Getting your dog there from the UK
The Channel is the bit that catches people out. Eurostar doesn’t take pet dogs on any train to or from London, only guide and assistance dogs, so unless you’re driving you’ll need a plan B. The easy one is LeShuttle, where your dog stays in the car with you for the 35-minute crossing and costs £24 each way, as long as you check in at Pet Reception and arrive 90 minutes before you leave.
Foot passengers have fewer options. DFDS doesn’t take foot passengers at all on its Dover routes, but it will take you and your dog on Newhaven to Dieppe and Newcastle to Amsterdam if you book a kennel or a pet-friendly cabin, and P&O’s Hull to Rotterdam crossing is approved for pets travelling with foot passengers too.
Whichever way you cross, your dog needs a microchip, a rabies jab at least 21 days before you travel and an animal health certificate from your vet for each trip. Pet passports don’t work for dogs living in Great Britain, even one issued in the EU, and on the way home your dog needs a tapeworm treatment one to five days before you cross back.
Trams and buses once you’re there
Once you’re on the continent, dogs get around far more easily than they do at home. Munich lets one dog ride free with any ticket, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Kraków, Gdańsk and Innsbruck carry dogs for nothing, and in Prague up to two dogs ride free on your own ticket inside the city. Elsewhere it’s pocket money, €1.60 for a dog’s ticket in Vienna and 500 Ft in Budapest.
The catch is the muzzle. Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Kraków, Gdańsk, Salzburg, Innsbruck and the Strasbourg trams all want one on any dog that isn’t in a carrier, and Budapest spells out that a halti doesn’t count. Get your dog used to wearing one before the trip, because a dog that won’t keep it on isn’t getting on the tram.
