How We Nearly Didn’t Go: Planning a Dog-Friendly Europe Trip

There was a point – more than one point, honestly – where we nearly didn’t go.

Planning a dog-friendly Europe trip sounds romantic in theory. A car, a dog, the open road, croissants in three countries. In practice, it’s a spreadsheet, a string of “wait, how much?” moments, and multiple 11pm conversations that started with “are we actually doing this?”

We’re doing this. But it took us a while to get there.

The Moment We Nearly Said No

It started with money, if I’m honest. The Animal Health Certificate alone is £250* – just for the paperwork that lets Cookie travel at all. Then you start adding up pet charges per hotel, the extra fees for bringing a dog on the ferry, and suddenly a holiday budget looks very different to the one you’d planned for just the two of you.

Then it was fear, less practical and harder to plan around. What if he hates it? What if seven hotels, a car, and constantly new places is too much change for a dog who likes his routine more than either of us? You can’t ask him if he’s up for it. You just have to decide, and hope.

Then it was the sheer overwhelm of it – formalities, vets, gear, an itinerary, hotels, parking rules that change every time you cross a border, and somewhere in there, actual sightseeing. At one point I remember just staring at a half-finished spreadsheet thinking: can we actually pull this off?

And then there were the smaller worries that don’t go away just because you’ve made a decision – will it be unbearably hot in Europe in July? And the one that actually keeps me up at night: Cookie is the sweetest, gentlest boy with people, but a slightly different story the second another dog appears. That’s not a small thing to plan around with a reactive dog and zero control over who you’ll meet on a pavement in a country you’ve never been to.

So Why Are We Doing It Anyway?

Because Cookie turns 5 in August. And somewhere in the middle of all that doubt, we landed on the same thought: he deserves this. Not a “we’ll take him somewhere nice for his birthday” kind of deserves-it – an actual first European holiday, his own passport stamp’s worth of memories, before he gets a single day older.

So we stopped asking “should we” and started asking “how.”

Let the Research Begin

I started properly researching back in March, the moment the idea became a real plan rather than a “wouldn’t it be nice.” From there it became a genuine research project – government guidance, vet advice, other dog owners’ blogs and forums, anything I could find, because no single source seemed to have the full picture and I didn’t want to plan a multi-country trip with a dog based on half-information.

That research fed straight into the itinerary and into working out what driving with a dog across multiple borders actually involves, which is a very different question to “can he handle a car journey,” and one that took its own chunk of research.

The Boring (But Necessary) Bits

This is the part that took the most research time: the actual paperwork. The Animal Health Certificate, the rabies vaccination timeline, the tapeworm treatment window before re-entering the UK – each one has its own rules and deadlines, and getting the order wrong can mean real problems at the border.

Rather than rush through months of research in a few lines here, I’ve already put it all together in one free guide – the full step-by-step, in the right order, with official sources at every stage. If you’re planning your own trip, grab it before you book anything:

The gear we ended up buying – the pet hammock, the travel spray, the small pile of things that felt essential by the time we’d finished researching – is its own story, and that one’s still coming as its own post.

Finding Pet-Friendly Stays

And Working Out the Hidden Costs

Here’s where we’ve landed for accommodation – every single one pet-friendly.

• Bruges, Belgium: Hotel Duc du Bourgogne
• Valkenburg, Netherlands: Hotel Riche
• Luxembourg City: Hotel Parc Belle-Vue
• Strasbourg, France: Citadines Eurométropole Strasbourg
• Nancy, France: Villa Thermae
• Paris, France: Campanile Paris Bercy Village
• Lille, France: Novotel Lille Airport

Pet charges varied more than I expected – some properties barely blink at a small dog, others add a noticeable nightly fee. Worth factoring into your budget properly and always check with the property prior to arrival.

Vets

They’re booked and still make me nervous

Cookie’s UK vet is sorted – same practice he’s always seen, so that part felt easy by comparison. The France side was trickier: we needed a vet booked in France for the paperwork side of the return journey, and after a fair bit of searching we landed on Cabinet Vétérinaire des Quais in Lille.

I’ll be honest – we’re booked in, but we won’t know for certain it’s the right fit until we’re actually sat in that waiting room. That’s just the reality of arranging something like this from another country, in another language, without being able to walk in and check first.

What’s Actually Worrying Me Now

The big planning is done, but a few things are still sitting with me as we get closer to leaving:

Parking. Every country we’re driving through seems to have its own rules, and “I’ll figure it out when I get there” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this plan.

The heat. July in northern France and Belgium shouldn’t be brutal, but “shouldn’t be” isn’t the same as a promise, and a fluffy dog doesn’t care about forecasts.

Other dogs. Strays, off-lead dogs in parks, anything unpredictable – this is the one I can plan the least for.

Where We’re Actually Going

Bruges, Mastricht, Valkenburg, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Nancy, Paris, Lille and hopefully more stops on the way! A proper, pet-friendly things-to-do guide for each stop coming as its own post once we’re back; consider this the planning chapter. The actual trip is next.

Wish us luck and wish Cookie a calm one.

* The price was offered by our vets and it may differ or change. The price was accurate in April 2026.

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