Is It Worth Travelling With A Cat? Everything You Need To Know

When you see people travelling with a cat, they show you all the positive moments of cat travel. Posting pictures of their cat on a hike, in a canoe, or walking on the beach… etc.

But, what about when the camera isn’t out?

After having gone on MANY trips with my cat, I can tell you that it isn’t all good!

I’m going to share the realities of travelling with a cat that no one wants to tell you. This is the good, the bad, and the ugly of cat travel.

This way you can decide if travelling with a cat worth it for not only you but also your furry friend!

Psst! This blog post contains affiliate links in it which sends me a bit of extra money if you use them… at no extra cost to you!

Is It Cruel To Travel With A Cat?

It’s a well known fact that cats are homebodies. So it is cruel to travel with a cat? Taking them out of their comfort zone into the unknown wild!?

Just because your cat likes being home, doesn’t mean they won’t also like being a travelling cat.

My cat loves home. Whenever we come back from an adventure, he was always ecstatic to be home.

He’s just like me in this sense. I’m such a homebody. I love being surrounded by my things in the comfort of my home. But that doesn’t mean I can’t and don’t like travelling.

But Every Cat & Destination Is Different

Of course, it’s all about your cat. These truths are based on my experience travelling with my cat. As we know, no two cats are the same.

You can have no issues travelling with your cat or it can be 10 times worse than what I’ve experienced with mine. There might even be negatives that I hadn’t even thought of because I haven’t experienced it with my cat.

On top of that, even if your cat does like travelling it can also depend on the destination. My cat loves going to warmer destinations (obviously), colder destinations not as much!

It will also heavily depend on our accommodations at each destination, and if he has a good vantage point and things to look at. But sometimes we won’t always know what the view will be like until we get there.

Travel With A Cat Might Be Worse Than Traveling With A Baby…

I imagine travelling with a cat is like travelling with a baby…

A baby cries at nauseam, a cat meows uncontrollably… And when they do, you have no way of knowing what your baby or cat wants.

A baby won’t listen to you, and a cat definitely won’t listen to you.

You’re responsible for doing everything for your baby, and the same goes for your cat. Essentially, neither a baby or a cat is capable of taking care of themselves.

But then I thought about it, and travelling with a cat might even be worse than travelling with an infant…

With a baby, they tell you when they want something and then you do it. For the most part, they’re complaisant – you feed them, they eat. They also wear a diaper to go the bathroom when they want, and you clean it. And the list goes on.

Now Let’s Look At Travelling With A Cat

Well, they can meow at you but you don’t really know what they want. You can offer them food and water but they’ll probably be too distracted by their surroundings to even touch it.

You can show them the litter box, hope with all your might that they use it before getting on a flight or in a car for 8+ hours. But at the end of the day you can’t force them to use the litter box when you want them to.

Your cat doesn’t understand you, and they never will. All you can do is hope they listen to you!

Travelling With A Cat Adds A Lot Of Extra Travel Stress

Let’s be real, your cat is like your child. You treat them like your baby and you react to them as though they were your baby.

So, if your kid doesn’t eat or drink for an entire day you would start to worry… right? Well the same can be said for your cat.

They might not drink or eat or go to the bathroom ALL DAY as a travelling cat.

You won’t be able to do anything about it but worry. You will try to feed or water them and then just worry if they ate enough that day or drank enough. All you can do is hope that when they need water, eventually they’ll drink it when you offer it to them.

Your Cat Is An Extra ‘Person’ To Pack For (& They Need A Lot!)

Your cat is an extra person you have to pack for. If you’re not used to packing for someone else, there’s a lot to think about.

It’s also very different packing for a cat versus packing for a person… I mean your needs are not the same as theirs.

You have to pack enough food to last throughout the whole trip.

You have to think about litter – and a travel litter box. Then there are toys and different ways to entertain your cat while travelling.

But what really sets packing for a cat a part is that you have to pack some damage control items. We all know cats can sometimes be destructive at home, and it’s no different when you travel with a cat.

So you have to think far and beyond what you may use daily at home for your cat. There’s a lot of ‘just in case’ extras you might want to consider bringing.

For example, you might want to pack a couch cover or even bitter sprat to prevent your cat from scratching or biting furniture.

Or there are also certain travel cat accessories you may want to pack, like calming spray or collapsible bowls.

Your Destination Might Not Be Well Equipped For Cats

At home, you’ve invested in items to make living with a cat easier and better for you.

That can be anything from a cat tree for you cat to scratch and climb on, a quality vacuum for you to deal with the shedding and litter mess, and most importantly a litter locker for those smelly poops.

Depending on how long you’re travelling for, this can be more or less of an issue. A few nights in a hotel, you can manage. Six weeks in a small condo and it can become a bit more of an issue!

First, is there even a good place to put their litter box? What’s the cleaning equipment like, if there’s any at all?

We actually had to buy a vacuum for the remainder of our stay in Florida with a cat. The litter and cat fur became so bad after two weeks!

Your Cats Routine Will Change… And It Might Not Be For The Better

You’re probably in a routine with your cat at home, I mean every cat loves a good routine!

My cat would expect play time in the morning, have a bathroom break, and then explode with zoomies for a second round of play. He also never wanted to miss preying on the squirrels that would visit him on the balcony every morning. After lunch was much needed nap time. Cuddles on the couch had to be no later than 9:00 PM until bed time.

This was our routine at home. But when travelling with a cat, you’ll have to get into a new routine…

Eventually your cat might fall back into a routine while travelling, but it will take some time and it might be different than what you’re used to at home.

At any new location, my cat is always on edge for a bit. He has to explore and check out every nook and cranny. He doesn’t want to eat, drink, or even look at any of the new and cool toys I buy for him.

Sometimes his new routine also includes some worse habits…

Bathroom breaks are in the middle of the night now, meaning zoomies and craziness were also in the middle of the night… and time to destroy things when I wasn’t awake to stop him.

He also started hiding under the bed and sleeping on top of the dresser. I thought I had lost him a few times!

But then there were also some more welcomed additions to his routine. Every night he came into bed to sleep next to me. He also needed less playtime because he was being so stimulated with his new surroundings.

Travelling With A Cat Is Like Your Bringing Them Home For The First Time All Over Again…

Travelling with a cat is like you’re bringing your cat home for the first time all over again. Do you even remember that experience? Mine wasn’t great…

My cat freaked out. He immediately ran under the couch to hide. I was too nervous to sleep the first few weeks or even leave him home alone in the house.

It’s the same thing when you travel with a cat. You’re introducing them to a whole new environment all over again, and as I mentioned, setting up a new routine.

Now it’s even more nerve racking because you don’t own anything where you are. If you’re staying in a hotel, Airbnb, or someones house – if your cat destroys something, it isn’t yours!

You May Be Scared To Sleep Or Leave Them Alone

I’m always scared going to bed every night while travelling with a cat.

Because his routine had changed, he was now up every night and going crazy after he pooped. I would hear him running around, and I was worried he was destroying something that isn’t mine.

I would have to take shifts with my partner to check on him… and the state of the house.

I won’t like, you’re probably going to be on edge when travelling with a cat. Whether it’s when you leave them alone at your destination or when it’s time for bed.

So you have to get ready to not sleep or not be able to leave them alone as you would at home… at least until they fall into a new routine or get more comfortable with their environment.

You Can Prepare All You Want There Will Still Be Surprises

You can prepare all you want, but when you travel with a cat you have to be ready for any surprise they send your way – and there will be surprises!

Like I said, there’s going to be a new routine. But you have no way of knowing what that routine will be before you get there. And you might not like this new routine (I would trade midnight poop and zoomies for anything!).

But a much more unwelcome surprise was when he started biting the couches… which I thought I had prepared for…

I had dealt with his biting at home so had brought a couch cover with me to prevent him from biting the furniture while travelling. But I didn’t account for there being 3 couches at our destination!

Not to worry I also brought beach towels as a backup! So I covered the extra couches with those…

What I didn’t account for was my cat running over the towels so violently that he pushed them off. The arm rest was now open for biting! Plus he also discovered that the bottom and the side of the couch were also edible as well…

We ended up buying another couch cover, but that was after three bites to the couch. Now every night I was even more stressed that he was going to strike again.

Travelling With A Cat Will Cost You More Than You Think

You shouldn’t travel with your cat because you think you’ll save money (not paying a sitter or kennel).

There are extra pet fees at most hotels and there are also some other more hidden costs you may not have even thought about. And you have to be ready for those…

First, the scary cost – if they destroy something in the hotel room or wherever you’re staying. They are animals after all so this is always a possibility.

If you want to avoid the larger costs if you have to replace something your cat destroys, you may want to invest in some travel cat accessories.

After our cat had bit the couch three times, we invested in another couch cover. This was a life saver but it was also after three bites to the couch. I’m hoping no one will notice…

Next, we also invested in a cat tree when we arrived (we definitely didn’t have room for this in the car). We did bring some travel friendly scratch pads, but I know he likes to scratch a tree a lot more – and it was a huge game changer when it arrived. It gave him his playable space so it also stopped him from attacking the couch.

So think about larger items that you can invest it once you arrive at your destination (or beforehand) that can prevent any damage while travelling with a cat.

You May Be Sharing A Small Space When Travelling With A Cat

The benefit of getting a cat is that they don’t need a lot of space. That being said, the more space you have with a cat, the better your life is.

You might have the luxury at home of having a lot of space for your cat to spend his energy and not bother you. When you’re in a hotel room, or renting a small vacation condo, there really isn’t much space for you to each have your own.

If they get the zoomies any time during the night, they’re most likely jumping on your bed waking you up… and there might not be a door to close!

We were staying in a small condo in Florida where our room happened to be next to the bathroom with his litter. Every night for a month he would wake us up when he went to use it. We would hear him vigorously digging to hide his poops. There wasn’t much we could do about this.

P.S. We’ve recently started travelling with a travel white noise machine (like this one on Amazon) to block out any strange cat noises. We sleep a lot better now when we travel with a cat!

They’re Going To Get Dirtier Than When They’re At Home

This might not apply to you but it’s something that I find isn’t really discussed when travelling with a cat.

My cat is primarily an indoor cat so he’s very clean! If he ever leaves the house, I give him a bath when we get home. I love cuddling him, he gives me headbutts as a kiss on my face and I don’t have to think twice about where he’s been.

That all changes when travelling with a cat. When we walked into the first hotel room and my cat lied down on the carpet, rubbing his whole face in it, all I could think about was “ah there goes the face snuggles“!

I know it’s not outside dirty, but I still felt gross about it.

You Might Not Get To Eat At Your Top Choices Of Restaurants

Depending on where you’re traveling with your cat, this might be more or less of an issue.

When we traveled during the summer months to Ontario with our cat we didn’t think twice about bringing him to most restaurants with us. We would seek out the restaurants with an outdoor terrace and never had an issue bringing him in the backpack. People loved seeing him!

Then we traveled in the fall… enter cooler weather and rain! Our trip to Saratoga Springs in the fall we ran into some issues now that terrace season was over. So be prepared to not eat at your first choice of restaurants or be ready to take out food and eat it in your car.

You’ll get lucky sometimes and the restaurant will be lenient, but for the most part bringing your cat (even in a backpack) inside a restaurant is a hard no!

You Might Have To Also Miss Out On Activities

Although we are a much more pet friendly society now than we were before, there are still a lot of places that won’t allow pets inside. Even though the rule will be primarily for dogs, a lot of people don’t budge on cats (even if they’re in a backpack!).

Museums typically are no pets allowed. We’ve brought him into a lot of stores though and the employees love him!

Outdoor activities are typically fine with pets as well, but you can always run into an issue.

For example, we thought we were doing a themed outdoor hike so didn’t see why we couldn’t bring our cat. It turns out the hike started at the top of the hill, so you first needed to take a chairlift up… needless to say we had to bring our cat back to our hotel.

Expect People To Come Meet Your Cat

You don’t realize how many cat people you walk by until you travel with a cat. The amount of people that will start a conversation with you about traveling with a cat is unreal.

Our cat gets so many extra pets while on vacation I don’t think he knows what to do with all the added attention!

So this is either a perk, because you can meet some really interesting people. Or a hard negative if you’re not a fan of talking to strangers.

I’m pretty sure a random guy took a picture of us with our cat and said he worked for the Saratoga Times… but we never saw a business card…

But Is Travelling With A Cat Worth It?

So, now you have to decided should you travel with a cat or not. It will always depend on your cat and what kind of trip you’re taking them on.

Travelling With A Cat Is Ultimately Exhausting, Stressful, & Anxiety Inducing…

Between the planning, packing, training, worrying, and then not getting any sleep. It’s less of a vacation for you and more of a vacation for your cat (if they like it!).

You’re more stressed. You have to worry about bringing your cat into new environments and you have no idea how they’re going to react. There are so many other new things to worry about when travelling with a cat. But is it worth it…?

But It’s All About Both You And Your Cats Happiness

Should you travel with a cat? At the end of the day it all depends on you and your cat.

It’s definitely easier to just drop them off at someones house or at the cat kennel and not think about them for a week or two. But I know my cat is much happier with us than he is with anyone else.

He’s a homebody but if I’m going to bring him to stay with somebody else, that’s way worse than coming on a trip with us. It’s more stressful for him being in a new location and with new people. So although while travelling with a cat, the location isn’t consistent, at least I am.

The other option you have to decide is, is it better to travel with a cat or leave them at home? So now he’s comfortable with the location but no ones there with him. This, once again all depends on your cat. I’ve noticed my cat really loves human touch, he doesn’t like being left alone for too long and can’t go too long without a good cuddle.

But ask yourself these questions for your cat. Would they be happier travelling with you, staying at home, or with someone else?

I’m So Happy We Travel With My Cat And My Cat Is Too

Despite all the worry and not really sleeping for a month I could not imagine doing a trip without my cat.

Not only do I love having him for entertainment but it was nice having him for our regular night time cuddles, but I also think he love the experience too.

He’s happy at home, but boy, on some of the trips we’ve taking together, I’ve never seen such a happier cat.

Quick Links – What You’ll Need To Travel With A Cat

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Last update on 2024-12-13 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API