Taking your dog on holiday

Taking dogs on holiday can be fraught with obstacles as Cathrene has pointed out in CD-Traveller before. There are some guidebooks that point to dog-friendly accommodation but books rapidly date. Congratulations then to Visit England for adding pages to their main website. These not only provide listings for dog-friendly accommodation but mentions beaches and other places where dogs can be taken. Providing you follow the usual rules.
Reading the media sometimes you wonder just how fond we are of dogs. One minute we are the dog-besotted nation who think more of our dogs than ourselves and the next, we are uncaring and unfeeling keeping savage animals that or allowing our dogs to foul pavements with no concern for the consequences.
I would like to think that gone are the days when, after a booking a caravan and telling them we had a dog, we were disturbed late at night by the pitch owner saying that our dog must be tethered outside the caravan. Or the case of a friend who stayed in dog-friendly accommodation who received a very large bill for “removing the dog odours from the chalet.” Sometimes you just felt that some accommodation providers were using the opportunity to remove extra cash from your wallet.
So the Visit England guide is a welcome antidote to those days. There are now hotels that will provide dog meals to coincide with when you regularly feed them at home, some that will provide dog beds in the room and more and more pubs are providing bowls of water outside by the benches where you can sup a pint.
For more information, click here.