Before travelling with your dog, there is so much to know - and so much to arrange! But did you know all the things below?

‍

1.   Many countries require certain tests – and it’s not as hard as it sounds to get them

Every country has their own import rules when it comes to dogs – and where countries like Iceland and Australia are super difficult, most countries are actually not that bad. The one test that often makes travel with a new pet so expensive is the Rabies titer test, these tests run at about 200to 300 USD depending on where you are, but the good news is: As long as you keep up your vaccination scheme you do not have to redo the titer test. Easy peasy!

‍

‍

2.   Not all places are dog friendly – but most places are

Sometimes you don’t know whether where you are going to go will be dog friendly – and that can be hard. For example, we visited Curaçao (read more here!) and it turned out to be an island that was anything but dog friendly. Which made it so incredibly difficult! But over the course of all our travels, I have to admit, most places we have gone to love dogs. Most people love dogs. I can imagine that the Middle East might be a bit harder to travel through, though! For us, Eastern Europe and South America have been the most dog friendly places, however Asia wasn’t too bad either. Locals don’t really enjoy dogs, but there are plenty of expats that do and that make up for all the people that don’t like the dogs!

‍

‍

3.   Most countries do not have quarantine anymore

This is the question I get asked most when I tell people that we travel with Olive – but doesn’t she have to go into quarantine? The short answer is no – she doesn’t. The long answer, however, is that some countries do still have quarantine, but that is only 12 countries in the entire world. When we moved to Iceland for a short while, we did have to put Olive through quarantine, and honestly I don’t think I will ever do that again. It was very hard on her, cost a lot of money, and she took a long time to bounce back of that.

‍

‍

4.   Some countries have street dogs – usually they are quite kind

You sometimes hear the horror stories of packs of street dogs attacking humans and animals alike – but I dare to say these instances are incredibly rare. Out of all the countries we’ve been to we have been lucky enough to not have met mean street dogs at all, they are usually quiet, calm, lazing around in the shade, and don’t bother you. And if they do, there is one big lucky thing – most of them are scared of humans. So one loud “uh uh” or some imaginary rocks thrown in their direction, and they back off. Usually we find plenty of kind, healthy strays for Olive to have a play with, and those that are not up for that just leave us be.

‍

‍

5.   It might sound expensive – but it’s not as much as you’d think

Expenses do go up when you travel with a dog – I cannot say that isn’t true. However, it’s not as expensive as one might think. Not taking the titer test into consideration, usually it costs us about 200 to 300 USD for Olive to get to a new continent, but way less if just travelling to countries on the same continent. The costs that you have to take into account are a health certificate (usually around 60 to 120 USD) – a flight ticket (I’ve paid as little as 60 USD but also as much as 250 USD) – sometimes import or export costs (Usually around 20 USD if there are any costs). Then other costs that can go up is your stay. Not all hotels and Airbnb's are dog friendly, and some might charge extra for a dog. I’ve found that the really budget places usually are not dog friendly, but as I am in my 30s, now I do not really mind too much that we cannot stay at party hostels and such (fun fact - we actually did stay at a party hostel in Colombia, with Olive!). Overall, our costs do go up, but definitely not the 1000s of USD that people think it costs to bring a dog places.

‍