Hello all,
It’s been a few years since I first made this post, and I wanted to come back to share what ended up working for us in the end.
We considered multiple entry routes, ferry, air, road, even taking the Queen Mary 2 for the transatlantic crossing (they have kennels on board, but very expensive and they only have capacity for about 20 dogs).
Ultimately, what worked for us was my husband flying to Paris and then driving across the border into the UK via the Eurotunnel. This only worked because our dog barely met the weight limit to fly in-cabin with Delta (direct flight). Our dog was below 10kg (20lb), and fit in a travel kennel, so our method only works for small dogs, I'm not sure what you can do if you have big dogs or more than one dog/pet you're trying to bring over.
Flying directly into England is not an option unless you can afford a pet shipping company (which costs about $5000). If you can’t afford that, you must cross the UK border by water or land. It's because of a stupid technicality, there are no laws that prevent you from bringing animals in the UK as a citizen by air, in theory, but there are no airports in the UK that allow this. You can only fly in through Heathrow, as Heathrow is the only airport which receives pets, but Heathrow only allows pet shipping companies.
We have called Heathrow multiple times and stayed on the phone for hours on end, there was no option to fly with a dog in cabin, or in cargo, unless my husband registered as an official pet importer or something stupid like that (this was 1 year ago now I forget the exact reason, but it was a dead end basically).
You cannot fly to the UK directly without a pet shipping company. This is not the case in countries like France, Netherlands, Ireland, etc. so you can fly to them directly from the US, as they don't have these stupid rules, and just cross the UK border from the ground.
Only certain ports and ferry companies are considered "approved routes of entry", so you must consider this when you plan your flight. Realistically, my husband's only options flying in from the U.S. West Coast were France or the Netherlands since they offer direct flights. France is the only country where you can cross by land via Eurotunnel (more on that later).
So this means you need two sets of health certificates since you’re crossing two borders. Tapeworm treatment is due the day before the flight, vaccinations must be up to date (the requirements for France are the same as the UK). For health certificates, both of them must be issued within 10 days before travel to the UK (not France or your first entry country). If they’re issued 10 days before arrival in France, they’ll expire before entering the UK, meaning you’d need to get a new one in France. You can order them separately if you'd like to spend more time in France, but it's not worth the headache, don't linger in France just get them both at the same time and cross the border quickly.
So what it looked like for us my husband got all the documents sorted the week before travel, you cannot do it any earlier than this. But first he went to the airport with his dog and his travel carrier in advance to confirm it met airline requirements before spending $$$ on paperwork (total cost for the paperwork btw: $300–$400). Hugely recommend doing the same in case you have to leave your dog behind for whatever reason (God forbid you do) so you don't have to find that out as you're boarding and have to leave your dog behind at the gate.
He had a direct flight from the U.S. to Paris, stayed one night in France (because the flight was like 11h), and then drove to the UK through the Eurotunnel the next day (like 2-3h drive from Paris to Calais). You can't rent a car for this because you're crossing a border, so if you don’t have someone to drive you, taxis can take pets across the Eurotunnel but are expensive (~£200) and need to be booked in advance. Note you need to treat the Eurotunnel like a ferry or the airport so arrive like 1-2h before scheduled departure because you need to check in and all of that, once you cross the border into the UK you need to get your documents checked again (highly recommend making a folder with all of your dog's documents and keep it in your hand luggage).
Pet taxis won't drive you from Paris to Dover, they only drive you from Calais to Dover, so you need to make it to Calais from Paris somehow. Note in France on public transport (trains) dogs have to be muzzled, this doesn't apply if your dog travels in a car (Eurotunnel or ferry).
Also note there are NO direct trains from Paris to Calais, and there are no buses/coaches in France that allow dogs as far as we could find, so driving is the best option. Luckily, my dad was willing to drive from the UK to Paris and back, which made things much easier.
If you can't get someone to drive you I believe the best option would be to rent a car from Paris to Calais (you need to be 25+ to rent a car in France), and then get a pet taxi across the Eurotunnel. I would strictly avoid trains if you can rent a car, as you'd need to catch 3 separate trains to get from Paris to Calais.
This is what worked for us in our unique situation. My husband travelled in January 2024, so things might have changed since then, but we hope this helps someone else in the same situation! ❤️
