraction on the beach she'd seen. They didn't hesitate to take a side trip so we could see the performance. The little shops were a nice stop, and the Church was beautiful. Our lunch was outstanding at Encanto Del Rio and the atmosphere was very peaceful along the river. All together it was a fun, relaxing, enlightening day and we really enjoyed ourselves.

This review is NOT about the 360 city tour. It is about a Puerta Vallarta City tour that was offered by Victor at the RIU Palace (the Gray Line representative). We paid $30 cash per person for this tour, so he may have been doing this on the side. The tour ended up being a shopping trip where they took us to different stores (leather, jewelry, candy, and tequila) and gave us 15 - 20 minutes in each. I assume they were getting a percentage of all sales. We did get to taste the tequila and the host was very entertaining. They also took us to a church and the boardwalk with the Puerta Vallarta sign, but we were only given 15 minutes at each. There was no free time to see the city or shop on our own. Transport between the stores was done in the van. No walking or sight seeing at all. The tour guide talked on the van, but we could not hear him in the back. They then took us to a place far out of town for lunch, which was not part of the tour price. The food was way overpriced for Mexico ($100 US for a vegitarian platter and some shrimp on the side), but there was no place else to eat. This trip was worse than sitting through a time share presentation.

I booked 2 trips through the GrayLine agent in my resort this week while in Puerto Vallarta. One of them was the city tour that we did on 22-Feb-2023. There are multiple concerns about this trip: 1) Our van wasn't full because one of the parties did not show when we went to pick them. The guide said we will need to go to some meeting point in Puerto Vallarta where we will join another party. This wasted almost 1 hour getting to the other meeting point and for them to combine 2 groups into 1 van. 2) Initially our first guide said that the lunch was provided as part of our trip, later our guide changed and he said our lunch wasn't included. 3) It seemed more like you guys have tie-ups with local vendors and we were just taken from 1 shop to another to shop stuff instead of actually seeing the city. They would stop at these stores for 30-40 mins each time. 4) Whereas we stopped only for 10 mins at Malecon and couldn't even see anything properly. 5) The tour didn't stop at all at the Zona Romantica. 6) For lunch, we were taken to a very secluded restaurant away from the city where we were forced to purchase lunch we didn't like & want, since there were no other options nearby. Overall I really wanted to see the city but was just taken from 1 souvenir shop to another. Not at all happy with this experience.

Should be called the kick-back tour. The only stops are businesses that provide kick-backs to the tour guide. We spent 6 hours herding cats. The most enjoyable part was lunch, which was supposed to be included but cost us $59! Do not recommend this tour or operator.

The travel thru a typical Mexican village was fantastic ....I learned so much about the Mexican culture. We also really enjoyed the lunch in the jungle. Was a wonderful trip. Raul and Hector were the best !!!

1 week full of activities which started with transportation from and to the airport. Whale watching on a private boat. City tour . Trip to Tequila city and visiting the distilleries with tasting venues and finally a trip to San Sebastián west. All this was arranged by Dalia from Grayline tours at the Westin Marina resort. She was absolutely amazing with great customer service all with a lot of TLC! . I recommend her and Grayline without hesitation. Me and my wife had an absolutely great time. Thank you Dalia!!!

Alex (our tour guide) and crew were knowledgeable and helpful on the tour so I do not blame them at all. However, I feel that the Grayline operator at our hotel who sold us this tour misled us. We told her that we really wanted to visit the flea markets and do a lot of shopping. Unfortunately when we got to the market portion of this tour there was one little overpriced shop that didn’t have many options. Alex told us that they are not able to visit the markets due to damage from a hurricane. Totally understandable, but I wish we had known up front rather than wasting our day. We left with none of the items we wanted. Also, she told us that a traditional Mexican restaurant was included with the tour, but it ended up being lunch that you pay for yourself ($50+ for a combo meal). If you’re not a seafood lover like myself you’ll likely be disappointed because most of the options were seafood. We made the best of our time and situation but definitely not at all what we were expecting.

It was a last minute tour for us. Mario our tour guide was very informative. Never had a dull moment since he knew so much history. He gave us time to take pictures. Thought I'd be bored but it was worth it. Our driver Charlie was very safe and helped us in and out of the van. Had tequila tasting at 1030 am! So much fun!

The tour guide pushes the boundaries of comfort talking about Trump, building the wall and politics. The restaurant they took us to for lunch was okay, the view was beautiful but the food wasn’t anything special that you would expect. Lots of driving and not as much seeing. The Tequila tasting was wonderful and the tequila was super yummy.

They served ice cream, tobo drink , tequilla , lunch. Got information about geography , politics , sightseeing from inside and outside of city, low medium high economy places and what not. Definitely recommend to everybody.

Mario and Charlie Brown were very entertaining. Knowledgeable and fun. Woke up the tour and made us interact. Tequila tasting was amazing ice cream, churches, and lunch. Sites throughout the city were all beautiful too

Chris Moss was our representative and he was amazing!!! Excellent service while booking our tours and he provided so much helpful information. He was extremely professional and we really appreciated his help!!!!!

The tour was great and Mario was an amazing tour guide. We got to see many different areas of the city and got to hear a lot about its history. The tequila tasting was amazing and the restaurant we went to for lunch had great food and views.

We did the Vallarta 360 Tour (no lunch, although they take you to a place to get lunch on your own dime, which I suggest you do!) This was my favorite activity the entire trip, as we got to see so many sides of Puerto Vallarta. The tour starts with a passenger van picking you up at your hotel, and picking up any others who might be joining you on the trip (our tour had 3 groups, 9 people total). The air conditioned van is such a plus! We started at a wildlife reserve area where we saw crocodiles. Next we went to a nearby town, El Pitillal, to see the San Miguel Archangel Church and the impressive artwork both inside and outside. We then walked to a nearby popsicle shop where we were treated to a popsicle of our choice (I went for the cream coffee popsicle, my husband went for mango habanero). Back in the van, we headed into the downtown Puerto Vallarta area and stopped for a tequila tasting at Noble Corazon, where we got to try many different tequilas (coffee, almond, coconut, mango, as well as the white tequila and a variety of aged tequilas) and bought a few bottles (they know the rules of how much you can bring through customs, thank goodness!). We then headed to the Malecon area of Puerto Vallarta, and stopped at Our Lady of Guadelupe Church, where mass was wrapping up and a wedding was about to take place. We convened at a nearby jewelry shop, who offered us margaritas, and we had some time to go shopping and sightseeing in the nearby areas. Once we were all back together, we went up into a nice neighborhood to see some scenic overlooks, and then headed into the jungle into the Nogalito EcoPark for lunch. I had the shrimp fajitas, and my husband had the Mahi Mahi special of the day. I had a Mango Margarita after seeing recommendations online - I second that you should try it! After lunch, you start the drop off process in the same order you were picked up. A big thank you to Mario and Carlos for an amazing trip, I really enjoyed seeing all the sides of Puerto Vallarta, and would recommend this trip!

Excellent tour, very punctual. Kind explained and there was even laughter from lots

Great experience, please contact René is a great saleswoman puts together a custom package. We toured the city, swam in the open sea, visited yelapa on horseback. Amazing.