Baños Puerto Vallarta, Mexico City

About Baños Puerto Vallarta

Baños Puerto Vallarta is a traditional gay men's steam bath in Iztapalapa, one of Mexico City's largest working-class boroughs — and despite the name, nowhere near the coastal resort. It's an old-school vapor bath rather than a modern club-sauna: a dry Finnish-style sauna and a Turkish steam room, massage on offer, and a cruising area, all in worn but well-used facilities. Entry runs around 85 pesos. This is a deeply local spot, far from the tourist track of Zona Rosa, drawing a mostly mature gay crowd from the surrounding barrio. The block around it is quieter than the borough's reputation suggests, with free parking and the Metro nearby. It fills up on weekend afternoons and on Fridays as men come by after work — the times to go if you want company, the times to skip if you don't.