Travelling with a cat

[BerryinClover]

Does anyone have experience of taking a cat on holiday? I know they prefer to have a home base, but it occurred to me that they could perhaps be crate-trained like a dog. then see the crate as their home. I'm thinking of getting a camper van, and would like to take my cat with me. Anyone think this is feasible?
I've been camping in France, and noticed that French families seem to take all their pets with them.

I seriously doubt this will work. It works on houseboats but cats have a serious tendency to leap out of crates and leg it along the motorway.

Not a chance on earth unless you dope your cat up.

Don't take the poor moggy on holiday- they are far more comfortable not moving around the place

My parents and I used to drive cross country to visit relative with our cats loose in the car. They were always happy enough wherever we were visiting too, they went to Dublin and Mayo on many occasions and never got lost and were always perfectly chilled about it.

In fact my parents have had cats most of my life and never once owned a cat carrier.

I used to bring my cat from Dublin to Mayo on the train to visit them, he was fine in the carrier on the 5 hours train trip and loved roaming around in Mayo while there. He adjusted to my parents house in no time and was perfectly happy using it as his base of operations... although he was a spoiled cat and insisted I take walks up the fields with him as he liked to be carried back when he got tired

Wow SummerRain what kind of cat was he?

All the cats we've ever had have been alleycats DSH's

I got him as a kitten from a shelter, he had only been there a week and already had a reputation as a bit of a nutjob Being spoiled rotten by me, dp and our housemate didn't help tbh.

I think it is unlikely your cats will appreciate this. My parents live 250 miles away so when I went to visit them for a week with the cats I decided it was too much to put them in a carrier for 6 hours so I bought a big dog crate that took up most of my back seat and boot (granted I only drive a Ford KA so it wasn't that big). There was plenty of room in there for them though and I gave them time to get used to it as a piece of household furniture before we went. They travelled better in this than they had done when they were in the small carrier but still had to be drugged with herbal stuff to calm them after about 40 minutes. It did stop my eldest being sick as she often suffers with travel sickness which was a relief for all of us.

It was a worthwhile purchase for us as I was going from my home here to my parents where one of my cats had previously lived. I live in a small 2nd floor flat so they can't play out and my parents live in a big 4 bed house with an impressive sized garden so they loved the change in scenery. Although we did lose the cat that hadn't been there before for a day - she was only found because of my OH determination so I don't think I would ever risk taking them camping.