Drinking (Water)

Drinking Water in Puerto Vallarta

The first thing you should know about drinking water in Puerto Vallarta is that you should… and lots of it, since your body will need to be hydrated in this climate to stay healthy and feeling well. Should you drink tap water? No.

Though many hotels will inform you they have filtered water coming from the tap, we still advise against it, just to play on the safe side. Go ahead and brush your teeth with it but keep it out of your tummy. Hotels usually leave you a couple of bottles of cold water in your room upon arrival. Take the hint. Restaurants will serve you bottled water, which comes from large jars called garrafones (20 liter vessels). If you’re in an Airbnb, rental, or guest home, you will most likely find one of these in the kitchen and perhaps appointed in different areas of a home. Ice cubes in restaurants are also safe, as they come bagged and purified from the ice factory.

Puerto Vallarta claims to have some of the safest drinking water in all of Mexico but the pipes that bring that water to your sink are often old and though the water to start is safe, its journey to you could likely be tainted. This includes expensive hotels, as well as small boutique inns, homes, anywhere basically that has running water.

Montezuma’s revenge is not pretty and it can be delivered via water systems that haven’t been cleaned since shortly after he was defeated by the conquistadores. Montezuma was the last ruler of the Aztec empire before the Spanish invasion that began in 1520. His revenge on invaders was to afflict them with severe diarrhea, often accompanied by agonizing stomach pain. One way to avoid being a victim of his reprisal is to avoid drinking the water. There are other circumstances that can cause what seems like Montezuma’s revenge; overindulgence of alcohol, chief among them; followed by heat exhaustion, dehydration, and too much sun… or a combination all of the above. Vacationing can be hard on the body but when common sense prevails, there is a lot of fun to be had without the aggravation.

Our Mexican friends don’t drink tap water and have a good laugh when they’re told hotels have wonderful purification systems. Some people are lucky and don’t get sick, no matter how hard they try, but anyone can feel delicate when far from home and hit by a tummy virus.

We carry our own small handheld bottle, regardless of whether we’re out for the day or on a long road trip. The idea is to use the large garrafones to fill them, thereby cutting back on plastic, which has turned into a nightmare of its own. More on that later.

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