By Jim McCoy

One of the greatest benefits of being retired at Lake Anna is the fact that we can spend more time with our pet. Most dog lovers, know that the more time you spend with your pup, the closer your relationship will be. The downside to all of this is that we’re sort of hooked on our dog and hate to leave him. This makes vacationing difficult.

Recently, we found a solution for this challenge – BringFido.com. Bring Fido is a travel website and a related smartphone app for people who like to travel with their pets. The service provides descriptions and ratings for pet-friendly hotels, restaurants, activities, events and other pet services.

We decided to test the service earlier this year by booking a ten-day trip to seven different locations between Lake Anna and Florida. We booked pet-friendly hotels in Carolina Beach, NC, Charleston, SC, Savannah, GA, St. Augustine, FL, Miami Beach, FL, Tampa, FL, and Beaufort, SC. It worked like a charm!
We booked very highly-rated hotels that just happened to be very pet friendly as well. As an example, when we arrived at our Charleston, SC hotel, there was a chalkboard at the front desk that had a welcome sign with our dog’s name on it. The hotel staff greeted us with a care package for Beau that included a wide variety of fun toys and chews.

We stayed at that hotel, the Ansenborough Inn, for two days and the front desk personnel always greeted Beau by name. While in Charleston, we took lots of walks with Beau and enjoyed eating at restaurants that had pet friendly patios. Of course, we previewed all of the restaurants on Bring Fido to make sure they would be welcoming to our four-legged best friend.

At our next stop at Brice Kimpton Hotel in Savannah, GA, we enjoyed a similar experience. The front desk acted thrilled to see our pup. The Brice Kimpton is very upscale and comfortable and had a courtyard in the middle of the hotel that was pet friendly as well. (Once again, the front desk always greeted Beau as we came into the hotel and we got the sense that they don’t just allow dogs – they welcome dogs. It should be noted that all Kimpton hotels are very dog friendly.

Our next stop was St. Augustine, FL. We booked a boutique hotel looking out on the water. Once again, everybody just loved seeing Beau. One of the activities we found in the Bring Fido app was a tour of Saint Augustine Distillery. We loved the tour and the fact that they gave Beau treats along the way. Once again, we noticed the difference between just allowing dogs versus welcoming dogs. It was so much more relaxing for us when we knew that people genuinely enjoyed welcoming our pet.

The Bring Fido website and app have really been a game changer for us. Coupled with the fact that we have a “dog mode“ in our car (See It’s Electric” – page 12), which allows us to leave Beau in the car for short periods of time regardless of the outside temperature, we are now prepared to hit the road at any time – and take our good buddy with us.

Bring Fido is free to use and can be accessed at BringFido.com or the Bring Fido apps can be downloaded from the Apple and Google/Android app stores.