Making Sense of Travel with Pets

Mack, a Brittany, enjoys a dip in Canada's Georgian Bay, where the cool waters are just what's needed to unwind after being cooped up in a crate during a long flight.

On his annual trip to Canada, Mack yelps and cries in his crate as if he is being tortured, but the moment the anxious Brittany dips his paws into the cool Georgian Bay, he quickly forgets the trauma of flying.

"It's a tradeoff we make," said Mack's understanding owner, Nina Munk, who often travels with her pooch.

Munk, a journalist, is also the founder of Urbanhound.com, a popular online survival guide for urban canine lovers. Her Web site's Hound Play section offers other dog-loving urban dwellers a menu of weekend getaways in and outside the city, including dog-friendly hikes, camping, swimming spots, dog runs, and the scoop on public transportation, airline regulations and flying precautions.

She points out that when planning a getaway, bringing your pet along doesn't make you a total neurotic.

The Travel Industry Association of America reports that more than 29 million Americans traveled more than 50 miles with their pets in the past three years. Almost 80% of those travelers took dogs, about 15% took cats, while the rest took birds, ferrets, rabbits and even fish.

Whether you're heading out to the Hamptons or Catskills, or jetting off to the Swiss Alps with your pet in tow, there are plenty of options and guidebooks to get you on the road or in the air.

If you're a nature lover, whose pooch has ever been banned from a park or beach, then get a copy of the "Canine Hikers Bible" (Cruden Bay Books, $19.95). Author and intrepid hiker Doug Gelbert has unleashed over 225 canine-friendly parks and trails throughout the U.S. and Canada, plus rules and regulations for sandy beaches and other dog-friendly spots.

Gelbert's Web site, hikewithyourdog.com, offers organized day trips, including hikes in the Delaware Water Gap and along the Susquehanna River ($69), and two-day overnight camping trips, such as the upcoming Heart of the Catskills jaunt to Kaaterskill Falls and Lake Minnewasksa State Park Preserve ($179).

Another guide to look into and calm your travel-with-pet nightmares is the no-frills "Traveling with Your Pet: The AAA Petbook" ($17.95, AAA publishing), which lists 13,000 pet-friendly accommodations in the U.S. and Canada, including 400 campgrounds. Pet lodging is broken down by location, class, and hotel's pet policies, such as weight requirements, fees, or number of rooms designated for pets.

For anyone traveling the mundane stretch between Maine and Florida, "Drive I-95: Exit by Exit Info, Maps, History and Trivia," by Stan Posner and Sandra Phillips-Posner, is an amusing must-have. The couple has spent hundreds of hours traveling the highway and identified 356 dog-friendly places where pets can tuck in for the night.

And, for the upscale le chien, Breakaway Adventures of Mount Pleasant, S.C., offers four dog-walking tours through France, including an 11-day trek in the Chablais region, where dog and owners hike through alpine meadows and stay at mountain inns (www.breakaway-adventures.com).

Still, traveling overseas with your pet can be fraught with rules, regulations and precautions. "Globetrotting Pets: An International Travel Guide" (Island Publishing, $21.95) by David Forsythe, has everything you need to know when crossing the ocean with your pet. Forsythe shares tips on entry requirements, airline regulations, vaccinations, emergency contact numbers and more.

If you're flying with a pet, expect to pay $50 to $80 extra each way, says Susan Stellin, author of the guidebook "How to Travel Practically Anywhere" ($15.95, Houghton Mifflin), which offers advice on researching an airline's track record transporting animals. Also helpful is the Web site, Pettravel.com, a one-stop pet-travel shop, which spells out the rules and restrictions followed by dozens of airlines.

If you're still not convinced it's okay to take your pet with you on vacation, you can ask the government. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has an informative Web site on pet travel at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ac /pettravel.html.