A property belonging to the exclusive and secluded Verana Hotel, Casa Sin Tiempo (meaning House Without Time) was once available only to guests of the Verana. Verana is a jungle retreat accessible only by boat and located a bit south of Puerto Vallarta, and Casa Sin Tiempo was for guests of that resort who wanted to spend some time exploring the city. In late 2007, it became a historic Puerto Vallarta bed and breakfast inn that is open to the public.

This is one of the lovely Puerto Vallarta Old Town casas (houses or villas) located in what is called Gringo Gulch because of the large number of Americans and other ex-patriots who built homes here in the 1950s and 1960s. Many of these are now Puerto Vallarta luxury hotels and bed and breakfast inns. The most famous of these Puerto Vallarta Old Town casas is known as Casa Kimberly and is located at Calle Zaragoza 446. This was the love nest of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor during the filming of Night of the Iguana.

Gringo Gulch is in the historic residential neighborhood in the southern part of the city, set at the mouth of the Cuale River and at the foot of the Sierra Madre Mountains. The gracious colonial-style villas are built up the sides of a steep ravine that overlooks the wide sandy beaches on crescent-shaped Banderas Bay. The Puerto Vallarta bed and breakfast of Casa Sin Tiempo is right next to its famous neighbor, Casa Kimberly. Like many of the neighborhood villas, it is made of white stucco and draped in brilliant bougainvillea.

Puerto Vallarta Map

Its ornate wooden doors open into an elegant and gracious town house with only two spacious apartments, each with en suite bathrooms, king-size beds, and lush private patios. These can be booked separately or together. Whichever you choose, you will feel as though you are staying in your own private home. To add to this feeling, the Casa Sin Tiempo personal chef is at your disposal and will prepare a romantic meal just for you on the patio, which has views of the city, ocean, and mountains. He even conducts cooking classes, which include a shopping trip to the local markets. Other things to do in the neighborhood include visiting nearby art galleries and museums—even Casa Kimberly has a small museum dedicated to its famous former residents. You can stroll along the oceanfront Malecon and promenade, full of restaurants and other dining venues, nightclubs, and shopping spots.

This Puerto Vallarta bed and breakfast is full of history. It was built by architects Luis Favela and Guillermo Wulff, who purchased the first lease on Gringo Gulch and built its first Puerto Vallarta Old Town casas in 1958, when Puerto Vallarta was still an undiscovered small town. Wulff arrived from Mexico City on the first commercial flight to Puerto Vallarta. He was charmed by the aerial view of the fairy-tale bay below and shortly thereafter met the legendary film director John Huston. It was Wulff who sold the director on the idea of nearby Indian land at Mismaloya as the location for filming Night of the Iguana. This entrepreneurial move changed the course of Puerto Vallarta, and sowed the seeds of what is today an international jet-set resort.