Nayarit may not become the next Cancun, but it may give some traditional destinations on Mexico’s Pacific coast a run for their money.
The small state in Mexico—10,600 square miles, about the size of Maryland—is making a steady ascent to be its own brand, its own destination with plenty of its own attractions and reasons to visit that separate it from adjacent Puerto Vallarta as a very convenient and colorful destination for West Coast U.S. and Canadian travelers.
Armed with eco-travel initiatives and a healthy list of luxury hotels in the pipeline, the destination mostly known as Nueva Nayarit has rebranded with a solo moniker and is giving travel industry suppliers, advisors and airlines a reason to look twice.
In Los Angeles for a travel trade initiative, Juan Enrique Suarez Del Real Tostado, Secretary of Tourism of Nayarit, discussed some of the surprising growth the destination has seen starting with the healthy numbers in visitors this year. Some 323,852 tourists arrived in the Bay of Banderas, a convenient drive from Puerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR), in the first four months of 2023 alone.
Visitors mostly come from the U.S. (62 percent) and Canada (38 percent).
Arrivals are aided by 445 weekly domestic and international flights, and four daily nonstops from Los Angeles via legacy and well-known air carriers and complemented by newcomers like Swoop and Flair.
However, a new airport in Tepic located near the epicenter of the state of Nayarit, is about to take a bite out of the PVR hub. The airport, Riviera Nayarit Airport (TPQ), is now Riviera Nayarit International Airport, a designation given to the facility just this month. Thus, it is creating border and customs operations that will allow flights from other countries to fly in directly.
Bay of Banderas hotel zone. (Photo Credit: Lark Gould)
To accommodate the tourism build, the destination is awash in rooms and plans. A quick breakdown shows 28,000 rooms in 789 hotels—12 of those grand tourism properties, including all-inclusives, and another 17 in niche categories from extreme luxury to eco-stays (or both, if you look to Four Seasons Naviva).
New hotel openings in 2023 and 2024 take in such brands as Vidanta, Fairmont, Rosewood, Westin, Omni, Four Seasons Autograph Collection and more Marriott development. Montage International is working on the development of both a Montage and a Pendry resort within the 1,500-acre, private peninsula masterplan in Punta Mita with a target of 2026.
For now, along Nayarit’s 200 miles of coastline, travelers can choose from a variety of five-star resort options, such as the Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita with its multimillion-dollar renovation in 2022 that reimagined the spa, the pool and two luxury suites.
Then there is the recently renovated St. Regis Punta Mita Resort, the newly opened Susurros del Corazon, part of the Auberge Resorts Collection, the One&Only Mandarina with its cliff top Ocean View villas (each with its own private plunge pool). The Rosewood Mandarina is set to open in 2024. A Ritz-Carlton Reserve is expected to open by 2025.
Nayarit Hotel Nukari courtyard. (Photo Credit: Lark Gould)
The smaller beach towns, like the boho-chic Sayulita, Bucerias, and La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, are known for their sexy designer hotels. Consider the Anjali Casa Divina, a sanctuary for wellness and yoga retreats; or the Hotel Vogue, with its views over the beach and proximity to the restaurants, bars, and galleries of town.
Travelers with a food focus may know that Nayarit is home to eight of Mexico’s top 250 best restaurants. These include:
- Aramara, inside the Four Seasons Punta Mita
- Carao, inside the One&Only Mandarina
- Carolina, inside The St. Regis Punta Mita
- El Delfin, inside the Hotel Garza Canela, San Blas
- Emiliano Cocina y Vino, Tepic
- Hector’s Kitchen, Punta Mita
- Loma 42 Bahia, Nuevo Vallarta
- Tuna Blanca, Punta de Mita
A must-try in these parts is the zarandeado fish, considered a local delicacy.
The 2024 complete opening of the new highway to and through Nayarit makes the destination that much more accessible to airports of Puerto Vallarta as well as Guadalajara and much more convenient for exploring, whether nature, gastronomy or cultural highlights. A table of distances shows new drive times from Nayarit’s TPQ airport by road:
- Guadalajara: 2.5 hours
- Tequila: 90 minutes
- Nuevo Nayarit: 80 minutes
- Bucerias: 55 minutes
- Punta Mita: 50 minutes
- Sayulita: 40 minutes
- San Pancho: 32 minutes
- San Blas: 23 minutes
“Los Angeles continues to be one of our most important sources of visitors with an estimated 40-60 percent of those arriving in PVR coming from this area, this is why it is important for us to visit this city,” said Tostado. “We expect to have our first international flight to come from this area when our Riviera Nayarit International Airport opens to service later this year. Arrival to Tepic will provide easy access to our destinations with travel times cut in half. All will be in reach within an hour!"
When asked about what sets Nayarit apart from other choice destinations in Mexico, Tostado is quick to note that beyond the stunning and challenging golf courses, the gastronomic meanderings and the selection of beach resorts, especially in the upscale hospitality categories that can be found along the arc that is the Bay of Banderas and in the island of luxury that is Punta Mita, Nayarit is mostly about natural beauty and local magic.
“Travel and tourism campaigns in Nayarit have expanded to include colonial towns of the Sierra Madre, communities of the indigenous Huichol people, the ecological areas of Isla Marias and Marietas, and the 150 miles of beaches found along the Riviera Nayarit coast,” he added.
Old road through the mountains in Nayarit, Mexico. (Photo Credit: Lark Gould)
Although Nayarit is attracting a lot of new investments in the elite categories of hospitality, there are strict rules in place for preserving the natural settings that most visitors seek. Being a “state of short distances” helps, he notes.
Staying at a beach resort is just one piece of a vacation that could include mountain trekking, visiting volcanos, checking out La Tovara National Parks to see rare migrating birds, exploring rare sea life and meandering through Nayarit’s five Magic Towns. As with Nayarit’s nature offerings, tourism officials are working hard to keep Mexico’s historic and colorful culture footprint preserved but comfortably accessible to those who seek them.
“We want to create a route of pueblos magicos with local experts showing people around,” Tostado announced at a tourism trade show held last February in Nayarit. “If one town is famous for a special bread or cookies, we want people to come and learn to make the local food. We will also invest in more trails for hiking as we have great things to do outdoors.”
A Magic Towns corridor is underway in the southern part of the state where visitors can travel through Jala, Ixtlan del Rio, Ahuacatlan, Compostela and Amatlan de Cañas, as well as San Blas and Puerto Balleto—all new designations in an initiative that is fast becoming as important as designations to UNESCO Heritage sites.
These are unique towns and cities noted for their importance to Mexican culture, whether history, architecture, gastronomy or the arts. This year, 123 towns requested inclusion in the program and 45 were approved.
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