The Cuale Museum, to the south of the city of Puerto Vallarta, forms part of the National Anthropology and History Institute, and is located right on the Island of the Cuale River, a Puerto Vallarta heritage zone. This is a small museum to show visitors the artifacts found in human dwellings left by various cultures in the area since 5,000 B.C.

Apart from its two main exhibitions halls, the museum also has a permanent exhibition of arts, objects, and burial tombs from different historical epochs together with traditional clothing, ceramics and metals left more recently in the area by the inhabitants of this western part of Mexico. The collection focuses on showing the area’s pre-Columbian past, going back to the times of nomadic tribes, and is open from Tuesday to Saturday.

Puerto Vallarta’s Naval History Museum gives the history of the port, with exhibits on the city’s past with accounts of the Nao ships which came from China, sea journeys, trade with other ports and even the defense of the bay during wars.