For my daily long walk today, I went and explored two new to me neighbourhoods of Puerto Vallarta. I have wanted to check out the Versalles & Diaz Ordaz hoods of PV for quite a while and today was the perfect time!
Versalles (not Versailles)
Firstly the correct spelling is Versalles even though many places use the French spelling. The area of Versalles is basically three streets on the north side of Calle Viena, and six streets on the south side to Highway 200. It is a small neighbourhood, easily walk-able in under half an hour.
I had read and heard of this neighbourhood mentioned in several sites on the net. I was curious, as the information I had garnered made the hood sound rather chic. After walking around, I can report that north of Calle Viena, this is indeed the case. However south of Calle Viena is definitely a work in progress.
This part of Puerto Vallarta is quite old and this is most apparent on the south side of Viena. The south side looks to be mostly industrial type complexes that grew up along the highway and river. While the area is an up and coming neighbourhood, I think it has a long way to go before it has any type of prettiness to it.
There are still streets with long concrete walls covered in graffiti. Streets where there are hardly any stores but instead vacant lots and run down buildings.
There are some good restaurants and eateries entering the area, but it certainly did not have that feeling of community or chic-ness throughout. I can see what the new neighbourhood wants to become, it is just going to be a while before that takes shape. The area is not full of colour and character.
High-rise construction is changing the face of both neighbourhoods so if this is an area you want to explore or perhaps spend you time in, I would do some research before you book any accommodation.
Diaz Ordaz
The Diaz Ordaz neighbourhood is on the western side of Calle Havre and extends from Highway 200 up to Av. Fluvial Vallarta. It includes Plaza Caracol and IMSS Hospital.
This area is quite beautiful, definitely almost exclusively residential. There are streets lined with larger homes and casas and others with condominium buildings both old and new.
Again there is construction happening so be aware when booking accommodation, that noise six days a week, from dawn to dusk could be an issue.
Inside the residential streets of Diaz Ordaz, there were not many businesses or restaurants. The streets were wide with very little vehicular traffic. The small section of the neighbourhood south of Calle Viena was less developed.
The larger individual homes were rather bland, not having much colour or character, however they were clean and proud and there was greenery about. The sidewalks were in great shape, a nice place to walk around.
I did not see any parks or green spaces in either neighbourhood. Diaz Ordaz was definitely a more pleasant area to explore on foot and one I would feel more comfortable walking around in the evening or after dark.
For myself I would consider staying in either of these two neighbourhoods in the future. There are enough restaurants and cafes to offer a variety of food. There is even a Greek restaurants that purports to have the only Greek chef in all of Puerto Vallarta!
Both hoods are close to Plaza Caracol, a big shopping complex complete with a theatre. They are also fairly close to Costco, La Comer and La Isla Shopping Village.
If you do plan to stay in either Versalles or Diaz Ordaz, I would be careful with the location of the accommodation. There really is a lot of construction in both neighbourhoods. Once these buildings are completed, it will bring in a huge influx of both people and vehicles into the hoods and their vibes will undoubtedly develop.
