Before You Go, Blog, Experiences, Getting Around, PA, USA

How To Plan A Road Trip With Your Dog

April 7, 2018 /

Because dogs can turn their dreams into reality too, right?

I know some people just have pets to have pets, but me? Raven is my little fur baby, and I want to take her with us on all of our adventures. Unfortunately, she’s a little too big to fly with us on our international trips (plus she’s a pitbull which is pretty much a forbidden breed on airplanes), but Raven still gets to come with us on lots of exciting vacations.

I joke with Sean that she’s our little adventure dog. I mean, so far, she’s visited 10 different states, and the list will only continue to grow. We love having her with us on our weekend trips when we go hiking, or even if we’re doing something like hitting up a concert or exploring a new city.

On Raven Rock in Cooper’s Rock State Forest

Raven loves joining us too. She’s a pro car rider, and if given the opportunity, will ALWAYS try to make her way into the front seat. She’s a total opportunist and will wait until you leave the car to jump up front and wait to get movin’ again.

When Sean and I made our drive #FromCaToPa, Raven was right there with us in the back seat. It was a super long drive (roughly 3,000 miles), so there was a lot of planning that had to go into it, ESPECIALLY because Raven was coming with us. Taking a cross-country road trip can be a little overwhelming. No matter how exciting it is to think about taking the trip with your fur baby, planning your travels around them can seem daunting as well.

Here’s what Sean and I took away from our big trip across the U.S. as well as our little weekend getaways with Raven.

How To Road Trip With Your Dog

Whether you’re driving across the country or you’re taking your pup on a little weekend getaway, it all comes down to planning ahead. You want your trip to be enjoyable for both of you, so taking a little time to prep for your accommodations, rest stops, destinations, etc. can go a long way.

What to Bring:

So, for starters, make sure you pack these items:

Leash
Food and water bowl
Enough food to last the trip
Reserve of water in case you can’t access any along the way
One or two toys
Blanket
Any medications that are needed
Doggy bags for poop
Towel or seat cover to keep your car clean no matter where your dog’s paws have been

For the Dogs That Don’t Do Car Rides:

Something we never had to do with Raven was get her adjusted to car rides. But for some dogs, that could be an issue you might run into. If your dog isn’t already accustomed to riding shotgun, try taking a few practice runs. Get your dog in the car, and take them on a short ride around the neighborhood.

If your pup has a tendency of getting carsick, try waiting on feeding them until after you arrive. If you’re doing a long road trip, that’s probably not practical. You could also try feeding them smaller portions spread out throughout the day. Again, this isn’t something that Raven struggles with, so it’s not something we had to plan for on our trip.

Finding a Pet-Friendly Route:

The hardest part about planning our trip was planning a route that appealed to us and to Raven. We needed to make sure we were hitting some of our bucket list stops along the way, but also that we would be able to take Raven to each location without having to keep her locked up in the car.

Which brings me to a side note: If you’re planning a trip with your pup and realizing you won’t be able to take them on most of your excursions, I’d highly suggest finding somewhere that you can leave them while you’re gone. There are lots of great doggy hotels and pet resorts that don’t all cost a fortune, and your pup will be much happier. Just make sure you find one that allows your dog to run around enough and play with other dogs. They deserve to have just as much of a vacation as you do, right? 🙂

When planning our trip, we tried to find something active to do at each location because we were planning on being in the car the vast majority of each day. I also made a point of researching to see if certain cities were dog-friendly or not, and if there were any parks or trails we could take Raven on with us. BringFido is a great website for researching the most dog-friendly areas, everything from parks, trails, restaurants and entire cities.

Along the way, we stopped in Lake Tahoe,

Salt Lake City,

Telluride (read my post here to see why you have to bring your dog here),

29101257_10211875244336745_7681955106643771392_o (1).jpg — Overlooking the mountain views in Telluride, CO

the Great Sand Dunes National Park,

and ended in PA after driving through most of Kansas and Missouri. Each stop, we made sure we checked some awesome places off of our bucket lists and that Raven enjoyed herself as well.

Planning Your Accommodations Ahead of Time:

Surprisingly, planning our trips around pet-friendly places to sleep was probably the most difficult aspect, only because we had to estimate where we would be ending up at the end of each day to know where we needed to book. But, as far as actually finding places, it was a piece of cake. We use Airbnb most of the time, and there are a TON of great options available there. We’ve stayed at few places now that have truly made us feel like Raven was welcome. At our stop in Salt Lake City, the host had a white board with our names on it, greeting the three of us:

And when we stayed in New York, they had a dog bed all set up for her and pillows on the couch stating that home is where your dog is:

Even if you don’t book through Airbnb, there are plenty of options for hotels. We use bookings.com a lot and have found some good hotels through them that allow dogs. The only thing to be careful with there is that some hotels have a size limit on the type of dogs they will allow, and often there is an additional fee for bringing your pet.

The biggest thing we learned from traveling with our fur baby: it takes a little additional planning ahead of time, but it was totally worth it!