This week, May 12-20, is National Tourism Week sponsored by the Travel Industry Association. It’s a good time to have such a week, as summer’s right around the corner and summer vacations are topmost on many people’s minds.
I know vacation is on my mind. Wayne and I don’t always get to go on one each year, but I like to have a list of places where Murph would be welcome to come with us if we could get away. (A few times we’ve taken non-Murph vacations and kenneled him, but that can get expensive. Cheaper just to take him with us!)
Usually we determine where we’ll go based on convenience of proximity. Meaning wherever we can drive in eight hours or under. (Sometimes we even stretch that to 10 hours, but I don’t like to spend that much time on the road. Nor do I like to put Murph through that, even though he is a very good traveler.) However, sometimes it’s the destination itself that lures us because there’s something there we want to do.
Once we have a place in mind, I then hop on the Internet to find dog-friendly accommodations. From past experiences, I know that La Quinta Inns, Red Roof Inns, and Super 8 Motels almost always accommodate dogs. The next trick is determining if they have size or weight restrictions, which a simple call usually accomplishes. (Some places set a 20 or 25 pound limit. Murph’s 65 pounds, so obviously those places are out.)
Last year I was watching some program (if I could remember which one I’d reference it, but I don’t. Sorry!) about the top ten most dog-friendly places. (I want to say it was on the Travel Channel, but I’m not sure about that.) Their top beach pick was Cape San Blas, Florida. It caught my eye because we are a beach family. Just makes time off that much better to be by the water!
So I started doing some research on it (how far is it by car from where we live, are dog-friendly accommodations as plentiful as rumored, etc.) and that’s when I stumbled across a great site for dog family travelers: DogFriendly.com.
Here’s just some of the great info you can find on their site:
• List of Top 10 Cities to Visit with a Dog in the United States and Canada (Picks are from 2006.)
They also publish a book, DogFriendly.com’s United States and Canada Dog Travel Guide, that’s a portable version of the information found on their website. (And then some.)
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