1. Get your cat accustomed to riding in a car

If you want to enjoy your time on the road, you need to prioritize your cat’s happiness, comfort, and safety. You can read more about car training in our post A Different Type of Zoomies: Cats and Car Rides and learn how to identify motion sickness in cats. Help your cat perceive the car as a safe space and look into purchasing a car crate or car seat to keep them away from the driver or to prevent them from getting flung around if you suddenly brake. 

As a precaution, consider purchasing calming sprays that are meant to reduce stress from travel.

For our trips, we try to take breaks at least once every two hours and sometimes more frequently depending on how Reinhardt and Perseus are behaving. We are lucky that both cats are willing to use the litter box in the car, but some kitties may refuse to go in a moving vehicle.

Traveling with a pet is entirely possible, but you need to plan ahead if you want your trip to be enjoyable. If you’re the type to pick a destination and then figure out the details once you get there, you may need to make some compromises in your travel style. Making spontaneous decisions while adventuring with a cat can be challenging, and it’s best if you take the time to thoroughly research your trip before you start booking anything.

It can be difficult to find truly pet-friendly accommodation, more about that down below, and even if you do find a place, many hosts have policies that do not allow pets to be left unattended, meaning that your cat will need to accompany you all day. Almost all indoor attractions refuse entry to pets unless they are service animals, and it’s uncommon for restaurants to accept cats even if they have an outdoor eating area.

Unless you’re content to just chill in your hotel room the whole trip, take the time to plan an itinerary. It doesn’t need to be planned down to the second, but it’s good to know what options you have available.

Even if you plan to spend most of your time outdoors, you need to double check that you’re in an area that allows pets. I’ve arrived at several hiking trails only to be faced with the dreaded NO PETS sign. I usually try to have a plan B but there have been instances where I’ve been stuck with no clue where to go while also having no phone service to do research that should have been done before even leaving the house.

2. Shy away from spontaneity

Once you start to travel with your cat, you’ll soon learn that “pet-friendly” often means “dog-friendly”. Many people perceive cats to be destructive; they expect scratched up couches, shattered dishes, and hairballs all over their carpets. Even though dogs are capable of making similar messes, people tend to perceive dogs as well-behaved or naturally trust that an owner can handle any misbehaviour with a few commands.

Prior to booking anything, always contact the host and explicitly ask if cats are welcome. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hotel or an Airbnb, the last thing you want to happen is to arrive at your destination only to be turned away because the pet accompanying you doesn’t fit the host’s expectations. You don’t want to be left scrambling to find another place, especially if you’ve just traveled for several hours, or have to stress about getting a refund (which some places will refuse to do). 

Once you’ve successfully found cat-friendly accommodation, you’ll want to take some time to scan the living space for any problem areas. I always hide plants, remove glass decorations perched on shelves, tuck away curtains, and block off any tiny hiding spaces that I can’t easily access. Bringing a cover for furniture, particularly leather couches, might be a good idea if your cat isn’t trained to use an exclusive scratcher. Remember to revert any alterations that you make before you leave!

3. Find CAT-friendly accommodation

4. Pack the essentials

Alright, so this section might get a bit lengthy, but you can save yourself some reading if you are able to identify the displayed objects as these are what we bring along on our road trips. Not pictured is the cooler we use to store the cats’ raw food, a cat scratcher, and a car seat protector.

Please keep in mind that this is not an extensive list of what you should bring and you’ll need to make adjustments depending on the duration of your trip, your cat’s preferences, and where you’ll be going.

Here’s a quick list of all the items pictured:

• Adventure cat (ours is size large)

• Cat backpack, leash, and harness

• Portable cat bowl + sponge

• Bear bell

• Foldable litter box, scoop, disposable bags

• Metal comb, nail clippers

• Fur removal tool and a dustpan

• Treats and a treat carrier

Let’s breakdown each of these choices…

Adventure cat(s)

No cat-friendly road trip can take place without first packing your cat! Ours is a seasoned explorer with years of adventure experience. Weighing in at 16lbs, Reinhardt will take up at least one seat of space in the car, although he has been known to sprawl out over the entirety of the backseats. We also have Perseus who declined the invitation to join the photo. If you plan to travel with multiple cats, make sure each one has enough space in the car or you might have to deal with some hissy fits.

These are essential for any cat adventure! You’ll need the harness and leash to actually walk your cat while the backpack can act as your cat’s safety spot while in unfamiliar territory. Indoor spaces that allow cats typically require them to be leashed at all times or to be secured within a carrier. Read Equipping Your Adventure Cat for a more detailed explanation on choosing a harness, leash, or backpack.

While not necessary, I highly recommend packing a spare harness and leash. It can be frustrating when your only harness breaks mid-trip and even more so if the nearest pet store is 50km away.

Cat backpack, harness, and leash

Portable cat bowl + sponge for cleaning

If we’re short on space, we’ll pack a portable cat bowl for when we feed the cats. Preferably, we would only use this one during the journey itself and then switch to a ceramic or metal bowl at the hotel/Airbnb as these are easier to clean when feeding raw. It isn’t as much of an issue if you feed dry food. 

If you have a less spoiled cat than me, you should also pack an additional bowl for water. Reinhardt’s preferred drinking method is to drink from my hand while Percy prefers a running sink.

Unless you’ve trained your cat to use a toilet, you’ll want to pack a litter box and its accompanying scoop. I use a foldable litter box if I need to pack light, although when possible I prefer to travel with the cats’ at-home litter box even if it takes up about a third of our trunk space. 

When you arrive at your accommodation, it’s best to keep your litter box in the washroom or somewhere that’s not carpeted as tile or wooden floors can easily be cleaned with your dustpan when litter inevitably escapes the box. If your cat is also the type to scoot after an accident, which sometimes happens for new adventure cats, you’d better hope it isn’t on carpet. 

I recommend also packing some paper bags to help reduce smells and dispose of the waste as most hotel rooms don’t have covered garbage cans and you never know exactly what to expect for Airbnbs.

Finally, even though you’ll likely be paying cleaning fees as part of your stay, consider taking the time to sweep up any extra fur or litter before leaving. If the trip is longer than two weeks, I might even bring a handheld vacuum. I’d like to think that it helps show hotels that they can trust cat-owners!

Litter box, scoop, bags, and dustpan

If you have any dinner plans or like to wear a lot of black, then you should consider packing a fur remover or lint roller. Now I’m not sponsored by Lilly Brush, but sometimes I wish I was because this is one of my favourite cat products that I’ve been using since Reinhardt was a kitten. It’s the perfect size for travel and can be used to remove fur from clothes, cat trees, carpets, bedding, and cars. 

While it requires a bit more physical work, I much prefer using this form of fur remover over the sticky sheets that need to be tossed after a measly five rolls over a shirt. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be available at the moment, but the brand’s fluffy pet brush also works pretty well for fur that’s not deeply embedded.

Fur Remover

Treats are an absolute must for every road trip, and if you disagree then we can’t be friends.

We like to pack chicken treats or tube treats for the cats. One of our Instagram friends taught us to store the tube treats in a travel toothbrush case and this helps prevent any messes if you have an unfinished tube. I’ve learned through firsthand experience that it is extremely unpleasant when you store a half-eaten tube in your coat pocket and then later find out the treat has been squeezed out.

Don’t forget that you should also be packing enough food to feed your cat for the duration of the trip! We feed Reinhardt and Perseus a raw diet, so we make sure to make enough for a few days extra in case of an emergency. One of the advantages to feeding wet or dry food is that it can be much easier to plan meals for you cats or acquire back up food

Treats

If you want good photos, you’d obviously need to bring a comb to help your cat look its best! In all seriousness, matted fur is nothing to laugh at with long-hair cats. Even if we’re on vacation, we try to maintain our grooming routine and comb the cats after every adventure to remove any knots. As you’re combing, you can check for pests like ticks and pick out any lingering pieces of grass or dirt. We’ll bring along a deshedding brush for trips longer than a week.

Metal Comb and brush

When I took the photo of all the supplies, I was preparing for a road trip to Banff, Canada’s first national park. Located in the famous Rocky Mountains, Banff is home to a variety of wildlife—bears included. It is common to see signs warning of bears, even for local forest trails, and so carrying a bear bell is the minimum preparation one should have in the forests. We purchased one that comes with a silencer as it can get a little annoying listening to the non-stop ringing when you’re walking around town. You should also consider purchasing bear spray if you are headed to Banff, and we usually pick some up once we arrive.

Bear Bell

Other Considerations

• Pet-friendly wet wipes

• Furniture covers

• Cat toys (usually not needed if you’re doing lots of outdoor activities)

• Cat bed

• Collapsible cat cubes

Travelling with a cat can be very rewarding, but don’t forget that it comes with its own set of challenges and you will likely need to put in more effort than what is needed for normal travel. Take the time to plan ahead and do your research. The fun activities and great photographs will come after :)

Here is the final message from Reinhardt: l;;;;;;