Qibla direction in Puerto Vallarta

How to face the Qibla in Puerto Vallarta

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 41.1° towards east: the result is the bearing of 41.1°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “north” would be off by more than 40°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Puerto Vallarta.

Scholars agree that someone who can see the Kaaba must face it exactly, while someone far away faces its direction (jihat al-Ka‘bah) as precisely as reasonably possible. If a mosque is nearby, its mihrab and prayer lines are the easiest reference, since they were set when the building was laid out. At home, mark the direction once with tape or a small arrow so the whole family prays the same way.

Why a flat map shows a different direction

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Puerto Vallarta to Mecca points to 89.7° (east), a full 48.5° away from the true Qibla of 41.1° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 1,063 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Puerto Vallarta first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

The angle on this page is the initial bearing of the great circle from 20.6170° N, 105.2302° W to the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8262° E). It is the method used by mosque architects and by every serious Qibla calculator, and it gives one exact answer for each point on Earth.

Distance from Puerto Vallarta to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 13,993 km from Puerto Vallarta as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 13,723 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 16 h 58 min, although most pilgrims from Puerto Vallarta connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Puerto Vallarta run 9 hours behind Mecca all year. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Puerto Vallarta rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Puerto Vallarta

On 58 days of 2027, the sun passes exactly through the Qibla direction of Puerto Vallarta while it is well above the horizon. At that moment, facing the sun means facing Mecca. The effect is most frequent in June (30 days); for example, on 1 June 2027 it happens at 12:53 local time.

On 306 days the sun stands exactly opposite the Qibla: then the shadow of any vertical object, a pole, a door frame or a plumb line, points straight towards Mecca. This is most frequent in January (31 days), for instance on 1 January 2027 at 15:30.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Puerto Vallarta (03:18 and 03:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 15:29 and 28 November 2027 at 15:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Puerto Vallarta points straight to Mecca.

Puerto Vallarta compared with other cities

Compared with Mexico City, 651 km away, the Qibla in Puerto Vallarta is turned 5.5° further anticlockwise (41.1° against 46.6°), and Mecca is 347 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Tepic (105 km), prays towards 41.0°, a difference of 0.1°.

Across the 99 cities in Mexico on this site, the Qibla ranges from 25.5° in Rosarito to 54.2° in Chetumal, a spread of 28.7°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Mexico.

Qibla in cities near Puerto Vallarta

• Tepic41.0° · 105 km
• Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico42.6° · 191 km
• Zapopan42.6° · 192 km
• Tonalá42.8° · 207 km
• Ciudad Guzmán43.1° · 210 km
• Colima43.1° · 220 km