Yelapa is a small fishing village about 45 minutes by boat south of Puerto Vallarta, tucked into a sheltered cove on the southern arm of Banderas Bay. The setting is the draw: a wide crescent beach lined with palapa restaurants, jungle-covered cliffs rising directly behind, and two waterfalls within a short hike of the village. The lower waterfall is an easy 20-minute walk from the beach; the upper one, Cascada del Cielo, is a 100-metre plunge that requires a guided horseback trip into the hills.
The village still has no road. Boats run several times daily from Los Muertos Pier in Puerto Vallarta and from Boca de Tomatlán, and that isolation is exactly what has kept Yelapa from being swallowed by resort development. Electricity only reached the grid in 2001 after a long fight, and the community still runs on a centuries-old system of communal land tenure that has resisted the wholesale sell-off seen elsewhere on the bay.
Several restaurants cater to the day-tripper crowd that arrives mid-morning, but the better experience is to stay overnight in one of the small inns or rented casitas. When the last boats leave in the afternoon the beach empties out and the village settles into its own rhythm. The local women still walk the sand selling homemade coconut and lime pies — they are genuinely excellent, and worth flagging down for.