Travel health · Mexico
Beaches, ruins and food worth travelling for. Mostly a food-and-water trip — plus altitude if you are going through Mexico City.
The short version
Most travellers to Mexico need 3 vaccines, and two to four 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 Mexico.
Food and water. CDC recommends it for unvaccinated travellers aged one and over, and the Government of Canada recommends it for all travellers to areas where hepatitis A is present. Resort included — the vaccine does not know where you ate.
Any time before you fly. One dose covers the trip; the second, six months later, covers decades.
Also food and water. CDC recommends it for most travellers to Mexico, especially anyone staying with friends or relatives, or going to smaller cities and rural areas.
At least two weeks ahead. Oral capsules are a course you finish over a week.
Tetanus, measles-mumps-rubella, polio, diphtheria. CDC asks every traveller to be current before every trip. Tetanus is the one that has usually lapsed.
Tetanus if it has been more than ten years — which for most adults it has.
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 Mexico. 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 lists it under “most travelers” and recommends it for unvaccinated travellers one year old or older. The Government of Canada recommends vaccination for all travellers to areas where hepatitis A is present. This is the single most useful vaccine for a Mexico trip.
Also food and water. CDC recommends it for most travellers to Mexico, and specifically calls out those staying with friends or relatives, or visiting smaller cities or rural areas. Available here as an injection or as oral capsules taken over a week.
Chickenpox, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, influenza, measles-mumps-rubella, polio and shingles. CDC asks travellers to be up to date on all routine vaccines before every trip. Canada recommends them as per your home province. Tetanus is the one people have let lapse, and a scraped knee on a cobbled street is how it comes up.
Spread through blood and bodily fluids. CDC recommends it for unvaccinated travellers younger than 60. The Government of Canada recommends hepatitis B vaccination for all travellers. Many Canadians already have it from the school programme, so we check your record rather than assuming either way.
CDC lists rabies for travellers whose occupational or recreational activities increase the chance of contact with animals that could carry it. For most holidays that is not you. Pre-exposure vaccination does not remove the need for care after a bite — it changes what that care is, and buys time.
CDC says the vaccine may be considered for people travelling or moving to Mexico who plan to stay for an extended period — for example six months or more. The Government of Canada lists chikungunya as a risk and notes a vaccine is approved in Canada. Not something a two-week trip needs.
CDC says all eligible travellers should be up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines. Worth doing on the same visit if you are due.
Not needed for Mexico. Listed here only because people ask — if your wider route touches South America or Africa, tell us, because entry requirements can follow you between countries. Yellow fever is licensure-restricted, so we will tell you plainly whether we can give it or where to go.
Honest about the risks, and specific about what prevents each one.
Mosquito-borne and present, including in resort areas. The mosquito that carries it bites during the day, which catches people out — repellent is a morning habit as much as an evening one.
Prevention No vaccine is available in Canada. Repellent, long sleeves at dusk and dawn, air conditioning or screens.
Present. Matters most if you are pregnant or planning to be.
Prevention Bite avoidance. Worth a conversation before booking if pregnancy is on the horizon.
The reason the first two vaccines on this page are the first two. CDC also lists multidrug-resistant Salmonella Newport among the foodborne risks in Mexico. Street food is much of why people go, and we are not going to tell you to avoid it — vaccination exists so it does not have to be a gamble.
Prevention Bottled or treated water, ice from safe water, hot food served hot, peel your own fruit.
Mexico City is at 2,240 m; parts of the country go considerably higher. The Government of Canada notes high-altitude illnesses can be life-threatening and may require immediate medical evacuation.
Prevention Ascend gradually, rest the first day, drink more water than feels necessary, and go easy on alcohol. Tell us if you have heart or lung conditions.
Both insect-borne and both on CDC’s list for Mexico — Chagas from triatomine bugs, leishmaniasis from sand flies. Rural and mostly relevant to people sleeping in older rural housing rather than hotels.
Prevention Bite avoidance, and a bed net if you are staying somewhere rural without screens.
All appear on CDC’s risk list for Mexico. None changes what a typical holiday needs, but the whole list belongs on the page rather than the convenient half of it.
Prevention Avoid floodwater and contact with soil or muddy water; avoid rodents; avoid people who are unwell.
Prevented with tablets rather than a vaccine, and only needed for some routes — which is why the answer depends on your itinerary.
Not where most people go. CDC puts the risk in Campeche, Chiapas and the southern part of Chihuahua state, with rare cases in Oaxaca, Sinaloa, Sonora and Tabasco. There is no malaria transmission along the US–Mexico border. Cancún, the Riviera Maya, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos and Mexico City are not malaria areas.
For the risk states CDC lists atovaquone-proguanil, chloroquine, doxycycline, mefloquine, primaquine or tafenoquine — a wider choice than in Southeast Asia, because the parasite here is Plasmodium vivax and resistance is less of a problem. Everywhere else: insect bite precautions only, no tablets. Most Mexico trips need none at all.
The things that prevent most travel illness are not medical.
Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos and Mexico City need hepatitis A, typhoid and up-to-date routine vaccines. That is genuinely it for most people. The extras — malaria tablets, rabies — attach to particular places and particular activities, which is why we ask for your route rather than just your country.
At 2,240 m, Mexico City is higher than Banff. The Government of Canada notes that high-altitude illnesses can be life-threatening and may require immediate medical evacuation. Most people are simply short of breath and tired for a day or two, and going up slowly and drinking more than usual handles it — but if you have heart or lung conditions, or you are heading higher into the mountains, tell us.
The overall advisory is “Exercise a high degree of caution”, and it advises against non-essential travel to parts of thirteen states — including Chiapas, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Michoacán, Sinaloa, Sonora and Tamaulipas, each with its own exceptions. This is a safety question rather than a vaccine one, and it overlaps with the malaria map, so it is worth reading before you book. It changes; check travel.gc.ca.
Most people booking a travel consult with us are sorting out a household, not just themselves. A few things are different for children.
Most travel vaccines can be given to children, at doses and ages that differ from adults. Hepatitis A is licensed from one year. Bring the whole family in one appointment and tell us how many people when you book, so we set aside enough time.
Some travel vaccines are fine, some are not, and some depend on how far along you are. Zika and dengue are both present in Mexico, which makes this a conversation worth having before the trip is booked rather than after. Say so when you book and we will allow more time.
People visiting friends and relatives stay longer, stay in homes rather than hotels, and eat what the household eats — which is exactly where CDC puts the typhoid risk. It is also the group least likely to think of themselves as needing travel vaccines at all. If that is your trip, tell us; it changes the advice.
For most trips: hepatitis A, typhoid, and your routine vaccines brought up to date. CDC lists hepatitis A and typhoid under “most travelers” for Mexico, and the Government of Canada recommends hepatitis A for all travellers to affected areas. Hepatitis B is recommended by both for many travellers. Malaria tablets and rabies apply to particular routes and activities rather than to Mexico generally.
No. CDC places malaria risk in Campeche, Chiapas and southern Chihuahua, with rare cases in Oaxaca, Sinaloa, Sonora and Tabasco. Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta and Mexico City are not malaria areas. Insect bite precautions still matter, because dengue and Zika are.
Two to four weeks is comfortable. Hepatitis A works from any lead time, typhoid wants about two weeks. If you are leaving sooner than that, come anyway — most of the protection is still available, and we would rather give you most of it than none.
It is much of why people go. Hepatitis A and typhoid vaccination is what turns it from a gamble into a normal decision. Choose busy stalls cooking to order, drink bottled or treated water, be careful with ice, and peel your own fruit.
You might feel it. Mexico City is at 2,240 m — higher than Banff. Most people are short of breath and tired for a day or two. The Government of Canada notes that high-altitude illness can be life-threatening and may need medical evacuation, so it is worth taking the first day slowly and telling us if you have heart or lung conditions or are going higher.
The Government of Canada advises a high degree of caution overall, and advises against non-essential travel to parts of thirteen states, each with its own exceptions — several popular resort areas are specifically excluded from those warnings when reached by air. It changes, so check travel.gc.ca before booking. The link is at the bottom of this page.
No. The consultation is free. You pay only for the vaccines you decide to have, and we tell you the cost of each before you agree to it. Some are covered by private plans and we can check.
Bring your travel dates. A pharmacist will go through what you need for Mexico, 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 30 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 30 July 2026. Official advice changes — if your trip is months away, check again or ask us.
