Los Muertos Beach, Beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Los Muertos Beach is a sandy shore in the Romantic Zone neighborhood of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, facing the Pacific Ocean. A concrete pier extends from the beach into the water, serving as the main departure point for water taxis and boat tours heading along the coast.

The name has several competing explanations. One holds that local Indians ambushed a crew loading Cuale mine gold and silver, leaving the beach covered with bodies; another blames pirates who killed muleteers carrying that gold. The version archaeologist Joseph Mountjoy's evidence supports is that the beach was a sacred cemetery where locals unearthed bones in ceramic vessels. The pier was rebuilt in concrete and inaugurated on 4 January 2013.

The name "Los Muertos" (The Dead) has resisted several attempts by authorities to change it. Three explanations circulate: a massacre of miners shipping Cuale gold and silver, a pirate attack on the same muleteers, or a sacred indigenous cemetery where bones were unearthed in ceramic vessels, a theory supported by archaeologist Joseph Mountjoy. The beach anchors the Zona Romántica, a neighbourhood gentrified from the 1980s by LGBT retirees, mainly Canadian and American, and now among the world's most visited gay districts.

The water entry is gradual and the waves are generally gentle, making it comfortable for swimming most of the time. The beach sits within easy walking distance of the restaurants, cafes, and shops of the Romantic Zone, so it is simple to combine a day on the sand with time in the neighborhood.

The pier at Los Muertos is one of the few public piers on Mexico's Pacific coast that is open to walkers and offers a clear view back toward the mountains behind Puerto Vallarta. From the end of the pier, you can see the city with the Sierra Madre foothills rising directly behind the shoreline, a view that is easy to miss from the beach itself.