Although I have a lot of experience driving in Mexico, traveling through PV concerns me. I have never noticed semi truck traffic passing along the laterals through town, which leads me to think, there has to be a truck bypass somewhere. I am interested in northbound. Does anyone know where it is and have detailed instructions?

Paul - if you are coming from the south, there is a light right after the Pemex on the left as you enter the town - that is Basilio Badillo St. Turn right at that light and you'll go up the street and enter the first tunnel. Stay on this road as it winds along the hills over town. Eventually you'll pass through another, longer tunnel and begin descending. No turns until you can see that you're approaching the main street with hotels, then keep in the right lane and take the curve that merges with the main street with laterals. Keep right to get on the lateral which you have to use with dual wheels or trailers. The lateral will take you right out past the airport and merges back with the highway. If you're overnighting and want Tachos, you'll need to turn right at the casino tower and go down past Sam's Club, through the first light, then get in the left lane and into the first left turn bay - that's Tachos. I don't know if you have internet, but I usually go to Google Earth for a place I haven't been - you can see this route if you just go to "PV" and zoom on the south side. Any questions - phoenyxx2(at)gmail.com

We see the odd one. There is no bypass. Most of the M 200 through PV requires that Trafico Pesado use the laterals. Trafico Pesado includes ANY vehicle with duals and any vehicle towing. The part of the 200 that requires using the lateral is from (South bound) where as you approach PV the laterals begin (well north of the airpoar) to where the 200 turns left to head through the tunnels (Should be signed TEPIC and TUNEL) and the main road appears to go straight. DON'T GO STRAIGHT AHEAD here as you will end up in the very narrow streets into centro and the old town. Get off the lateral as you pass Plaza Las Glorias. Once you make this turn do not take the lateral unless you know where you are heading for as they stop without warning mid block!Northbound, after the tunnels, watch for where the dual lanes merge with the dual lane road out of centro (on your left). Here you will for a few feet be back on 2 main lanes and you must immediately move right onto the laterals. There is a Pemex here on the right. The merge is almost always busy as all the buses and many taxis are trying to do the same. This is a 2 lane lateral; stay in the left through lane(--not the left turn lane!) at least for the first block or two as this is a very busy bus stop in the right lane.(At the first light, right at the bus stop, the right turn there is to Calle Francia, where the Puerto Vallarta Trailer Park in located. (NOT Tacho's). IF you are going to PV Trailer park, make your turn from the Left lane in front of the busses as this intersection is very narrow and often crowded with traffic. We have done it several times in a 32' DP towing a car, it just needs slow and easy, care and patience.)If you are continuing north either through PV or to Tacho's, just stay on the lateral. There are two lanes for most of it but they are very narrow here, watch the buses; one took our mirror off a couple of years ago. For Tacho's turn right at Walmart; other wise carry on. Soon after Walmart the lateral becomes one lane then shortly after the end in a merge back to the highway. Yhe last block of lateral is pretty bad. If you see buses and heavy trucks leaving the lateral for the main lanes, follow them.

Paul - I just checked the street-level view on Google Earth and as I figured, the right turn just past the Pemex is signed for "libramiento and Tepic"

They are good! Those are the exact instructions to get through town, and to both parks. Yes, it's an uncomfortable place to drive through, but there are no other options. Great descriptions, both of you, and correct! You MUST use the laterals.

Thanks ! It helps when you spend a couple months a year there for 9 years and enter the town from both ends with a trailer ! RYV

alternate routes through PV | Good Sam Community

Tequila
Explorer
May 04, 2014
Your other alternative is to drive a few miles west west from Chuimulco and take the road that connects up to highway 70 at Buenavista. Its a bit rough, due to sugcane truck traffic, but no towns or low trees, and only about 25 km, so you just take it slow. Still beats the Guad ring road.
RonYVickie
Explorer
May 04, 2014
We have a couple here in the park who are going to give me "detailed" instructions on Chimulco - just found out, so we should be ok. Yeah, we have used the southern bypass, although it's hard to get on it from coming up from the coast - you have to do a retorno and the first time we tried that was early in the morning with a continuous string of traffic coming out of Guad. We went into Guad and did the regular route instead - no way was I that brave !
Tequila
Explorer
May 03, 2014
RonYVickie wrote:
Well, that kills that idea ! I was hoping you were south of Melaque or PV with a caravan and we could join you for a while as a "safety in numbers " thing. Oh well, we hope to see our stranded trailer maybe on Saturday, then spend a couple of days having a breather before we hit the road again. May aim for Villa Corona/Chimulco for the 1st night out from Patz, but never been there before. Any tips ? RYV

Villa Corona is a great place, just be careful with the side streets off the elevated main road, you can bottom out easy. Look for the southernmost Pemex (there are 2 in town, you want the one on the south side of the street, just make sure no one is coming up it), they have a ramp and that side streeet is good for RV's. Do you know about the highway 601 bypass to avoid guadalajara when you head north? If not PM me. You have to go over by the office to use the Wi Fi in Chimulco.
RonYVickie
Explorer
May 03, 2014
Do you think that area is OK now too?

Jeez ! I hope so, as we just arrived back in Patzcuaro with a new truck and hope to make our way out of here intact. We came in via Morelia from Guad in order to stick to well-travelled roads. No problems at all, but we're not taking the truck out of the park to go shopping - it'll be collectivos or taxis now until the trailer is hooked up and we become (we hope !) less attractive to thieves. We were just in the wrong place, wrong time, so we're trying to learn from it and can't really fault Mexico overall for the bad luck, as it could have happened just about anywhere. We're in the midst of a Happy Hour to celebrate, so I should finish this while I'm still coherent ! RYV
Talleyho69
Moderator
May 02, 2014
So David, do you think the vehicle theft issue, at least for the moment is no longer an issue? We avoided returning via 200 because of Canadian Rainbirds theft. Then, just a couple of weeks later, RonYVicki had their truck stolen just out of Patzcuaro. Do you think that area is OK now too?
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
May 01, 2014
Right now, I think you could run down the full length of Mex 200 buck naked with 1,000 peso notes pasted to you and you would be safe. Well at least until you got to the X villages. Los Indigenas are cranky about nudity.
RonYVickie
Explorer
May 01, 2014
Oops ! Sorry about the double post - the internet isn't good here in our Totonaka room tonight. We had an uneventful day's driving, just as we expected. RYV
RonYVickie
Explorer
May 01, 2014
Well, that kills that idea ! I was hoping you were south of Melaque or PV with a caravan and we could join you for a while as a "safety in numbers " thing. Oh well, we hope to see our stranded trailer maybe on Saturday, then spend a couple of days having a breather before we hit the road again. May aim for Villa Corona/Chimulco for the 1st night out from Patz, but never been there before. Any tips ? RYV
Tequila
Explorer
May 01, 2014
RonYVickie wrote:
No, sorry Paul, but the only way to miss the buses on the PV laterals is to turn north at Melaque and come through the outskirts of Guadalajara. Makes the buses seem not much of a problem, eh ? We're leaving Mesa AZ in the morning for Tucson, then Wed over the border. Hoping to do San Carlos-Maz-Tequila-Patzcuaro if all goes well. Wish us luck ! RYV

I am back home tomorrow, at least for a few weeks, then I have to do a run to California to pick up a new RV. The dealer there after 5 hours dropped 8 k off the asking price (25%) plus some mods including replacing carpet with tile (wife is allergic to dust mites, her face swells up, so we cannot have carpet.) Seemed too good to turn down. I hope.
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Apr 29, 2014
With the pinche taxiistas playing formula 1, from the old city to the last hotel to the south, this is a challenging, nail biting route. The city fathers are fighting plans for a periferico claiming it would hurt a lot of businesses. Any periferico would entail very long tunnels and they are expensive to build. I am not holding my breath. I just wish they would make the north entronque 3-lanes of left turn. Fat chance.

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