In the early 1500s the famous explorer Hernán Cortés set out to establish a safe harbor, north of Acapulco, to provide protection for cargo ships sailing the planned Manila galleon trade route to the Philippines.

Villagers were mesmerized by the red flags the crew carried and suddenly lowered their weapons, allowing the explorers to pass peacefully.

It's likely the villagers had seen the flags before when they floated ashore with the dead crew from a Cortés' ship that wrecked earlier in the bay.

[12] The Mexican government invested significantly in transportation improvements, making Puerto Vallarta an easy travel destination.

To make Puerto Vallarta accessible by jet aircraft the government developed the city's international airport.

Another vital improvement for the city was the El Salado wharf (where the current cruise terminal is), inaugurated on June 1, 1970, making Puerto Vallarta Jalisco's first harbor town.

[13] During the mid-1980s, Puerto Vallarta experienced a rapid expansion of impromptu communities poorly served by even basic public services.

But the legacy of the 1980s boom remains, as the outlying areas of Puerto Vallarta suffer from poor provision of basic services (i.e. water, sewage, roads).

On 9 October 1995, an earthquake located off the Colima coast shook the crown from the top of the Roman Catholic Church.

Hurricane Patricia, a Category 5 storm, became the most powerful cyclone ever measured in the Western Hemisphere with sustained wind speeds up to 200 mph (320 km/h).

Hurricane Patricia was forecast to make landfall at Puerto Vallarta on the evening of October 23, 2015, with catastrophic damage predicted for the town and surrounding areas and the potential for mud slides.

The Jalisco state government put together 30 buses to evacuate tourists from the coast to Guadalajara, a 5-hour ride inland.

Ultimately, Patricia weakened and made landfall south of Puerto Vallarta, sparing the city from any significant damage.

[24] The high season for international tourism in Puerto Vallarta is from late November through March (or later, depending on the timing of the college spring break period in the U.S.) The city is especially popular with U.S. residents from the southern and western U.S. because of the number of direct flights between Puerto Vallarta and Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Minneapolis/St Paul and Chicago.

Most recently the downtown area, especially in Emiliano Zapata (also known as the Romantic Zone), has seen a somewhat controversial trend of traditional homes being razed for the construction of condominium buildings.

[26] The Puerto Vallarta real estate tourism market is made up of both full-time retirees and second-home owners, primarily from the United States.

[27] Puerto Vallarta has developed into Mexico's premier resort town as a sort of satellite gay space for the larger state capital, Guadalajara, much as Fire Island is to New York City and Palm Springs is to Los Angeles.

"[29] Previously quite conservative, the municipal government has become increasingly supportive in recognising and accepting the LGBT tourism segment and supporting LGBT events such as Vallarta gay pride celebrations, which launched in 2013 and are now held annually to coincide with U.S. Memorial Day weekend.

[29] Puerto Vallarta has been cited as the number one gay beach destination in Latin America,[31] with city officials claiming a 5% tourism increase in 2013.

[32] The major suburb is Bahia de Banderas in Nayarit across state lines, in which Nuevo Vallarta and Sayulita are localities.

[38] One positive result of recent growth has been that in relative terms a smaller percentage of the population lives in older and poorly served neighborhoods.

Historically, buses connected with nearby Tepic, where there was a passenger rail service on the main north–south trunk of Ferromex.

Additionally the municipality of Puerto Vallarta comprises a few other significant population centers (from South to North):