Measles, Vaccinations and Entry Requirements for Honduras and Roatán
Foreign visitors do not need to show proof of measles vaccination to enter Honduras.
The requirement announced in June 2025 was withdrawn on 4 July 2025, before it took effect, and has not been reinstated for arrivals. You can fly into Roatán on a tourist entry without a vaccination card or a test result.
There is a separate rule that applies on the way out, and it changed in June 2026. It affects Honduran citizens and residents only.
Last verified 28 August 2026. Sources are listed at the foot of this page.
Do you need a measles vaccine to enter Honduras?
No. Not as an arriving foreign visitor.
In June 2025 the Honduran government published Executive Agreement 001-2025 in La Gaceta 36,876, declaring a national health alert for measles. It authorised the Ministry of Health, immigration and customs to ask every traveller — Honduran or foreign, arriving by air, land or sea — for proof of MMR vaccination or a recent negative test. It was reported worldwide and was due to start on 7 July 2025.
It never started. On 4 July 2025 the Ministry of Health, the National Institute of Migration and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs jointly confirmed that the vaccination card requirement was waived for all international travellers entering the country. The Director of the INM stated publicly that it was not being enforced at any port of entry.
That is still the position for arrivals. If you are coming to Roatán for a course, it is not something you need to plan around.
What I see here. I live on Roatán and my daughter is ten. She is vaccinated, and she has crossed in and out of Honduras with us many times since June 2025. Nobody has ever asked to see her measles certificate on the way in.
Worth separating two things that get confused constantly. Measles vaccination is not required to enter Honduras, but it is recommended for international travel generally — the CDC advises that all international travellers be fully vaccinated with MMR before departure. Both statements are true and they are not in conflict.
Vaccinations for Honduras and Roatán
What is actually required
For most travellers, nothing. Entry to Honduras is not conditional on your vaccination record.
The one exception is yellow fever. If you are arriving from a country with yellow fever transmission risk, proof of yellow fever vaccination is required for travellers aged 1 to 60. Panama counts. So does most of South America.
The CDC does not otherwise recommend yellow fever vaccination for Honduras itself.
What is recommended
Recommended is a different question from required, and the recommendations come from your own national travel health service rather than from us. The two most useful are the CDC Honduras destination page for travellers from the United States and TravelHealthPro for travellers from the UK and Ireland.
In broad terms both say the same thing. Be up to date on your routine vaccinations — tetanus, MMR, polio, the usual schedule. Hepatitis A is recommended for most travellers. Hepatitis B is recommended for unvaccinated travellers under 60. Typhoid is worth considering, and the CDC specifically flags stays of a month or more, which means anyone doing a Divemaster internship should raise it at their travel clinic. Rabies is present in dogs and in bats.
Tuberculosis exists on the island. Incidence is very low.
Book your travel clinic appointment early. Several of these are multi-dose courses and cannot be done the week before you fly.
Malaria on Roatán
The CDC lists malaria transmission throughout Honduras, including Roatán and the other Bay Islands, and recommends that travellers to affected areas take prescription prophylaxis. Chloroquine is one of several options and there is no recorded drug resistance in Honduras. Your travel clinic will almost certainly recommend something.
The picture on the ground is more nuanced than country-level advice can be. Recorded transmission in the Bay Islands is low compared with the mainland, and in practice very few of the long-term residents and dive professionals living here take prophylaxis.
That is a description of what people here do. It is not a recommendation, and it is not medical advice. Make the decision with a doctor who knows your medical history, and weigh it against how long you are staying and whether you plan to travel on the mainland, which is a different risk picture from the islands.
What everyone agrees on, whichever way you go on tablets: avoid getting bitten. Repellent, and cover up around dusk.
Dengue, and why it matters more to divers than to other travellers
Dengue is present on Roatán and is far more commonly seen here than malaria. TravelHealthPro lists dengue and chikungunya as worth considering for some travellers to Honduras.
Here is the part no travel health page will tell you, and if you are diving it is the most useful thing on this page.
If you feel like that after a dive, do not self-diagnose in either direction. Get assessed properly. Treating dengue as decompression sickness wastes chamber time and money; treating decompression sickness as dengue is dangerous. You want a doctor who sees both, and on this island there are people who do, regularly.
That is reason enough to take mosquito avoidance seriously here even if you decide against malaria tablets.
Passport, onward travel, and how long you can stay
Six months of passport validity, not three
Your passport must be valid for six months beyond your date of entry.
The three-month figure is quoted all over the internet and it is wrong for Honduras. It has caught people out. If your passport expires five months after you land, you may not be allowed to board. Both the UK and US governments state the six-month rule.
Check this the day you book, not the week you fly. Passport renewals take longer than people expect, and it is the one problem we cannot fix from this end.
Proof of onward travel
Airlines and immigration officers sometimes ask to see proof of onward travel within 90 days of your arrival date.
How often is "sometimes"? Of the people I know who have flown here on a foreign passport with a one-way ticket, roughly a quarter have been asked. Before I became a resident, I was asked about half the time. So it is not routine, but it is common enough that you want an answer ready rather than finding out at the check-in desk. A booked return or onward flight is the simplest one.
90 days, extendable to 120
A tourist entry permits a stay of 90 days. That can be extended once, by a further 30 days, for a maximum of 120.
The extension has to be applied for in the seven days before your 90 days expires — not earlier, and obviously not later. You will need proof of onward travel falling within the 120-day window, and there is a fee of about $20 US.
What that means for our courses:
- A PADI Divemaster internship runs 45 days. Comfortably inside a tourist entry.
- A PADI IDC runs 14 days, and most candidates arrive early to prepare and stay on for the Instructor Examination and specialty training. Still comfortably inside.
- Stacking Divemaster into IDC into MSDT is where you start approaching 90 days.
Arriving in Roatán
Fill in your customs declaration before you leave for the airport. Honduras uses an online form and it is much quicker done at home than in the queue. Honduran customs declaration form.
Dive gear is not a problem. In twenty-three years here I have never known a diver have an issue bringing personal dive equipment through Honduran customs. Bring your own kit if you have it.
Electronics are a different matter. Every bag is X-rayed on the way out of the customs hall, not only on the way in. More than one phone, or more than one laptop or tablet, can get you stopped and questioned about whether you are bringing them in to sell. I travel with a work phone and a personal phone and I keep them in my pockets rather than in a bag. Do the same and you will save yourself a conversation.
What genuinely causes trouble is car parts and boat parts. If you are bringing anything like that, expect to be there a while.
Airport taxes. On international flights there is nothing extra to pay — departure tax is already in your ticket price. On domestic flights within Honduras there is a departure tax of about 54 lempira, roughly $2 US, paid at the airport.
For routes, airlines and connections, see getting to Roatán. Accommodation for course candidates is a four-minute walk from the dive shop.
Leaving Honduras
The June 2026 measles rule on departure
Since June 2026, proof of measles vaccination has been required to leave Honduras — but only for Honduran citizens and residents.
Two things about it surprise people. It applies regardless of which passport you travel on: if the Honduran system has you recorded as a citizen or a resident, it flags you, even if you are checking in with a British, American or Canadian passport. And it is no longer limited to children. The original 2025 rule covered Honduran children aged 12 months to 10 years leaving for countries with active outbreaks. The June 2026 version caught adults. My family and I were among them. If you cannot show proof, you are vaccinated there and then at the airport, at no charge.
Enforcement appears to have relaxed since. As of 28 August 2026 I have not heard of anyone being made to get vaccinated on departure in the past month.
Travelling out with anyone under 18
This one strands people, and almost nobody knows about it before they arrive.
Honduras restricts minors leaving the country without notarised parental permission. A child travelling with both parents does not need a letter. Neither does a child travelling with one parent, provided the child is not a Honduran citizen or resident. Outside those two cases — travelling with one parent as a Honduran citizen or resident, or travelling without either parent — notarised permission is required.
For Honduran citizens and residents the requirement runs to age 21, not 18, regardless of which country's passport the traveller holds. The US Embassy in Honduras sets out the detail and how the notarisation can be done.
If you were born here, or you are a resident and under 21, or you are travelling with anyone under 18, sort the paperwork before you travel rather than after you arrive.
Common questions
Do you need a measles vaccine to enter Honduras?
No. Foreign visitors do not need to show proof of measles vaccination to enter Honduras. The requirement announced in June 2025 was withdrawn on 4 July 2025, before it took effect, and has not been reinstated for arrivals. You can fly into Roatán on a tourist entry without a vaccination card or a test result.
What vaccinations are required to enter Honduras?
For most travellers, none. Entry to Honduras is not conditional on your vaccination record. The exception is yellow fever: if you are arriving from a country with yellow fever transmission risk, including Panama and most of South America, proof of yellow fever vaccination is required for travellers aged 1 to 60. Recommended vaccinations are a separate question and are set by your own national travel health service.
How much passport validity do I need for Honduras?
Six months beyond your date of entry. The three-month figure quoted on many travel sites is wrong for Honduras and has caught people out at check-in. Both the UK and US governments state the six-month rule.
How long can I stay in Honduras on a tourist entry?
A tourist entry permits a stay of 90 days. It can be extended once, by a further 30 days, for a maximum of 120 days. The extension must be applied for in the seven days before the 90 days expires. You will need proof of onward travel falling within the 120-day period and there is a fee of about $20 US.
Is malaria a risk on Roatán?
The CDC lists malaria transmission throughout Honduras, including Roatán and the other Bay Islands, and recommends that travellers take prescription prophylaxis. Recorded transmission in the Bay Islands is low compared with the mainland, and in practice very few long-term residents and dive professionals here take prophylaxis. That is a description of what people here do, not a recommendation. Make the decision with a doctor who knows your medical history.
Do I need proof of onward travel to enter Honduras?
Airlines and immigration officers sometimes ask to see proof of onward travel within 90 days of your arrival date. Of the people we know who have flown in on a foreign passport with a one-way ticket, roughly a quarter have been asked. It is not routine, but it is common enough that you should have a booked return or onward flight to show.
Can a child leave Honduras without both parents?
Not without notarised permission, in most cases. A child under 18 travelling with both parents does not need a letter, and neither does a child travelling with one parent if the child is not a Honduran citizen or resident. Otherwise notarised permission is required. For Honduran citizens and residents the requirement runs to age 21, regardless of which country's passport the traveller holds.
The June–July 2025 measles alert: what was announced, and what happened
Historical record. Everything in this section describes a requirement that was announced and then withdrawn before it took effect. It is kept here because reporting from that period is still circulating and people are still finding it.
What was announced
Executive Agreement 001-2025, published in La Gaceta 36,876 on 27 June 2025, declared a national health alert for measles. From 7 July 2025, travellers from 24 countries with active outbreaks would have needed either an MMR vaccination card or a negative PCR or IgM test taken within 80 hours of entry. Vaccination stations were to be set up at airports, seaports and land borders so that anyone without proof could be vaccinated on arrival. Medical exemptions were to be accepted with a doctor's letter and, where possible, a titer test. Transits of more than 12 to 24 hours through an alert-listed country could also flag a traveller.
What happened
On 4 July 2025 the requirement was withdrawn for all international travellers arriving in the country. At the time of withdrawal there were no confirmed measles cases in Honduras.
The vaccination card requirement continued to apply to Honduran citizens aged 12 months to 10 years leaving the country for destinations with active outbreaks. That rule has since changed — see the departure section above.
The 24 countries on the June 2025 alert list
- United States
- Canada
- Mexico
- Brazil
- Argentina
- Peru
- Belize
- Bolivia
- Germany
- Austria
- Croatia
- Spain
- France
- Italy
- Greece
- Ireland
- Netherlands
- Russia
- Romania
- Portugal
- Czech Republic
- India
- Pakistan
- Nigeria
Some reporting at the time also listed Costa Rica.
Official statement, 3 July 2025
English translation
The Secretary of State for Health, together with the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Secretary of Tourism, the National Institute of Migration and the Merchant Marine, further to Executive Agreement No. 001-2025 declaring a Health Alert for Measles, published in La Gaceta 36,876 on 27 June 2025, informs the general public and the media of the following:
- It is clarified that to date there are still no confirmed cases of measles in the country.
- The vaccination card requirement will be waived for all international travellers entering the country.
- The vaccination card requirement remains in place only for Honduran citizens between the ages of 12 months and 10 years who are leaving the country with a final destination primarily in countries experiencing measles outbreaks.
- The list of countries with active measles outbreaks will be updated and published weekly on the official website of the Ministry of Health, based on information released by the World Health Organization.
- The vaccination sites authorised by SESAL, and their hours of operation, will be published in due course.
Ministry of Health, Honduras, 2025.
Declaración Oficial: Alerta Sanitaria por Sarampión
Gobierno de la República — Ministerio de Salud · Publicado 27 de junio de 2025
Según el Acuerdo Ejecutivo No. 001-2025, publicado en La Gaceta 36,876 el 27 de junio de 2025, se declara alerta sanitaria por sarampión. Participan la Secretaría de Salud, la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, la Secretaría de Turismo, el Instituto Nacional de Migración y la Marina Mercante.
- No se han registrado casos confirmados de sarampión en el país hasta la fecha.
- No se exigirá tarjeta de vacunación a viajeros internacionales de ingreso.
- Sigue vigente el requisito de tarjeta de vacunación para ciudadanos hondureños de 12 meses a 10 años que salgan hacia países con brotes activos.
- La lista de países con brotes será actualizada semanalmente en el sitio oficial de la SESAL, según datos de la Organización Mundial de la Salud.
- Las sedes autorizadas por SESAL para vacunación, junto a sus horarios, serán publicadas oportunamente.
¿Se requiere prueba de vacunación contra el sarampión para entrar a Honduras? No. El anuncio del Gobierno de Honduras del 3 de julio de 2025 aclaró que no se exige prueba de vacunación contra el sarampión para ingresar al país.
Sources
- CDC — Honduras traveller health
- TravelHealthPro — Honduras
- UK Foreign Office — Honduras entry requirements
- US State Department — Honduras
- US Embassy in Honduras — frequently asked questions
- Honduran customs declaration form
- Honduran Ministry of Health (SESAL)
- National Institute of Migration (INM)
- Pan American Health Organization — situation of malaria in the Americas, Honduras
Last reviewed 28 August 2026. Entry requirements change without much notice. Check the official sources above before you travel.
Planning a Divemaster internship or an IDC on Roatán and want to check something before you book?
Will Welbourn — PADI Platinum Course Director, Go Pro Caribbean