Can You Really Take Your Pets on an International Trip?

If you’re like most pet owners, your pets definitely go with you everywhere you go. However, when you’re trying to plan your international trip, you might find that taking your pets along might be much more difficult than you would normally expect. It’s because there are multiple regulations to follow, and you will also need to handle the subject of dealing with customs both leaving your country and returning to it. These policies can make it feel like you’ll never be able to take your pets with you on the perfect trip, but this isn’t the case at all. The reality of the matter is that you will really need to make sure that you are looking at the situation form every angle in order to derive a proper solution.

There is a solution to taking your pets on an international trip, but you will need to work quickly in order to get everything secured properly.

The first thing that you will want to do is have your trip planned out from start to finish. No, this is not going to be a trip that you can take on a whim, nor will it be a trip that you can do at the last minute. There is a time and a place for last minute travel, but now isn’t that time at all. You will need to think more towards getting the right paperwork and documentation in place. For example, you must make sure that your pet’s vaccination record is completely up to date, since this will be one of the first things that get asked for. You will want to call the consulate of the country that you’re traveling to to get more specific information. Pet importation into a country can be tricky, and you don’t want to find out later down the line that you missed out on a great vacation because you didn’t have one little document in place.

The next thing that you will want to do is call the airline that you’re traveling with and see what needs to be done to transport your pet comfortably. Be prepared to let them know the height as well as the weight of the pet that you’re going to be traveling with. You might need to pay a heft fee to get your pet on the plane, but you will get them on the plane — just ask up front. Long flights are especially a concern, since you will want to make sure that your pet has enough food and water to last them a while. It can be hard to actually plan for everything when it comes to traveling internationally with pets, but if you start as soon as possible, you will have no problem moving forward in virtually no time at all!