Road trip with our dog
 

Hi, two of us need to take our dog from Porto Portugal to Dublin Ireland next month (without flying). Looking for the least complicated way of doing this while still being able to enjoy the sights on our trip. Welcoming your suggestions! Thank you.

Do you have a pet passport for your dog? If you do, you know the rules about vets etc, if not start googling.

Probably Roscoff to Ireland or Santander/Bilbao to UK and then onto Ireland.

Is there a quarantine in Ireland ?

no, Eu now has a pet passport system. Of course if the dog is not European then it has a problem in Portugal.

How big is the dog? Many hotels have a size/weight limit on the dogs they accept.
You could get the ferry from Santander to Plymouth, then head up to Wales to get the ferry to Ireland. That is the least complicated route, but perhaps not such and interesting trip.

Otherwise drive up through France and choose the crossing of your choice - the Tunnel means you stay with the dog, the ferries you leave the dog in the car or on a kennel. I assume it is the same to Ireland but I don't know.
How long do you have for the trip?

Thank you for your input. Our boy, Bruiser, moved to Ireland from the US about 7 years ago. His mom flew him to Porto via Franfurt for a six month work assignment. Ryan air will not fly him directly from Porto back to Dublin because he is part pug :(. He weighs about 20 lbs. His mom thought he was too shaken up from the flight down through Frankfurt so we are going to do the road trip. He is undergoing the rabies testing now to get back home to Dublin and all should be good in about three weeks. We plan on going early December. upon further investigation, it seems you need to have a car in order to transport the dog on the ferries--not sure how this works since we will be renting the car in either Portugal or Spain but then have to drive in the UK. We are planning on taking about a week to complete the trip.

PQ's link has amazing info and provides detailed instructions - seat 61 is an amazing resource and he occasionally posts here on Fodors. Looks like trains/ferries are your answer.

Here pets are not allowed in rental cars, so be careful ! And, good luck !

They are doing titer testing for rabies? Do they even give rabies vaccines in Spain? We have 2 English Boxers and there was such a to do over the rabies vaccine he did not have, He was young and not at the age you get them for one thing but customs didn't understand that. Will not be a super long ferry ride at least.

Yes, the passport means you have to have a vet visit a few days/weeks before you travel to cover rabies and they need a jab/pills before the final journey etc. Talking to dog owners (as by chance I have) some continental vets are a bit "careless" about the process but most are professional.

Ferries have dog storage in intesting places, on the Dover/Calais bit it is your car as it is (i think) Cherbourg/Poole/Plymouth and the bursar takes you down to check on the car once on the trip. The Santander/Bilbao to UK south coast is an upperdeck kennels with easy access for walkies which I think is the kindest of all I've seen, but then it is a long journey.

No-one seems to have mentioned the direct ships Irish Ferries operate from Cherbourg to Dublin, or that both IF and Stena operate from France to Rosslare.

If you or the dog are (quite sensibly) leery of late-autumn sea journeys, the train from Calais to Folkestone isn't just guaranteed not to make you seasick, but also offers by far the most humane dog-handling operation on any European sea crossing. The dog stays with you throughout, which isn't possible on any other Channel crossing, and both railway car parks have extensive, secure, grounds for giving dogs really a decent run around.

Thanks so much for all of the responses. We are studying the link and will pick our best option. ( I hadn't thought about seasickness for a late fall trip).