Looking for a Quick Escape From Vallarta? Take a Look at Mascota

Sometimes you don’t need a flight or a week off to feel like you’ve gone somewhere completely different.

Mascota, one of Jalisco’s Pueblos Mágicos, is tucked into the Sierra Madre Occidental and offers almost the opposite experience from Puerto Vallarta: mountain air, forests, small-town streets and nearby lakes instead of beaches and palm trees.

A September 4 travel feature from El Informador highlighted Mascota as an easy mountain getaway from the coast, including the area’s traditional food and Laguna de Juanacatlán, surrounded by forest in the mountains outside town.

Mascota sits at approximately 1,230 meters above sea level, which helps give the area a noticeably different climate and landscape from Puerto Vallarta.

And September is an especially interesting time to visit.

Mascota’s Fiestas Patrias celebrations begin this month, joining communities across Jalisco in celebrating Mexican Independence.

For people living in Vallarta, Mascota is also a reminder of something that’s easy to forget when you’re surrounded by the ocean:

We live in an incredibly diverse state.

Within a relatively short trip, you can leave the tropical Pacific coast and find pine-covered mountains, ranching communities, colonial architecture and an entirely different style of Jalisco cooking.

That’s one of the pleasures of actually living here rather than simply vacationing here.

Puerto Vallarta may be home, but there’s an enormous amount of Mexico waiting just up the road.

Sometimes all you need is a free weekend and a full tank of gas.

Sources: El Informador, September 4, 2026; Visit Jalisco September 2026 guide.