Traveling with Your Dog
Traveling with Your Dog: If you are looking for ways to vacation with your best friend, there is relief in sight in the US:
Traveling with Your Dog: Pet-Friendly Lodging:
Our booking engine on the home page has over 800,000 properties around the globe. In London alone, there are 242 pet-friendly options. It is easy to find places that take pets as guests. Be sure to check for fees, if any. The way to find them for each place? Go to the filters on the left side. Scroll down to Property Facilities, item 7: “pet-friendly”. Do ask if there are any rules or special offers for your “best friend.”
Traveling with Your Dog: Amtrak allows more dogs:
The national railway, Amtrak, is making it easier to travel with your pet. That’s the good news! The bad news? It is that the size and number of pets allowed are still limited. So don’t pack up your Great Dane’s roller-bag just yet.
The Amtrak link above primarily restates the existing stringent policies. For example, service animals have to serve a particular purpose. “Comfort animals” need not apply. Forget claiming your cat plays a mean “Ragtime”.
The new somewhat friendlier policies come with the following types of restrictions:
- Pet-travel is only available on certain specific trains.
- No First Class or Business Class for Fido even en route to Westminster!
- Pet travel maxes out at 7 hours direct or connecting.
- Only one pet allowed per customer and no more than 5 per train.
- Weight limit is 20 pounds including the carrier.
- Age and health restrictions apply.
- As always in our litigious 21st century, legal documents, such as indemnifications and releases, must be signed.
Traveling with Your Dog: Amtrak’s new rules:
Having had 7 dogs as family members since my school days, I see the trickiest requirement:
“Pets must be odorless and harmless, not disruptive, and require no attention during travel. Amtrak maintains the right to refuse acceptance of or remove from the train any pet exhibiting these issues.”
I learned long ago the reason why (my) dogs bark at all the wrong times: for fun, for attention, for play time, for a walk or most importantly: Just because they like to hear the sound of their own voices. I have visions of being thrown off the train at the first stop or somewhere in between being left to try to reach call Uber or Lyft.
Traveling with Your Dog: Check the fine print!
However, for fellow pet-lovers looking for traveling together, Click here for the full updated rules!
