Traveling With Your Dog in Croatia
- Jessica Cerović
- Feb 20
- 5 min read
Updated: 19 hours ago
For all the dog lovers and fur-babies, this post is for you! Igor and I have our own ball of fluff, her name is Micika (Mici for short), and her name is actually an old fashioned Croatian one. We always wanted to travel to Croatia with Mici but knew it would be a bit of a logistical nightmare from the USA. We have been through it all and Mici has seen many areas of Croatia now. I wanted to share with you what it's like traveling with your dog in Croatia. I hope these tips help you realize that in the end it is all worth it!
Before you arrive to Croatia:
If you are coming from the USA, 10 days before your flight you will need to go through a USDA accredited vet to examine your dog and sign specific paperwork they must send to the USDA for a specific USDA stamp. The paperwork cannot be more than 10 days old by the time you arrive in Croatia, so make sure you plan all of this accordingly. Also, it is of the utmost importance you ask your vet for the USDA paperwork to be expedited to you after they sign off and stamp it because you need it in order for your dog to board your flight to Croatia and sometimes the USDA is slow and can take a few days to get to your paperwork. We received the completed documents less than 2 hours before we had to leave for the airport and let's just say I was in a complete state of panic up until those papers were in my hands.
Mici is a 9 year old, shepherd and labrador mix and weighs about 60 pounds (27 kilos), so for most commercial airlines traveling to Europe she is too large to be in the cabin with us and must be loaded into the pressurized and temperature controlled cargo hold beneath the plane. If your dog can fit in the cabin with you, that makes things a little bit easier. Every airline is different when it comes to rules about the breed of your dog, sizes and weights of your dog, sizes and weights of your crate (or carrier if your dog can fit in the cabin with you), what can or cannot be in the crate with the dog, kind of microchip, vaccinations, paperwork and more, so please do your research and then double check because it's A LOT and can be very confusing. We had an awful experience trying to book our flights with Mici on ITA Airways and so we had to give up on that option and go with Austria Airways.
There are companies you can pay to organize your entire logistics for your dog to travel and you also have some private airlines that allow larger dogs in the cabin with you. Just be aware the prices for these services can be pretty high.
The closest international airport to us in the USA is Miami International Airport and unfortunately there is a heat embargo for pets traveling in the cargo hold that starts in May and goes through September. For the safety of your pet, they do not want the possibility of your dog being in a crate outside on the tarmac in the heat for a couple hours. So, in order for us to travel with our dog to Croatia in the summer, we drove 16 hours north to my mom's house and flew out of Dulles International Airport at the very beginning of June because their heat embargo does not begin until the end of June. There are no direct flights from Dulles to Croatia and a connecting flight is usually with an airplane that is too small to hold dogs in the cargo hold, so our only option was to fly direct to another airport in Europe (almost always a large plane with a large enough cargo hold) and then drive the remainder of the way to Croatia. We flew to Vienna, Austria which is about a 5 hour drive away from Crikvenica, Croatia. Luckily, Igor's brother was happy to drive five hours in a large rental van that was big enough to fit the large crate, Mici and our luggage, pick us up and drive us back to Croatia.
Traveling in Croatia:
If you are taking your dog on a major highway in Europe, they are by law required to be safely secured in a crate in your car, however, if you are driving your dog on smaller, local roads, for a short length of time, this is not usually an issue.
Many dogs are on leashes in heavily populated areas, however, you will see some dogs with their owners without a leash and as long as they are well-trained and well-behaved it does not seem to be a problem with anyone. We always had Mici on a leash around lots of people but that's just because that is what we and her are used to in the USA.
There are signs where dogs can and cannot go swimming in the Adriatic Sea. There are also dog beaches, our favorite is Monty's Dog Beach and Bar in Crikvenica. They also have one on Rab Island, but there are plenty of others you can find as well. Besides the beach, where we stay in Croatia there are so many places to take your dog and let them roam free a bit. You do not need to worry so much about a lot of people or car traffic. We took her to the nearby Tribalj Lake for walks, runs and swimming. We took her along the Dubračina River path and even hiking in the Gorksi Kotar mountains.
Pet Supplies:
There are several pet supply stores offering a wide selection of products and food for your dog. ZooCity and HOP were two pet stores I frequented the most but there are more and even major grocery stores carry a variety of options too. Dog food prices in Croatia are pretty similar to USA dog food prices. One of the nicest things I found was the local butcher in Crikvenica was happy to give extra beef bones to our Mici free of charge. Igor said that's a completely normal thing to do in Croatia, but I've never seen this in the USA, so it was special to me.
Veterinarians:
Hopefully you do not need to see the vet when you are traveling to Croatia but we had to twice. Once for a random broken nail that needed pulled out and again for an exam and signed paperwork, needed by Lufthansa Airlines, saying she was healthy to fly back to the USA from Munich at the end of summer. Most veterinarians speak English which is extremely helpful. Vet prices are so much cheaper than in the USA, I was amazed!
Here are the websites that helped me the most when traveling with my dog in Croatia:
Check out our other travel tips and guides in our blog so you can make the most out of your trip to Croatia!
Traveling with your dog in Croatia from the USA can be a complicated and sometimes stressful process but once you are there it is so much fun and none of that matters anymore because you and your four-legged friend will share these memories together forever!
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