Travel health · Honduras
Roatán, Utila and the reef, Copán’s ruins, and a mainland most visitors only see from the airport. It is also the rare Caribbean beach week where CDC still recommends malaria tablets.
The short version
Most travellers to Honduras need 4 vaccines, and three to five weeks is enough time to do it properly.
Leaving sooner? Most of it can still be done — we prioritise what matters for your route. Nobody gets turned away for booking late.
Recommended for essentially everyone going to Honduras.
Food and water. CDC recommends it for unvaccinated travellers one year old or older going to Honduras, and the Government of Canada recommends vaccination for all travellers to areas where hepatitis A is present. A dive resort is not an exception — the vaccine does not know where you ate.
Any time before you fly. One dose covers the trip; a second, six months later, covers decades.
Also food and water. CDC recommends it for most travellers to Honduras, especially anyone staying with friends or relatives or visiting smaller cities or rural areas. The Government of Canada’s Honduras page does not mention typhoid at all, so the two sources are not saying the same thing and we will show you that rather than hide it.
At least two weeks ahead. There is an injection, and there are oral capsules you finish over a week.
Tetanus, measles-mumps-rubella, polio, diphtheria, chickenpox. CDC asks every traveller to be current before every trip and asks all international travellers to be fully vaccinated against measles. Tetanus is the one that has usually lapsed, and a coral graze is the classic Bay Islands reason it comes up.
Tetanus if it has been more than ten years — which for most adults it has.
Blood and body fluids, including unplanned medical or dental care. CDC recommends it for unvaccinated travellers younger than 60 travelling to Honduras; the Government of Canada recommends it for all travellers. It carries a little more weight here because the same Canadian page describes emergency medical facilities on the Bay Islands as very limited.
The standard course runs over months, and faster schedules exist. Bring your dates.
The honest answer to “am I too late?” depends on the date. Put yours in and we’ll work backwards. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Worth a conversation — the answer changes with where you’re going and what you’ll be doing.
The full list for Honduras. Most people need the first two or three; the rest depend on where you are going and for how long.
Spread through contaminated food and water. CDC recommends it for unvaccinated travellers one year old or older going to Honduras, and adds that infants 6 to 11 months old should also be vaccinated, with that dose not counting towards the routine two-dose series. The Government of Canada recommends vaccination for all travellers to areas where hepatitis A is present. The most useful single vaccine for this trip.
Also food and water. CDC recommends it for most travellers to Honduras, especially those staying with friends or relatives or visiting smaller cities or rural areas. The Government of Canada’s Honduras page does not mention typhoid — a real gap between the two, and one we would rather show than quietly average away. Our pharmacist leans towards giving it for anything beyond a sealed resort, and will tell you why in your case.
CDC asks travellers to be up to date on all routine vaccines before every trip, and asks all international travellers to be fully vaccinated against measles with MMR, including an early dose for infants aged 6 to 11 months. The Government of Canada asks the same. Tetanus lapses quietly, and coral, boat ladders and rented scooters are how it comes up here.
Spread through blood and body fluids, including unplanned medical or dental care. CDC recommends it for unvaccinated travellers younger than 60 travelling to Honduras, and says unvaccinated travellers 60 and older may get vaccinated. The Government of Canada recommends hepatitis B vaccination for all travellers, to every destination. It carries a little more weight here given how limited the same source says emergency facilities on the Bay Islands are. Many Canadians already have it from the school programme, so we check the record.
CDC says all eligible travellers should be up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines, and the Government of Canada asks you to discuss it with a healthcare provider before travelling. Easy to do on the same visit if you are due.
CDC says dogs infected with rabies are sometimes found in Honduras and that rabies is also present in bats, and frames pre-exposure vaccination around whether your activities raise the chance of animal contact and whether you could get prompt post-exposure treatment. The Government of Canada calls rabies common in this destination, lists veterinarians and wildlife workers, children, adventure travellers and cave explorers among those at higher risk, and warns that treatment to prevent rabies may be limited or not available so you may need to travel elsewhere for it. On an island with very limited emergency facilities, that second point is the one that decides it. For a dive week, usually no; for long stays, rural work, volunteering or small children, worth discussing.
CDC’s Honduras page does not list chikungunya at all, where its pages for the neighbouring countries say vaccination is generally not recommended. The Government of Canada does list it as a risk in Honduras and notes a vaccine is approved in Canada, to be weighed against your age, itinerary and preferences. A genuine disagreement, and a conversation rather than a default. Bite protection is what both sources actually rely on.
Not for Honduras itself: CDC says the vaccine is not recommended, and the Government of Canada says there is no risk of yellow fever in the country and that vaccination is not recommended. The entry rule is unusual, though. CDC says direct travel from North America requires nothing, but travellers arriving from a country with risk of yellow fever transmission must show proof — and specifies travellers aged 1 to 60 years, which is an age cap you do not see in most countries — including airport transits or layovers longer than twelve hours. The Government of Canada puts it as proof required if you are coming from, or have transited an airport in, a country where yellow fever occurs. If Honduras follows Panama, Colombia, Brazil or Peru on your route, bring the whole itinerary. The certificate becomes valid ten days after the dose.
Honest about the risks, and specific about what prevents each one.
Named by both sources. The Government of Canada notes the mosquitoes that carry it typically bite in the daytime, particularly around sunrise and sunset, that risk varies with season, year, region and elevation, and that dengue can become severe and be fatal.
Prevention No vaccine or medication to prevent it is available in Canada. Repellent through the day, reapplied — and remember that malaria tablets do nothing for dengue, so being on tablets is not a reason to relax about bites.
A risk in Honduras according to both sources. Spread by mosquito bite, also sexually transmitted, and it can cause serious birth defects.
Prevention Bite avoidance, plus condoms or avoiding sexual contact, particularly in pregnancy. If you are pregnant or planning to be, the Government of Canada asks you to discuss the trip with a healthcare provider first and says you may choose to postpone. It also affects which malaria tablets are suitable, so tell us early.
The Government of Canada says coastal waters can be dangerous, riptides are common, rescue services may not be consistent with international standards, and not all beaches have lifeguards or warning flags. It asks travellers to undertake scuba diving and other water activities only with a well-established company, and for adventure tourism generally to buy travel insurance that includes helicopter rescue and medical evacuation. It also says emergency medical facilities are very limited on the Bay Islands.
Prevention Book with an established operator, check before you pay that your insurance names diving and names medical evacuation, and treat a coral graze as a wound to clean and cover rather than a scratch to ignore.
Both are on CDC’s Honduras list, and both on Canada’s. Chagas comes from triatomine bugs, which the Government of Canada notes are active at night; cutaneous and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis come from sand fly bites, most active between sunset and sunrise in rural and forested areas. Canada says the risk of each is generally low for most travellers.
Prevention Bite avoidance after dark and a net if you are sleeping in poorly constructed or unscreened rural housing. There is no vaccine for either.
Both appear on CDC’s Honduras list. Leptospirosis comes from water, mud or food contaminated with animal urine, including swimming or wading in fresh water and contact with floodwater; melioidosis from contact with contaminated fresh water, mud or soil, especially after heavy rain. Honduras’s rainy season runs May to November and the Government of Canada says it can lead to severe flooding.
Prevention Avoid floodwater and muddy water after heavy rain, cover cuts before entering fresh water, and do not swallow river water.
Both on CDC’s risk list for Honduras — hantavirus from the urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents, tuberculosis through the air from someone infectious. Neither changes what a typical trip needs, but the whole list belongs on the page rather than the convenient half of it.
Prevention Avoid rodents and places their waste builds up; avoid close contact with people who are unwell.
The reason the first two vaccines on this page are the first two. The Government of Canada’s rule is boil it, cook it, peel it, or leave it, and it asks you not to swallow water when swimming, showering or bathing. Travellers’ diarrhoea is the most common illness travellers get anywhere.
Prevention Bottled or treated water, ice only from safe water, hot food served hot, fruit you peel yourself. Rehydration sachets in the bag — and pack them, because you may not be able to buy what you want there.
The Government of Canada says road conditions and road safety are poor throughout Honduras, that accidents causing fatalities are common, and that the number of accidents involving tourists has increased. It lists roaming livestock and wildlife, poorly maintained roads and bridges, unpaved roads, inadequate lighting and missing signage, and notes many roads are poorly delineated because of regular flooding. CDC names motor vehicle crashes among the main causes of death for travellers abroad.
Prevention No night driving. Arrange transfers through your hotel or dive operator rather than improvising at the airport, and build slack into travel days.
CDC currently notes on its Honduras page that cases of New World screwworm myiasis have been reported in countries where it had previously been eliminated, Honduras among them. It is a fly whose larvae infest wounds — which is a reason to take an open graze seriously rather than a reason to change your plans.
Prevention CDC’s advice: avoid bug bites, clean and cover wounds, sleep in a screened room or under a net or in a screened tent, and avoid spending time around livestock.
Prevented with tablets rather than a vaccine, and only needed for some routes — which is why the answer depends on your itinerary.
CDC’s entry for Honduras is the broadest of these five countries: transmission throughout the country and on the island of Roatán and other Bay Islands, with no malaria transmission in the cities of San Pedro Sula or Tegucigalpa. There is no “other areas, bite precautions only” carve-out underneath it, which there is for Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama — so on the published guidance a week on Roatán is not treated as a lower-risk trip than a week inland. The Government of Canada is less specific, saying there is a risk of malaria in certain areas or at certain times of year and that antimalarial medication may be recommended depending on your itinerary and the season.
CDC lists atovaquone-proguanil, chloroquine, doxycycline, mefloquine or tafenoquine for Honduras, and records drug resistance as none, with roughly 70 per cent of cases Plasmodium vivax and 30 per cent Plasmodium falciparum. Because there is no resistance, chloroquine is still an option — a weekly rather than daily tablet, which some people much prefer for a two-week trip. The right choice depends on your dates, your other medicines, whether you are pregnant, and what else is on your route. Whichever we choose, finish it: several of these have to be continued for weeks after your last day of exposure, and stopping when the tan fades is the most common mistake we see.
The things that prevent most travel illness are not medical.
Read CDC’s malaria entries for these five countries side by side and Honduras stands out. Guatemala names five departments and says the rest is bite precautions only. Nicaragua names two Caribbean regions and says the same about everywhere else. Panama splits the country at the canal. Belize has no malaria section at all. Honduras has one line: transmission throughout the country and on the island of Roatán and other Bay Islands, with no transmission in the cities of San Pedro Sula or Tegucigalpa — and then a single drug list with no “other areas” exception underneath it. In other words, CDC does not treat a week on Roatán as a lower-risk trip than a week in the interior. That surprises people, because it is a dive resort on a Caribbean island and it looks like every other resort holiday they have taken. Whether you actually end up on tablets is still a conversation about your dates, your accommodation and your health — but on the published guidance it is a conversation Honduras genuinely needs and a Belize trip genuinely does not.
CDC records drug resistance in Honduras as none, and the species split as roughly 70 per cent Plasmodium vivax and 30 per cent Plasmodium falciparum. That 30 per cent is the highest falciparum share of these five countries on CDC’s own figures — Guatemala is 1 per cent, Panama 3 per cent, Nicaragua 20 per cent. Because there is no resistance, chloroquine is still on the list, alongside atovaquone-proguanil, doxycycline, mefloquine and tafenoquine, which means a weekly inexpensive tablet remains a real option here when it is not in much of the world. Which one suits you depends on your dates, your other medicines, whether you are pregnant, and how long the tablets have to be continued after you get home. That last part is where people come unstuck: the course does not end when the holiday does.
The Government of Canada says the Bay Islands are generally safe, with lower violent crime, though petty crime happens and some foreigners have been assaulted on beaches at night. In the same breath its health section says good health care is limited in availability across Honduras, that public facilities are understaffed and underfunded, that you should use private care where possible — there are private clinics in San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa and tourist areas including the Bay Islands — and that emergency medical facilities are very limited on the Bay Islands specifically. It adds that major procedures and surgery may require medical evacuation to a major centre. So: travel insurance that names diving and names medical evacuation is not an upsell here, and a real first-aid kit earns its space in the bag.
The Government of Canada says plainly that some prescription medication may not be available in Honduras, and asks travellers to bring sufficient quantities, keep everything in its original container, pack it in carry-on luggage and carry a copy of the prescription. Of the five Central American pages we read for this set, Honduras and Nicaragua are the two that say this. If you take something daily, bring more than the trip needs and split it between bags where you can. If you are going to be on a small island for two weeks, treat the pharmacy stop in Calgary as part of the packing rather than an afterthought — and if you need an early or extended supply released before you travel, ask us a couple of weeks out rather than the day before.
CDC’s Honduras page carries no chikungunya entry at all — unlike its pages for Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama, which each say vaccination is generally not recommended. The Government of Canada does list chikungunya as a risk in Honduras, notes the level varies by season, year, region and elevation, says the joint pain can last months or years, and points out that a vaccine is approved in Canada which you should weigh against your age, itinerary and preferences. We are not going to resolve that for you in a sentence. What both sources agree on completely is the bit that does the work: protect yourself from mosquito bites at all times, day and night.
The Government of Canada’s overall level for Honduras is “Exercise a high degree of caution”, because of crime, with a regional advisory to avoid non-essential travel to a long list of areas: within 20 km of the Guatemalan border except Copán Ruinas and the El Florido crossing and the CA-11 highway to it; within 20 km of the Salvadoran border with named highway exceptions; the city of Choluteca; the department of Colón except the city of Trujillo; parts of San Pedro Sula and the city of Choloma in Cortés; Comayagüela in Francisco Morazán; and the departments of Gracias a Dios, Olancho and Yoro. It says Honduras retains one of the highest homicide rates in the world, while noting the situation has slightly improved since 2022. Copán Ruinas — the reason most people go to the mainland — is specifically excluded from the border advisory. This changes; read it in full on travel.gc.ca before you book.
Most people booking a travel consult with us are sorting out a household, not just themselves. A few things are different for children.
Bring the whole household to the same consultation. We review each person’s records separately but plan the trip as one, which usually means fewer visits and no repeated explanations. Tell us how many people when you book so we set aside the time.
Honduras is a trip where children may need tablets too, and their options are narrower than an adult’s, with doses worked out by weight rather than age. Bring your children’s current weights. We will also talk about how the tablet actually gets taken — crushed, with food, at a time of day that survives a holiday — because the plan that fails is the one nobody can swallow on day four.
CDC recommends it for unvaccinated travellers aged one year and over. Infants aged 6 to 11 months can have a travel dose, which does not count towards the routine two-dose series and is repeated later. The same applies to measles: CDC asks for an early MMR dose for infants aged 6 to 11 months travelling internationally.
The Government of Canada lists children among those at higher risk of rabies and asks parents to supervise them closely around animals, because they are more likely to reach out and less likely to mention a scratch — and it says rabies treatment here may be limited or not available. Wash anything that breaks the skin for about fifteen minutes with soap and clean water and get medical care the same day.
Any immunisation records you can find, for each traveller. Alberta records we can often look up; out-of-province and overseas records we cannot. A photo of a yellow card is plenty.
On CDC’s guidance, Roatán is inside the risk area — its Honduras entry reads transmission throughout the country and on the island of Roatán and other Bay Islands, with no transmission only in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, and there is no “bite precautions only” exception underneath it as there is for Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. The Government of Canada also lists malaria for Honduras and says medication may be recommended depending on your itinerary and the season. So yes, this is a real conversation for a Bay Islands trip, which surprises most people. Bring your dates and accommodation and we will work out what makes sense for you.
For most trips: hepatitis A, typhoid and your routine vaccines brought up to date, plus a conversation about malaria tablets and about hepatitis B. CDC lists hepatitis A and typhoid under most travellers for Honduras; the Government of Canada recommends hepatitis A for all travellers to affected areas and hepatitis B for all travellers, and does not mention typhoid for Honduras at all. Rabies depends on where you are going and what you are doing. Yellow fever is not recommended for Honduras itself.
It is on CDC’s list, alongside atovaquone-proguanil, doxycycline, mefloquine and tafenoquine, because CDC records drug resistance in Honduras as none. That makes it one of the places where a weekly, inexpensive tablet is still a genuine option rather than a historical one. Whether it suits you depends on your other medicines, your dates, whether you are pregnant and where else you are going — which is what the appointment is for.
Usually yes, and we will say so rather than sell you a list. A single daytime port call is a very different exposure from two weeks in a dive lodge, and it changes what is proportionate — hepatitis A and up-to-date routine vaccines still make sense, malaria tablets often do not. Tell us the itinerary, including the other ports, and we will give you the honest version. The Government of Canada also suggests booking any excursion through a reputable company if you are getting off the ship in Roatán.
Do not plan on it. The Government of Canada says some prescription medication may not be available in Honduras, and asks travellers to bring sufficient quantities, keep everything in its original container, pack it in carry-on and carry a copy of the prescription. Emergency medical facilities on the Bay Islands are described as very limited. If you need an early or extended supply of anything before you travel, ask us a couple of weeks out and we will usually be able to arrange it.
It changes the planning. Make sure your travel insurance names diving and names medical evacuation — the Government of Canada asks adventure travellers to buy cover that includes helicopter rescue and medical evacuation, and says major procedures may require evacuation to a major centre. Have your tetanus up to date, because coral grazes are the classic wound here, and bring dressings and antiseptic. If a malaria tablet is part of your plan, bring it up with your dive operator too — their medical form will ask what you are taking — and tell us you are diving when we choose it.
The Government of Canada advises a high degree of caution in Honduras because of crime, with a regional advisory to avoid non-essential travel to a long list of areas including parts of the Guatemalan and Salvadoran border zones, the city of Choluteca, most of Colón, parts of San Pedro Sula and Choloma, Comayagüela, and the departments of Gracias a Dios, Olancho and Yoro. It says the country retains one of the highest homicide rates in the world while noting some improvement since 2022, and describes the Bay Islands as generally safe. Copán Ruinas is specifically excluded from the border advisory. Read the current version in full on travel.gc.ca before you book.
Nothing. The travel consultation is free — a full itinerary review, every recommended vaccine discussed, and advice for your particular trip. You pay only for the vaccines actually given, and for any malaria tablets you decide to take. We tell you the price of each before you agree to it, and some are covered by private plans.
Bring your travel dates. A pharmacist will go through what you need for Honduras, give what can be given that day, and book anything that needs a second dose. No doctor referral, no wait list.
Written from current CDC and Government of Canada guidance, checked 31 July 2026. Advice for your particular trip comes from our pharmacist, in person.
Imagine Health Pharmacy & Travel Clinic — #4120, 15 Sunpark Plaza SE, Calgary, Alberta. In Sunpark Plaza, off Macleod Trail, serving Sundance, Midnapore, Shawnessy, Chaparral and the rest of south Calgary.
No doctor’s referral is needed. In Alberta a pharmacist can assess you, prescribe what your trip needs and give the vaccines in the same visit — so for most travellers this is one appointment, not a clinic queue and then a pharmacy.
The vaccine guidance on this page follows the official recommendations below, read and applied by a pharmacist. Where the two differ we say so rather than pick one.
Checked against both sources on 31 July 2026. Official advice changes — if your trip is months away, check again or ask us.
