The territory currently occupied by the Municipality of Bahia de Banderas was inhabited during pre-colonial times by peoples or tribes belonging to the monarchy or Hueytlahtonazgo de Xalisco, which extended southward, outside the limits of what is currently the state of Nayarit and was founded between 559 and 618. It is known that the Municipality of Bahía de Banderas was also a place of transit in the great migration that led the Aztec people to settle in the Valley of Mexico. The archaeological findings and testimonies located in Sayulita, Higuera Blanca, Punta de Mita, Valle de Banderas and San Juan de Abajo tell us about this transit, where colonies of Nahuatlaca origin existed. 

It was in the year 1525 that Francisco Cortés de Buenaventura, a relative of the conqueror, arrived on these coasts, at the height of a town called Tintoc. The natives welcomed him dressed in their colorful garments and luxurious plumaria, which led to the name of the region. Subsequently, in 1530 Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán, practiced a violent and destructive colonization that caused a serious depopulation and ruin of the region, to the point that the bishop of Guadalajara said in 1605: “The Valley that they say of Banderas, was formerly the land more populated in this New Galicia and now it has nothing but small villages of little importance.

Much of the second half of the nineteenth century, the area that since the time of the conquest was called the Valley of Banderas, was preserved with a very low population density. Some of the localities that by 1893 take on some importance due to their number of inhabitants are: Valle de Banderas, with 250; San José del Valle, with 70; San Juan de Abajo, with 50; El Colomo, with 45; Mezcales, with 40; and Las Peñas, Jalisco (today Puerto Vallarta), with 60. The cultivation of corn, fishing and hunting were the activities that were practiced and were destined for self-consumption. In 1904 the Valle de Banderas Subprefecture was created and as of 1917, the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit was constituted, it integrated the Municipality of Compostela. The current territory of Bahía de Banderas was practically oblivious to the armed confrontations that culminated in the triumph of constitutionalism and post-revolutionary struggles. In 1937, during the Cardenista period, the peasants of the region were endowed with a total of 26,648 hectares, forming 9 of the 13 ejidos that exist today. Only the one in Valle de Banderas was assigned 10,234 hectares and at least 1,433 of them were located on the other side of the Ameca River, in Jalisco territory. From 1954 to 1958, the Valle de Banderas risk unit was built, initially dominating 2,500 hectares, and later it reached an area close to 10,000 hectares, which increased agricultural production. From 1955 to 1964, tourist activity took off in small hotels located in the town of Puerto Vallarta. In 1958, the construction of the Compostela-Puerto Vallarta highway began, and it was completed ten years later, allowing the commercial opening of the Banderas Valley. From 1965 to 1974, a great international projection of Puerto Vallarta and attraction of a growing number of tourists was generated and the Nayarit portion of the Bay of Banderas, of great natural attraction, benefited indirectly. 22 In order to promote a tourist development that would benefit the agrarian communities of this coastal area of Nayarit, the Federal Government decreed in November 1970 the creation of the Bahía de Banderas Trust, whose patrimony was constituted two months later with 5,162 hectares expropriated from the ejidos of Bucerías, Jarretaderas, Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Higuera Blanca and Sayulita, among others. The trustees formed an ejido union in 1972. The promotion by the Trust marked the beginning of a process of expansion of investments and tourism infrastructure, which included the development of the Nuevo Vallarta subdivision, which, together with the surrounding coastal area, is the destination of large capitals and national and foreign visitors. Between 1975 and 1984 there was a rapid growth in the offer of accommodation in large and modern hotel facilities and full-time and time-share units; construction of new facilities such as the marina and golf course. Expansion of the hotel zone both north and south. Starting in 1985, the accelerated growth in demand, as a result of the construction of large hotels and timeshare units, has driven urban-tourist expansion with high densification in Puerto Vallarta. New tourism products in the Municipality of Bahía de Banderas that maintain the high-density model and that begin to modify the growth trends of the area (Nuevo Vallarta and Flamingos). In 1988 at the request of representative groups, who were considered marginalized by the municipal authorities.