9 Best Places to Shop in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

It's hard to ignore the huge, chunky rings, bracelets, and necklaces here. In the back of the shop there are more delicate items of pure silver set with various stones in artful ways. All are unusual.

The 300 or so potters from the village of Mata Ortiz add their touches to the intensely—sometimes hypnotically—geometric designs of their ancestors from Paquimé. At this shop pieces range from about $60 to $10,000, with an average of about $400. Stop in during an afternoon walk through downtown.

The beauty of its glistening glass-bead Czech jewelry in iridescent and earth colors may leave you weak at the knees. Sometimes a Huichol artisan at the front of the store works on traditional yarn paintings, pressing the fine filaments into a base of beeswax and pine resin to create colorful and symbolic pictures. Sales support the owner's nonprofit organization to promote cultural sustainability for the Huichol people.

Classical, contemporary, and abstract works are displayed and sold in this 6,000-square-foot gallery—PV's largest—and sculpture garden. Check out the marvelous large-format paintings of Indigenous people in regional costumes by Juana Cortez Salazar, whimsical statues by Guillermo Gómez, and the work of nearly 60 other talented artists. 

This is arguably the best farmers' market in the whole Puerto Vallarta/Riviera Nayarit region. It offers a balanced combination of good quality Mexican handicrafts and jewelry, as well as clothes, lamps, hammocks, cigars, organic products, and lots of delicious food. Everything is in a delightful environment with stunning views of the Marina Riviera Nayarit and Banderas Bay, and there's live music. It makes for a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

This boutique has its own extensive line of bikinis, cover-ups, yoga pants, and some items for children (including sunglasses, bathing suits, flip-flops). There's a small line of jewelry, and Brazilian flip-flops for adults in a rainbow of colors.

Internationally known Sergio Bustamante—the creator of life-size brass, copper, and ceramic animals, mermaids, suns, and moons—has a team of artisans to execute his never-ending pantheon of creative and quirky objets d'art, such as pots shaped like human torsos (which sell for more than $1,000). Paintings, purses, shoes, and jewelry are sold here as well.

Exquisite truffles and molded chocolates are all stylishly arranged on immaculate glass shelves at this classic Canadian chocolatier. The chocolate itself is European; among the different mousse fillings are some New World ingredients, including lime, coconut, cinnamon, Kahlúa, espresso, and a few dozen more. Stop by after dinner for a fab dessert. During holidays, out come the molded Santas or Day of the Dead skulls, some packaged as pretty gifts.

Here the Huichol are treated as a people, not a product. At their downtown Vallarta shop, the owners— a Mexican-Canadian couple—are happy to share with customers their wealth of info about Huichol art and culture. They work with just a few farming families, providing all the materials and then paying for the finished products, amazing and colorful handicrafts that represent the most sacred elements of their culture. Huichol imagery is so colorful because they actually see these images when they eat peyote, an hallucinogenic cactus, as part of their religious rituals.