While in México, I did zip-lining in Puerto Vallarta with a company called Vallarta Adventures. I’ve been zip-lining many times before so I did know what to expect, except for the the last zip-line on the tour. The last zip-line is called “Big Papa” and is the only zip-line where we had to lay down instead of a sitting position. But more about the beginning of the tour.

Where the tour departs?

There are two departure points depending on what part of Puerto Vallarta you’re in. We left from the Puerto Vallarta office in Marina Vallarta (the other departure point leaves from Nuevo Vallarta at Vallarta Adventure’s Center). The office is in a nice shopping area of Puerto Vallarta and many westerners have their yacht docked there.

After everybody shows up for the tour, we climbed in a van and drove 45 minutes outside of Puerto Vallarta to the Sierra Madre Mountains. The area that we were zip-lining was pretty remote and we passed tiny Mexican villages and get a chance to the surrounding countryside.

Preparing for the tour

Once you’ve arrived at Vallarta Adventures, workers get you suited up in gear, gloves and a hard hat. For anybody fearing that you may get injured while doing the tour, you should have no fear. The gear that you have is always connected to two thick steel lines and they give you safety gloves so you can stop yourself. Even if you don’t do that, most of the time you just glide into a zip-line station and the crew stops you or you stop yourself.

After we geared up, they sent us to a safety demonstration that is both in English and Spanish (depending if there are any Spanish speakers on the tour) which was easy to follow. The crew was entertaining and went out of their way to make the time enjoyable while zip-lining in Puerto Vallarta. Out of all the zip-lining tours I’ve been on I felt like this tour had the most professionalism and they were very serious about their job. They get highly rated reviews on TripAdvisor and the tour is one of the top things to do while in Puerto Vallarta.

On the tour

The tour is long and one of the best priced tours for the amount that you get. I paid 150 dollars for 2 people because I bought my tickets in advance online, which saved on one ticket. Normally the tickets are 110 dollars a piece but it will be still worth the price.

The tour starts out with baby zip-lines that are very easy to manage. You are in a sitting position for the first few zip-lines. On one zip-line you get to race with someone as they have two zip-lines side by side. That was fun to do and an awesome way to mix up the tour! I lost my race to my boyfriend :(.

Oh, one of the cool parts about the zip-lines is that some of them connect to just enormous trees with platforms built around them. If you’re scared of heights, like my boyfriend is, then this might be a little scary for you. However I found it find and exciting to be among the trees even when we were standing around waiting for the next zip-line.

On one part of the zip-line tour, we had to repel down a rope from around 50 feet. It was actually pretty scary at first but once you realize that you’re just going in a free fall with a secure rope and the tour guides are controlling it, it was simple and pretty fun. That is over in a matter of seconds. The next part is harder!

On the next part, we had to now climb up or walk up. Half of our group chose to walk up to the next zip-line, but we chose to climb the ladder. Now this part was actually scary to me and was pretty difficult. First, the ladder goes up vertical at one point. Second, it shakes the entire time you’re climbing because we had climbers behind also climbing. My arms were exhausted and tired after the climb and I was just happy to be up.

After we stood on the platform and crossed a tightrope which was also just as wobbly. We connected to a wire but it still felt weird to cross from tree to tree just by a rope. And then finally we crossed by tree surfing on this board that rolls across from one platform to the final platform. It was all a pretty intense. After that were hanging on a zip-line backwards and then went on to ATVing!

The ATVing experience was one of the best parts of the tour. First you can choose be a driver or a passenger of the ATV. I chose to drive while my boyfriend choose to be a passenger. The ATV was really easy to operate (they give you a 1 minute training with the cars before you go) and the course was very well done. Sharp turns, very bumpy and lots of mud. I choose to not drive fast through mud and we didn’t get dirty. Others did and were absolutely stained with mud. So bring something you don’t care about too much.

After the ATV experience it’s back to zip-lining but this time you’re doing the largest zip-lining in Puerto Vallarta. The Big Papa. At 4,000 feet long it’s nearly a mile and you reach speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. We wore goggles and we laid down instead of the traditional seating position. To reach where The Big Papa launches from we had to walk up a pretty large hill/mountain that takes around 20 minutes. We had to be fit and make sure that you drink plenty of water. We had a few in a group struggle.

Once at the top, we waited for the earlier group to completely cross while we played some arrows for a free drink back at the front bar. I lost but was at least able to get some arrows on the board.

So we strapped up and they had to put extra weights on my suit for fear that I wouldn’t make it completely across. This is getting intense! So after laying me down and getting the weights strapped on you put your goggles on, take some pictures and off I went. Let me just say that it’s one of the best experiences you’ll ever have. The country side around Puerto Vallarta is beautiful and you get to glide among the trees. The zip-line is long and was probably the longest course I’ve ever done.

Once on the other side, we slid down a water-slide to clean up, rinsed off and then boarded a military truck back to the front buildings. All in all, the tour lasted around 3 – 4 hours and was well worth the money! The best zip-lining experience in Puerto Vallarta and probably México.

Final thoughts on Zip-lining in Puerto Vallarta

We had the option to get some food and water and to tip the staff. We just received free food offered by the tour but you could buy other snacks. There is also the option to buy photos but this is extra money. There is a basic pack, medium pack (we got this one) and the biggest pack. They are pretty pricy but since you can’t bring your camera you almost have to buy these photos if you want a memory of your tour. I don’t like that I had to buy them but the photos were well done, the photographer was cute and hell we wanted the memories. So I’m glad I did.

Everybody gets their photos and we all boarded the bus back to Puerto Vallarta where they drop us off back where we began the tour. The Vallarta Adventure Tour is definitely one of the best tours in Puerto Vallarta and is certainly the best Zip-lining in Puerto Vallarta. Would I recommend this tour! Hell yes, go! It will make you day and vacation.

images by: vallarta adventures