Puerto Vallarta Shopping

Best Vallarta Art Gallery Outside of Vallarta: Córsica Galería de Arte: Corsica Galeria de Arte can take pride in something no other local gallery can to date. In addition to their two popular locations in downtown Vallarta, they also operate successful galleries by the same name in Los Cabos and Mexico City. Founded in 2001 and dedicated to the promotion of quality contemporary Mexican art.

Best Nautical Shopping: Zaragoza Marine: “Like being a kid in a candy store” is the feeling marine enthusiasts experience when they step into the new Zaragoza, which has been described as the most extensive chandlery (marine supply store) on the west coast of Mexico. Starting as a hardware store more than 40 years ago, Zaragoza has almost anything a maritime aficionado could desire and is a proverbial “nautical Wal-Mart.”

Great Markets Around Vallarta: Colorful and chaotic, the market, also known as el tianguis, is one of the most important shopping venues in Mexico, as in many parts of the world. Whether you need hair ribbons or a lethal machete, an embroidered tablecloth or a set of tires, a live chicken or the pot to cook it in – it’s likely to be at a local tianguis.

Best New Supermarket: Mega Cormercial Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit: Now North Shore residents and visitors have a new reason to look forward to shopping for their groceries. Thanks to the recently opened Mega Comercial Nuevo Vallarta, located in Bucerias’ outskirts, they don’t have to drive all the way to Puerto Vallarta. The spacious store is an open invitation to wander around with your cart and enjoy a broad variety of offerings in the usual departments. An ample selection of wine and liquors is noteworthy.

Best Tortillas with a Twist: Flavored Tortillas at Soriana: White and yellow corn tortillas are served with most traditionally prepared Mexican meals. However, the tortilleria in the Soriana supermarket also produces “flavored” varieties of tortillas, including nopal, azul and chipotle. The young stems or pads of the nopal cactus are carefully peeled to remove the prickly spines on the outer skin, revealing the edible “fruit” within.

Karen Lahm: Proof Positive of the Power of Commitment, Creativity and Collaboration: Its natural beauty and near perfect weather aside, Vallarta holds a unique appeal for those seeking more than just a pleasant respite from cold winters — namely, the opportunity to assimilate a wonderfully diff erent way of living in concert with a stimulating expatriate community whose respective life experiences, sense of adventure and creative pursuits.

Art from Shards: Step past the mosaic gateposts of A Broken Art and enter a world of creativity. Glittering glass covers part of one worktable, and along the wall piles of colorful pottery pieces invite touching and arranging.

Great Finds: Caprina Cheese Shop: Visit the dairy section of any Puerto Vallarta supermarket and you’ll find a surprising selection of fine imported cheeses. But perhaps you’ll be more surprised to learn that you can satisfy your craving for Brie, Camembert, feta, fontina and other unique cheeses and support the local economy at the same time!

Find It All Now!: Fashionable, stylish, chic, trendy, elegant, hip, smart and modish — not shoes or hairstyles, but everything required for your Vallarta home! From sofas to refrigerators, lighting to rugs, find it all — for indoors and out — just a short ride north of the airport in Las Juntas, along the highway to Tepic.

Earnestly Speaking Nonsense — In a Spanish-Speaking Land: I doubt any gringos actually set out to make fools of themselves here. But speaking “Spanglish” certainly adds to the likelihood that it’s going to happen now and then. Personally, since my livelihood depends on a facility with language, I’m mortified to have an IQ that apparently slumps 80% when speaking what I’ve come to call “Silly Spanish.”

Best Use of Glass: Galeria EM: Intrigued by that funky little palapa-roofed building across from the entrance to Marina Vallarta? Well, you should see what’s going on inside! And you can, half-hour tours of this glass studio and showroom given in English or Spanish to those curious about the making of translucent magic from A to Z.

Best New Shopping Experience to Look Forward To: Liverpool: Red alert for all shopaholics! A new shopping center will open its doors in October, promising to be a menace to our credit cards but also a delight. One of Mexico’s most popular department stores, Liverpool, will feature two floors with more than 73,000 square feet of shopping space each.

Best Excuse to Sin: Xocodiva: New on the PV scene is yet another temptation. And we recommend you not pass up this one: delectable, handcrafted artisan chocolates. Made in a gleaming little South Side shop by Canadian chocolatiers Carole Fast and Charlotte Semple, these confections are mind bogglers, activating every pleasure center, bar none.

Turkeys are Red, Iguanas are Blue: To relieve their inevitable bouts of bucolic boredom, goatherds have from time immemorial moonlighted as unpaid whittlers of wood. But then around 50 years ago, the world of pro bono wood-whittling was changed forever when a Mixtec Indian named Manuel Jimenez began applying paint to his rustic carvings.