In Puerto Vallarta, high season runs from December to April, with international tourists and seasonal residents. What almost nobody says is that it isn’t won in December: it is won before, in October and November, while there is still time to fix what is broken.
And November doesn’t wait. In 2026, three events come together between November 7 and 22: The Grill Festival, on the 7th and 8th at the International Convention Center; the International Marlin and Tuna Fishing Tournament, from the 11th to the 14th on the Marina Vallarta boardwalk; and the Festival Gourmet International, from the 12th to the 22nd in restaurants around the area. That is three waves of visitors with tight schedules. Whoever isn’t ready by the end of October misses all three.
1. Search for yourself the way a tourist does
Open your phone and search for your business on Google the way someone who just arrived would. Check your Business Profile, your hours, your photos, your unanswered reviews and your latest post. That is your business to someone who doesn’t know you yet, and they decide in minutes.
If your listing is incomplete or your website doesn’t exist in English, that comes first. It is what the website setup leaves ready.
2. Produce now, not in December
Producing in the middle of the season is expensive and goes badly: the kitchen is full, the rooms are booked and nobody has time. Before December the place is calm and looks its best. What you photograph now is what you will publish over the following months. That is what photography and video is for.
3. Both languages, for real
If your high season client comes from the United States or Canada, your communication has to exist in English. Not translated at the last minute: written in English. A menu, a listing and a WhatsApp message in the buyer’s language remove friction right when they are deciding.
4. Decide who answers
High season punishes good businesses for a simple reason: messages arrive that nobody answers. Before December, decide who replies, how fast and with what information. That work belongs to your team, and no campaign replaces it.
5. Leave measurement in place
If you don’t know how many messages you got last season, you won’t know whether this one was better. Measurement is installed before the season starts, not halfway through, and reviewed every week while it lasts. If you are going to advertise, the Meta pixel and Google Analytics are connected before the first Meta Ads and Google Ads ad goes out.
And when April ends
From May to September come the rains and domestic tourism. It isn’t a punishment: it is when you prospect hardest and produce the material for the next high season. A business that only talks to tourists works half the year for nobody.
In short
High season doesn’t reward whoever posts the most in December. It rewards whoever arrived ready: easy to find, with their own material, in both languages, with someone answering and with the numbers in view. If you want to know what you are missing, the diagnostic tells you in 7 business days.
November 2026 dates: Visit Puerto Vallarta (The Grill Festival, Festival Gourmet International) and Zonaturística (International Marlin and Tuna Fishing Tournament), accessed October 15, 2026.