The Best in Luxury Dog-Friendly Travel for Jet-Set Pets

Flying with a dog might conjure up images of a chihuahua poking out of an Hermès Birkin bag stowed beneath the seat in front. While there’s some truth in the cliché — small dogs are, bien-sûr, allowed in the cabin of all Air France flights — for most airlines, dogs must be transported kennel-class in the cargo hold. Since May last year, however, a new transatlantic carrier has welcomed dogs of all sizes to sit with their owners. Bark Air (air. bark.co) is not only the first all-first-class airline that accepts larger dogs in the cabin, but also the first to operate a ‘dogs-first’ policy. Co-founder Matt Meeker was inspired to get Bark Air off the ground by his Great Dane Hugo, who had accompanied the Meeker family to 22 US states but was left behind for overseas trips. Pooches on board Bark Air are given dog treats, noise-cancelling earmuffs and calming pheromones; humans are calmed with access to a full bar.

Once pets and owners have, ahem, disembarked in New York, they can take a connecting Bark Air flight to Los Angeles if a bite of the Big Apple isn’t on the cards. Bark Air flights come with all the usual trappings of first-class air travel, such as access to a dedicated lounge. The price, however, is around double that of an average first-class ticket. One-way from London to New York for dog and owner starts at $8,000; f lights from New York to LA add a further $6,000, which might sound barking mad when one considers what one could experience in dog-friendly luxury a little closer to home. At Six Senses Crans-Montana in Switzerland (from £653, sixsenses.com), there are 200 miles of Alpine paths for dogs and owners to explore. Back at the hotel, pet-friendly spa treatments, using only natural ingredients, include facials and paw massages.

Does your pooch prefer a city break? The V.I.P. — Very Important Pets — programme at Rome’s Cavalieri hotel (from £325, hilton.com) includes dog walkers who will explore the hotel’s 15 acres of parkland with your pet before taking them for a massage and grooming session at a nearby pet spa so they can look their best for dinner in the hotel’s Tiepolo Lounge and Terrace. Both do, of course, require getting to the Continent in the first place (dogs are allowed on Eurotunnel, but not Eurostar), not to mention the faff of sorting vaccinations and an EU pet passport for around £175 per trip. It’s easier all round, perhaps, to staycation in the UK, where the options for dog-friendly travel are becoming ever-more luxurious. Journalist Lottie Gross began to focus on pet-friendly travel writing when she got her own dog and has written two UK guides: Dog Days Out (Conway, £20) and Dog-Friendly Weekends (Bradt Travel Guides, £16.99).

She cites the boom in pet ownership during lockdown as the main reason for dog-friendly travel taking off domestically: there are now approximately 12 million pet dogs in the UK, which equates to 31 per cent of households. And for these pampered pooches who have become accustomed to having their working-from-home owners present at all times, a kennel is out of the question. “Since writing my books,” Gross says, “I’ve noticed the luxury offering for dog owners is only getting better — and perhaps more ridiculous, in the best way.” Gross might be referring to London’s The Lanesborough hotel (from £955 per night, oetkercollection.com), where a team of butlers is on hand to help with dog walking in neighbouring Hyde Park. “Pooches in residence” receive a welcome card upon arrival, in addition to a special bed and a bespoke “woof homemade menu” of doggy dinners such as Labrador lasagne and poodle noodles. Canine cuisine is also on the menu at the nearby Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park (from £829, mandarinoriental.com), where The Aubrey restaurant offers the likes of steamed free-range minced chicken with coconut scented rice.

If your dog needs to brush up on its table manners, consider checking in to the Rosewood London (from £537, rosewood hotels.com). The hotel’s concierges can recommend dog trainers during guests’ stays, plus dog walking, sitting and grooming services. Once suitably brushed up in every sense, owners can parade their dogs around a list of dog-friendly London restaurants and shops provided by the hotel to show off their mutt’s newly acquired social skills. And should one of those happen to be the ability to sit still for a couple of hours, pay a visit to Knightsbridge’s Egerton House Hotel (from £455, egertonhousehotel.com). The ‘paw-trait’ experience (£550) includes a three-hour afternoon tea of both human and doggy delicacies enjoyed while the hotel’s resident artist, Shelley Levy, paints an A4-sized watercolour of your pet. Humans get to feast on the likes of finger sandwiches, scones and patisserie while their canine companion scoffs chicken liver meatloaf, peanut butter biscuits and a carrot cupcake made by the hotel’s kitchen with ingredients designed to promote a healthy coat.

Prefer to get in touch with your inner Manet and paint something yourself? At Glen Dye (from £290, glendyecabinsandcottages.com), a collection of dog-friendly cottages and cabins on a sprawling 15,000-acre estate in the Scottish Highlands, guests can learn how to draw their dog (£60) under the expert tuition of local artist Mel Shand (she  is equally happy to accept commissions of your four-legged companion, from £450). Other dog-friendly activities include an interactive baking workshop where you will learn how to make healthy dog treats (£20). There is also the option of a guided walk around the glen with the resident wilderness expert, which, after all, is perhaps the whole point of owning a dog: to get out in the great outdoors instead of sitting around inside.  For that, few UK hotels have as magnificent a location as Langdale Chase (from £390, langdalechase.co.uk) on the shores of Windermere, which re-opened at the end of 2023 following a multi-million-pound refurbishment.

The Lake District’s 13 valleys are there to explore while, on the doorstep, the hotel’s dog-friendly rooms provide easy access to the gardens and lake and come equipped with a doggy bath to clean off any mud. And for the perfect (pawfect?) post-walk refuel, there’s pooch-friendly strawberry and vanilla ice cream. But if all this doggy decadence seems a little too focused on pets rather than people, than rest assured that some of the country’s most luxurious hotels with Michelin-starred restaurants attached are also welcoming to dogs (in the guest rooms, at least — the Michelin Man usually draws the line at dining with dogs).

At Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons (from £925, belmond.com), for instance, dogs are allowed in nine of the guest rooms and walkers or groomers can be booked to look after pets while owners indulge in Raymond Blanc’s two-Michelin-starred tasting menus. Follow a spectacular breakfast the morning after with a walk in the nearby Chiltern Hills. But as with any long-term relationship, the secret to a successful dog-friendly holiday is one that has something for everyone.

And they don’t come more all-encompassing than at Glenapp Castle (from £444, glenappcastle.com), a dog-friendly Relais & Châteaux property in Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland, set within 100 acres of woodland and gardens. For dog owners with a taste for adventure, however, the hotel’s USP is a Hebridean sea safari in which every aspect of the experience is tailor-made to ensure that both dogs and owners get as much out of the five days of cruising and camping as possible.

Activities might include lunch on the Isle of Gigha (famed for its halibut), a trip to an Islay whisky distillery, eagle, dolphin and seal spotting and glamping under star-filled skies while feasting on local lobster prepared by a private chef. Along the way, dogs can run along the pristine (and usually people-free) white beaches of Colonsay or Oronsay, or roam the McCormaig Isles, the former home of Irish Christian monks sent to convert the Scots. The sea safari costs £15,950 for two people and their dog — about the same price as a one-way ticket to New York with Bark Air, admittedly, but rather longer-lasting. Because while luxury holidays might increasingly resemble a dog’s life, remember that it’s your life to enjoy, too.