Why You Should Travel to Mexico City With Your Dog in 2025

+ 3 things to look out for while you're there

Samantha Morici, DVM

Jan 28, 2025

Luca and I have been in Mexico City for one week, and so far, we have nothing but rave reviews.

The food, the culture, superb urban design, the people, and of course: THE DOGS ❤️

It’s been the perfect place for us to start the year. And end it, too?! Who knows.

Perhaps too premature to call it, but if things continue this way, we may never leave.

Heres why you should also travel to CDMX with your dog in 2025:

When you instruct your dog to only pack the essentials.

Traveling from US is super easy.

Short flight.
Compared to other foreign countries you could visit with your dog, Mexico is super close. If you’re worried about how your dog will do on a long-haul flight, this would be a great first place to visit.
No special treatments necessary.
As long as your dog is healthy and has an active rabies vaccine, you won’t need any special treatments to enter Mexico.
No health certificate needed.
Just check in with the department of agriculture before you walk out of baggage claim, show them a clean belly, and you’ll be on your way.

Mexico City is an urban dog’s paradise.

Seemingly everyone has a dog (or two).

They all wear sweaters and walk off leash along garden enclosed corridors.

People are boxing in the square or doing yoga in the park while their dogs wrestle in the morning sun alongside. That means while you’re on your way walking to anywhere, your dog is bound to run into a friend or two.

Abundant social interactions contribute to better overall life quality and increased health-span.

Dogs are welcome in nearly every establishment.

Water bowls line the streets.

Cafes, restaurants, shops, and gymnasiums all welcome dogs and have a jar of cookies behind the counter. The other day a barista offered Luca a “perrocino.”

Like a puppacino, but make it Latin. 😂

CDMX is a very green city.

That means there’s much to sniff and never short of places to wee.

The weather is perfect.

Weather is quite temperate in the winter, and lush mature greenery provides shady relief in the summer, so it’s great for dogs that tend to be more sensitive to temperature extremes.

Dogs and people alike are both welcoming and friendly.

Given the abundance of dogs and their active lifestyle, they’re all very well socialized from a young age.

This means less anxious or aggressive interactions with other dogs.

And because people are surrounded by dogs, they all know how to interact with them appropriately, which means less scary, intrusive, or negative interactions for your dog.

Sound too good to be true?

Well, Mexico does have its downsides, too.

3 things I’m looking out for while we’re here:

1. Drinking the water.

Differences in water treatment and quality standards are a stereotypical issue one might encounter in Mexico. E.Coli, salmonella, and Giardia are all a risk. So if your dog has a sensitive belly, the abundance of water bowls lining the streets might not be for them.

2. Altitude and air quality.

One of Mexico City’s issues at the moment is air quality, which can be particularly poor on cloudy days. Dogs with respiratory issues probably wouldn’t fare as well here (although you probably shouldn’t put those dogs on a plane anyway).

3. Wounds (esp enlarging wounds).

Enlarging wounds are one of the signs for new world screw worm, cochliomyia hominovorax, a re-emerging risk in southern Mexico.

This is one of those spooky “foreign” animal diseases we learn about in vet school.

It’s rare, but it’s SERIOUS y’all. Once an animal becomes infected; they can die within days without the appropriate treatment. The US is so spooked about the re-emergence of this disease that they’ve recently invested 165 million to prevent it from crossing the US border.

If my dog develops a wound in southern Mexico, I’m going to be watching it like a hawk.

Thankfully, for now, we’re in the clear across the board.

On another note:

Interestingly, I’ve noted there are hardly any waste bins on the street. Despite this, there’s no sh*t lying around. People seem to pick it up and dispose of it… where?

I’m still figuring that out.

For now, I’m just carrying bags of sh*t around the city like a moron.

Adios for now,

Dr. Sami

PS. If you have any recommendations for pups or people visiting Mexico City, please send them our way!