Travelling with dogs is on the rise and has been for quite some time. Several studies and surveys have shown that, more often than not, dog owners prefer to travel with their pets.
A survey by the Barking Heads dog food brand that was conducted last year even showed that nearly half of dog owners would sacrifice a trip abroad to book a staycation with their pet instead.
Caravanning with dogs
This dogged dedication to taking our pets on holiday is no different when it comes to caravanning either, it seems. In Practical Caravan’s Top 100 Sites Guide 2026, where the best caravan parks are revealed, only four of them do not accept dogs.
Pitchup.com has tracked the mentions of the word ‘dog’ in its campsite listing pages and since 2019, mentions of dog-friendly camping are up 83%.
Individual dog-friendly caravan sites are seeing the trend play out, too. Pre-pandemic, just short of half of the bookings at Riverside Caravan Park in North Yorkshire brought a four-legged friend along, while now the site is seeing 64% of campers arriving with their dogs.
Having caravanned across the UK and Europe for the last two years, I can attest to the huge number of dogs on campsites – much to the dismay of my own pooch, who believes he owns whatever campsite we may pitch up on and is often disgruntled to see anybody else enjoying its facilities.
We didn’t get off to the greatest start on our dog-friendly caravan adventures. The first time I took my Manchester terrier camping in our little Eriba Pan Familia, he spent much of his time standing outside the doorway, looking in at me as if I had wronged him in the most unforgivable way.
Arty is a dog that has grown up in a large house with a fluffy bed in almost every room and more blankets than you can fit in the washing machine all at once.
He has become accustomed to staying in five-star hotels since he was a puppy thanks to my occasional position as a reviewer for national newspapers, and he’s got a fleece for every day of the week because he’s a rain-shy, wind-fearing, cold-weather-hating boy. A pampered pooch he may be, a happy camper I never expected he would make.
Watchdog!
But three months into an extended caravanning trip in Scotland, he, rather unbelievably, became quite the campsite dog. He is perfectly content mooching about our pitch on the end of a longline, or sitting in his bed in the sun watching the other campers potter about their vans and trailer tents and motorhomes.
He has perfected his Neighbourhood Watch strategy, a position he takes up each time I leave him in the caravan to use the bathroom facilities or do the washing up, and he has learned to play it cool around the other campsite dogs (unless they have the audacity to cross the invisible boundary around our pitch, in which case they’ll get quite the mouthful of what I can only assume are dog-speak expletives).
It has been a real joy watching him transform into a more adventurous dog who can now feel at home in any campsite, providing he still has three beds at his disposal – one for inside the caravan, one for lounging in the sun and one in a nearby patch of shade for occasional respite from the heat, obviously.
And while caravanning with a dog comes with some logistical challenges, especially in hot weather, it also comes with some serious perks – and not just because he’s like a large hot water bottle under my duvet on a cold night.
Without this small, demanding terrier in my camping party, I wouldn’t have had the privilege of meeting red deer on Faichemard Farm campsite in Invergarry during our morning wee walks, or seeing red squirrels bounding through woodland in Oban at the local Camping and Caravanning Club site.
Camping is an inherently outdoorsy lifestyle, but caravanning with a dog ensures even more time spent among nature, whether it’s glorious morning walks right from the caravan door or dusky evening strolls along the beach before bed.
A pot of gold
My dog, with his inquisitive nose and quick-smart sight, often alerts me to things I might not have spotted before – oystercatchers foraging on the shoreline, or mountain hares on the slopes of the Cairngorms. He’s the reason I’ve stopped mid-walk and been able to admire the lichen-rich branches of the Scottish forests and the moss-carpeted floor that surrounds us while he sniffs a fern frond.
He’s the reason I got to photograph an incredible rainbow in Islay on a soggy evening – forced to evacuate the confines of my caravan so he could do his evening business, on our walk back through the site at Port Mòr, a perfect curve shone over the sea loch beyond. I stood in awe with other campers as we all tried to capture its colours and soak up the fleeting beauty of the evening.
While Arty may not be able to appreciate these things as I do, I know he has a new-found appreciation for the camping life and caravanning nowadays – even if it doesn’t involve a five-star hotel with fancy dog beds.
Are you planning on heading to a festival soon? Then see why Nigel Donnelly thinks the humble caravan crushes a campervan for festival living.
Follow Lottie on Instagram at @lottiegross.
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