Executive Remote Workers Take on Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Categories: Community Events

Toward the end of 2021, the Executive Remote Worker community headed to the Pacific Coast of Mexico for our second group coworking trip – specifically Puerto Vallarta, Mexico!

As you will see, we designed this trip differently than the previous one when we went sailing along the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic Sea.

Here’s a recap of our trip with special emphasis on the hot topics everyone wants to know about working remotely in Puerto Vallarta:

Timing

Together, we decided to travel to and meet up in Puerto Vallarta between mid-November to mid-December.

This was a perfect time of year, because it was warm in Puerto Vallarta and cold in the US (where most of our community members reside).

Once we picked our dates, everyone had the flexibility to book their own flights and accommodations based on their personal schedules, commitments, and budget.

As it turned out, most people spent the entire month in Puerto Vallarta, but a couple only stayed for a week or two.

Accommodations

Puerto Vallarta is a pretty large Mexican city in the state of Jalisco. It’s about 500 sq miles with a population of almost 300k.

To ensure we would all be staying close to each other, we decided we each would find our accommodations in one of these two areas: Zona Romantica or Centro.

These districts were adjacent to each other in the Southern part of the city and had great accessibility to markets, restaurants, cafes, and of course the famous Malecon.

In the end, most people chose to stay in the Zona Romantica neighborhood.

Internet

Puerto Vallarta is a well-known destination for digital nomads and remote workers.

However, based on our experience, Zona Romantica seemed to have a lot more retired expats and vacationers than digital nomads and remote workers.

Regardless, the city was pretty conducive for remote working as it related to the internet. For the most part, we had really fast and reliable internet.

Well, except for one member…

Upon arrival to his Airbnb, one member only had usable internet in the kitchen of his Airbnb. Fortunately, he was able to work with the Airbnb host to get internet throughout his apartment. The solution was to add a Wi-Fi booster in the apartment. With the booster, he was able to work from anywhere in his apartment, including his beach-facing balcony.

Until the booster was installed, he worked from the table in his kitchen.

This issue was resolved with the booster within the first day or two of his stay, but he had some options if it would’ve taken longer to resolve:

  • Continue working from his kitchen
  • Locate a restaurant or coffee shop to work from
  • Buy a pass from one of several different coworking spaces
  • Cowork with another community member from their accommodation that had good Wi-Fi

Given these options (or a combination of these options), we realized this was another great benefit of traveling in a group of remote workers!

Time Zones

Puerto Vallarta was in the Central Time, the same time zone as US cities like Chicago, Nashville, Dallas, and New Orleans.

Also, we were:

  • 1 hour later than Eastern Time in cities like New York City, Detroit, Atlanta, and Miami
  • 1 hour ahead of Mountain Time in cities like Denver, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City
  • 2 hours ahead of Pacific Time in cities like Seattle, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas

This made it easy for us to work synchronously with our US employers from this time zone.

Most members had employers on the East Coast in the US, so it was just a 1-hour time difference. While they had to start their day 1 hour earlier, they were able to end their day 1 hour early!

Typical days

On weekdays, we each worked from our respective accommodations during the day. We were pretty much on our own throughout the day during the week until we met up for happy hour and/or dinner.

PRO TIP: It usually saves a lot of time during the day to cook your own meals or order food delivery – especially for breakfast and lunch. Going out to a restaurant for meals can be a time-consuming endeavor, especially in Mexico!

In the evenings, we usually met up as a group to enjoy happy hour specials or to try a new restaurant in the area. We basically each took turns picking the venue and some stayed out later in the evenings than others!

Puerto Vallarta was also great for our health and wellbeing. It was really easy to incorporate a walk, workout, or yoga session into our weekday routines. We were able to fit some activity in before work, after work, or over the lunch hour.

Fun activities

We enjoyed our jobs during the week, but it was the weekends when we let loose and relished in the exotic destination.

We spent most of our time together just casually hanging out, enjoying the beach, or exploring the city but here are a few highlights of our fun activities:

  • Malecon. We spent quite a bit of time on the Malecon , the famous boardwalk that runs along the coastline in Centro and Zona Romantica. The Malecon was always very active and full of pedestrians and bicyclists. It was also lined with plenty of bars, restaurants, and shops to keep us busy.
  • Choco Museo. The chocolate museum in Puerto Vallarta was a lot of fun. A group of us took the ‘Bean to Bar’ workshop. Together, we learned about growing and processing cocoa beans and made our own (artisanal?) chocolates and chocolate bars. We also got to roast our own cocoa beans and make 3 different types of traditional chocolate drinks with them. It was such a fun class, and we really enjoyed our chocolate leftovers.
  • City Walking Tour. On this tour, we explored historic Centro as well as the ‘Gringo Gulch’ that was adjacent to Centro. Gringo Gulch was an area made famous by the tumultuous relationship between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The walking tour was fun, and we learned a lot about the history and architecture in that part of Puerto Vallarta.

Wrap-up

All in all, everyone had a great time on this trip!

While we were there, we all got a lot of work done.

However, we also were able to explore the city, learn new things, and make lifelong friends during our month together.

This is an example of precious time spent in Mexico learning about Mexican culture and their Mayan heritage. I strongly believe that the more we learn about history and cultures around the world, the better people we become. Travel irreversibly changes our perspectives and shapes our minds.

As global citizens, we can’t help but be forever changed by the collection of our travel experiences.