MY ACTIVITIES IN NUEVO VALLARTA

You should head on over to Boca de Tomatlan to enjoy your own personal boat tour of the beautiful beaches along the coastline.

I have actually not only done this tour once but twice and I would totally do it again. If you are staying in Nuevo Vallarta then I recommend you either hire a taxi or rent a car and drive to Boca de Tomatlan. You drive along the beautiful coast the entire way there. Once you arrive there are lots of areas to park, but be warned they may charge you for parking.

There are a few ways to see the coastline by boat. You can head down to the water and hire your own personal boat driver, you can go via a large group tour from Vallarta Adventures or you can take my personal recommendation and hire Alex from Alex’s Tours. Note though that the only way to see the coastline is by boat. There is no road access along the coast past Boca De Tomatlan.

ABOUT THE TOUR GUIDE

Let me tell you why I recommend hiring Alex! He is a young, about a 25 year old guy, who has worked extremely hard to get where he is at today. When I first took Alex’s tour a couple of years ago (June 2016)he was working for another gentleman just as the tour guide. He had a goal to become the captain one day and own his own boat. He was in school studying tourism and hoping to make a living out of it.

The next time I came back (June 2019) Alex was now captain and owned his own boat. He had worked very hard to get to this position. Alex is full of energy and life. He loves his job and loves showing his beautiful country to all the tourists. Alex is a very knowledgeable young man. Entertainment is provided the entire time! He brings drinks for the boat ride, he takes you to exclusive and secret place, he finds the coolest underwater animals and sea life for you to see and he even takes you cliff jumping if you want! I could go on and on about how great Alex is, but let’s get to all the stops you will make along the tour.

ACTIVITIES IN NUEVO VALLARTA: THE TOUR ITSELF

Alex takes you in his own boat, it is a small boat, but can go fast and is so much fun. You will head out from the bay of Boca De Tomatlan and head up along the coast. Our first stop was to the waterfall in Quimixto, which is located about a mile inland. For more detailed information on this waterfall check out my post HERE.

After enjoying your trip to the waterfall, you will stop for some snorkeling. If you choose to go with Alex, he will provide all the snorkel gear for you as well as some bread to attract the fish! Alex is a great swimmer and will dive deep down and find the coolest sea life. This time he found us a puffer fish as well as an eel to look at!

Next up! Cliff jumping! If you choose to do so of course. I am an adrenaline junkie myself, so obviously I wanted to partake in some cliff jumping. I am not quite sure how high the jump was from, maybe 15ft. Alex had the boat go right up to the rocks and we hopped out and scrambled up the rocks. More like Alex pushed me up the rocks haha but regardless I made it up. The rocks were big and hard to climb up, but once we reached the top I was ready to jump! For those who didn’t want to jump they stayed in the boat and filmed for us. 🙂

Our appetites were now all worked up after hiking, snorkeling, and cliff jumping, so it was time to eat! Alex took us to Yelapa beach to eat. This little island was filled with a few restaurants on the beach and cute houses on the side of the cliffs. It reminded me a lot of what Cinque Terre looks like in Italy. We ate at the Marlin restaurant and then enjoyed a nice little nap on the beach before heading back out to the waters.

YOUR RETURN TRIP

On our return trip back to Boca De Tomatlan, we made a stop at a private beach. This is personally, Alexs’ favorite beach. There was no one here! It kind of felt weird to be on a beach with no one present, but it was calming and soothing all at the same time.

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It was time to head back and we couldn’t have asked for a better day. The sun was shining, the ocean was clear and beautiful, the food was good and our tans were on point. It was about a 30 minute boat ride return back to the port. We began our day around 1030am and finished around 700pm. It was such a fun filled day that I would highly recommend you do on your next visit to Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico.

There you have it!. All in all the total cost was $40 US dollars for the boat tour. This did not include the cost of lunch on the beach, food or drinks up at the waterfall or tips. It was a packed filled day for a great price! What more could you ask for? Alex is very flexible and will take you anywhere you would like. You don’t have to do these stops we did in that particular order, but I would recommend all these steps. They are each beautiful and different in their own special way.