Flying a dog to Puerto Vallarta for the winter
Flying a dog to Puerto Vallarta is, for a lot of people, the question that decides whether six months is possible at all. It is usually asked quietly, near the end of a conversation, as though it were a small thing.
It is not a small thing, and the answer is that it is very manageable once you know the order to do it in. The order is the part nobody tells you.
This page is about dogs, because that is what Charlotte knows. There is a note about cats at the bottom and it is an honest one.
How Archie ended up in Mexico
Doug and Charlotte spent thirty winters in Arizona. The last one was cold, and Charlotte was done with it.
That was the year a family celebration came up in Cabo at short notice, so they drove down from Arizona, with the dog, which was the first time any of them had done Mexico with a dog attached. They found a place that took dogs, near the ocean and next to a dog park, and stayed six weeks.
Charlotte spent a good part of that six weeks in the dog park talking to Canadians and Americans who had been doing this for years, and they all said the same thing, which was that it is easier than you expect. That is still the most accurate summary anyone has given her. She loved Cabo. What sent them further south was the evenings, which were colder than she wanted. Puerto Vallarta does not do that, and if you are choosing between the two and the temperature after dark matters to you, that is the difference nobody puts in a brochure.
They drove once. They will not do it again.
The drive itself was stunning and Charlotte would recommend the scenery to anyone. Doug's verdict was never again, and it had nothing to do with Mexico. It was the winter conditions getting through the United States, which were treacherous enough that the whole exercise stopped being worth it.
So flying became the answer, and flying with a dog is a different kind of planning.
Book the dog before you book yourself
This is the single most useful sentence on the page, and the reason is arithmetic rather than courtesy.
Airlines limit how many animals travel in cargo on a given flight, and those places go. If you book your own seat first and there is no space left for the dog, you are cancelling your ticket. Do it the other way round and the worst case is that you pick a different day. So Charlotte rings the airline and books Archie first. Then she books her own seat, and then his booking is attached to hers.
She books it herself. No shipper, no agent, no middleman. One phone call in the right order. Charlotte flies Archie on WestJet, because it is a direct flight from Winnipeg to Puerto Vallarta. That matters for more than convenience, and the next section is why.
Flying a dog to Puerto Vallarta: the restriction nobody expects
A dog in the hold is outdoors during loading, unloading and any transfer. Not in the air, but on the ground at either end, and in between if there is a connection.
Which is why airlines will not carry animals in cargo when it is too hot or too cold. That is general practice across the industry rather than any one carrier's rule.
It comes in two forms, and the second is the one to understand. Some airlines set a seasonal embargo on pet cargo to hot destinations, which at least you can plan around. Others decide on the forecast temperature at departure, at arrival, or at a connection point. Which means a booking can look perfectly fine in January and be refused on the day.
So the month matters and so does the hour. Puerto Vallarta's hottest stretch runs from late spring through early autumn. That sits outside a normal winter season here and it touches both ends of it, so an April flight home and an early autumn flight down are the two to look at hardest. It is also the practical argument for a direct flight. One loading and one unloading, rather than a transfer in the middle of the day somewhere warm. Check your airline's current restrictions before you book anything, including your own seat. They change, they differ by carrier, and they are the airline's to state rather than this page's.
The rest follows from those two facts
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Not every airline takes pets, and the ones that do have their own rules. Confirm with the airline directly rather than relying on anything you read anywhere, including here.
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There is a crate, and it has to meet a standard. Broadly, the dog needs to be able to stand up, turn around and lie down in it, and it has to be sound and properly ventilated. Your airline will tell you exactly what they will accept. Sort this out early rather than discovering a week before you fly that the one you own is the wrong size.
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Some breeds are a different conversation. Snub-nosed dogs, pugs and bulldogs and the like, face additional requirements or restrictions with most carriers because of how they breathe. If that is your dog, find out what your airline requires before you plan anything else.
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Book early. All of the above compounds.
The part people are actually worried about
Everything above is logistics. The question underneath it is usually whether the dog is alright, and that deserves answering directly rather than being left to the end.
Charlotte has always had a good experience. Archie is a large dog, so he flies cargo, and across all the years of doing it there has not been a time she would describe as anything other than fine.
She is also not going to tell you your worry is misplaced. Some people find the whole thing genuinely stressful, and some dogs are not Archie. Both of those are reasonable. What they do beforehand is ordinary. Vaccinations up to date, and a dog who is actually in good health rather than nearly in good health.
On giving him something to settle him
They do not, and it is a decision rather than an oversight. It came out of a conversation with Archie's vet and it rests on Archie specifically. He is a calm dog, and for him they judged that nothing was the better option.
That is their choice for their dog, and it is not advice. It is a conversation to have with your own vet about your own animal, and it is worth having well before you are booking anything.
And what he arrives into
This is the part nobody plans for, and it may be the most useful thing on this page. Charlotte flies down with Archie around the first of November. Doug goes a week or so ahead of her.
By the time they land, the condo is sorted, the car is running and the Costco run is done. Which means Archie walks into a house that is finished rather than one still being unpacked, with nobody carrying boxes past him and nobody going in and out all afternoon. He has just had a flight. What he needs at the other end is for everything to be calm and to stay where it is put, and that takes somebody arriving first.
It is not an obvious thing to plan and it costs nothing to plan it. If there are two of you, one going ahead turns arrival day from chaos into an ordinary afternoon. If there is one of you, it is worth thinking about what the first few hours will actually look like from the dog's height.
Landing in Puerto Vallarta, step by step
This is the hour nobody describes, so here it is in order.
Hire a porter.
Charlotte always does. You have a kennel, your luggage and a dog, which is more than two hands, and the porters at the airport are good at exactly this. The porter takes her to a van, and the van takes her to the condo. That is also the answer to a question people ask, which is how you get a crated dog across town. Not in an Uber.
Have scissors, and know where they are.
The kennel is zip-tied shut. Charlotte keeps a pair of scissors in her checked suitcase, in a place she knows without looking, so Archie can come out as soon as they are inside the terminal. The airport is perfectly happy with dogs on a lead.
Do not put the kennel on a trolley with the dog still in it.
Charlotte tried this once. The trolley tipped, and it was, in her words, quite a ruckus. It is the sort of thing that sounds obvious written down and does not occur to anybody at the time, which is exactly why it is on this page.
Bring water and a collapsible bowl.
He is always very thirsty when he comes out. This is a two minute job that makes a visible difference to the dog, and the bowl weighs nothing.
There is somewhere for him to go.
Inside the airport, near the inspection station, which is useful to know before you are looking for it.
Then the inspection.
Your dog and the kennel are both looked at. They want to see that vaccinations are current, that the dog is in good health, and that there are no parasites or fleas on the animal or in the kennel. You may be asked to handle your dog so they can look properly, and that is normal.
There is a form. You can download it from the Mexican government's travel site and fill it in before you go, which is worth doing, and there are copies available there if you have not.
You will need a pen. That is not a joke and you will be glad of it. Requirements for bringing an animal into Mexico change, so confirm the current ones from an official source before you travel rather than from any website, this one included. You will also need to know your Mexican address on the form.
The paperwork
A dog coming into Mexico needs documentation, and it comes down to two things: vaccinations that are current, and a clean bill of health from a vet. That is the shape of it. The specifics, which vaccinations, how recently, what form the health certificate takes and how close to your flight it has to be issued, are the sort of thing that changes, and they are worth confirming from an official source and with your own vet rather than from a website.
Start with your vet, and start earlier than feels necessary. The paperwork is not difficult. It is only difficult if you leave it late, because a health certificate issued at the wrong moment is worth nothing, and that is the mistake people make.
What his days actually look like
The logistics are the part people ask about. This is the part that decides whether it was worth it.
The walking happens early and late, and most of the morning is not Charlotte.
Honestly: they have a dog walker. Archie goes out for a good hour every morning, six days a week, with two other dogs. There are plenty of dog walkers in El Tigre, and this is an ordinary arrangement here rather than an indulgence.
It solves two things at once.
The long walk happens early, before the sun is high, which is when it needs to happen. And Archie gets the thing he likes most in the world, which is other dogs. He is a very social animal, and an hour with his two friends does more for him than an hour with Charlotte would.
The evening walk is theirs, once it has cooled off. Midday is a quick trip out and back, in the shade.
The hours are not a preference, they are the point.
Archie is a large black goldendoodle and he does not do well in heat.
Pavement that is fine at seven in the morning is a different surface at two in the afternoon, and your dog is walking on it barefoot. Canadians do not think about this, because at home the problem runs the other way.
And the dog walker is worth knowing about as an option, not just as a detail about Archie. If you have been wondering how you would manage a dog through six months of this, or how you would manage the hour it needs walking at, the answer in a good many communities here is that somebody else does the long walk and you do the rest.
Ask about it when you are looking at an area. It is the kind of thing that is obvious to everyone who lives there and invisible from home.
The beaches, early or at sunset.
He can run, and at those hours the beaches are not crowded. That is the same reasoning as the walks and it happens to be when the beach is at its best anyway.
Dog parks, which in a good many communities here sit inside the gates rather than out in public.
And the restaurants, which is the best part.
They walk to dinner and Archie sits on the patio while they eat. He has favourites, where the staff treat him like royalty. That is not a small thing. In Canada he waits at home. Here he comes along, and six months of coming along is a different life for a dog.
Parasites, and what he is on
Archie is on tick medication year round. That is a personal decision made between Charlotte and her vet rather than a recommendation, and it is a conversation worth having before you go rather than once you are there. What is around differs from what is around in Manitoba.
Feeding him, and a mistake worth not repeating
There are pet stores here much like the ones at home, and you can get most of the food you are used to. What you will notice is the price, because imported food carries import taxes. For the first year or two Charlotte bought Archie's Canadian food at that price. What she does now is bring enough from home to mix in, and buy a well-rated food locally for the rest. It costs considerably less and he is perfectly happy on it. If you are going to change what your dog eats, do it gradually and do it in consultation with your vet, not in week one of a new country.
Vets
There are good vets here, as there are good most things here. Which one is the right one depends on where you end up living, and that is genuinely the honest answer rather than a dodge. Ask locally once you know your area. The people in the dog park will tell you.
What a dog does to where you live
This is the part that surprises people, and it is the reason this page sits on a site about choosing an area rather than on a travel blog.
A dog is not a logistics problem you solve once at the airport. It is a criterion, and it will rule out places you would otherwise have loved.
Before Archie came to Puerto Vallarta, Doug and Charlotte stayed on the beach. Once he was coming, they chose El Tigre instead, because it takes dogs, has a dog park, and has a great deal of ground to walk him on. That is a real trade and they made it knowingly.
Four things to ask, in this order:
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Does the building take dogs? This is set by the building, not by the area. Two condos on the same street will answer differently, and a beautiful place that says no is not a negotiation. Ask first, before you fall for anything.
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Where will you actually walk him? Not on a map. Walk it yourself. Look at the pavement. In some parts of the bay the sidewalks are uneven, cracked, and carry broken glass, and you will be out on them twice a day, every day, for six months.
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Will you be comfortable at the hours you actually walk? Charlotte walks Archie before sunrise and again late, and has never thought twice about it where they live. That was not a small factor in choosing it.
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Is there somewhere for him to be off the lead? Dog parks here often sit inside gated communities rather than out in public, which makes this one more thing that depends on where you land.
And where does the kennel live for six months?
It is a large object and it has to go somewhere. Some condos have storage big enough for a kennel and your suitcases together, which is worth asking about when you are looking. Doug and Charlotte keep theirs in the guest bedroom closet, which doubles as storage and a pantry.
Storage here is usually tighter than people expect, and that is one more argument for the thing Charlotte says about packing generally, which is that less really is more. Everything you bring has to live somewhere for six months. Once You're Here →
Going home in April
Half of this journey happens in the other direction and almost nothing written about it anywhere covers that, so here it is.
The timing is about heat, not about the calendar.
Charlotte and Archie go home at the end of April, and the reason is that Puerto Vallarta is starting to get hot. A goldendoodle does not do well in it.
That puts the return flight at the leading edge of the window where cargo restrictions bite, which is the other reason not to leave the booking late. Same rule as the outbound: his seat first, then yours.
He knows before the suitcases come out.
As the weather turns, Archie starts to sense they are getting close to going back. By the time the cases appear he has already worked it out, and he is calm about it.
Charlotte knows that is luck rather than method. Plenty of her friends have dogs who become anxious the moment a suitcase appears, and if that is your dog, the suitcases coming out is a thing to manage rather than a thing to ignore.
And the paperwork runs the other way.
Bringing an animal back into Canada has its own requirements, and they are not the same ones you satisfied on the way down. Confirm them from an official source before you book, and ask your vet in Puerto Vallarta what you will need from them.
A note about cats
This page is about dogs, and that is not a judgment about cats.
Charlotte has never travelled with one and does not know anybody who has brought a cat to Puerto Vallarta, so there is nothing first-hand to tell you and this site does not publish the other kind.
What she can say is that she has shared plenty of flights with cats, in the cabin, under the seat in front. Which suggests it is being done regularly by people who could tell you a great deal more about it than this page can.
Why Not?
If a dog is the reason you have been hesitating about six months, it is a smaller obstacle than it looks from home. It is worth solving early, because it changes which places are on your list, and that is a conversation to have at the beginning rather than after you have found somewhere you love. And the thing Charlotte heard in that dog park in Cabo has held up. It is easier than you expect. The hard part is the first time, and the first time is mostly paperwork and booking in the right order.