road trip

What costs are you referring to?

First, remove your e-mail address from your post, to avoid spam. If anyone does want to contact you, they can send a private message through this Forum.

Are you speaking of the costs of taking a dog on the trans-Atlantic flight? If you take your dog with you, the cost is several hundred dollars each way, not several thousand.

Are you looking at services that ship your dog? Yes, these will be expensive, but of course, in addition to entrusting them with your dog, you're paying them to do a lot of work. Taking a dog yourself, you have to buy a crate (of the correct size), make veterinary visits (European chip, vaccinations, etc), fill out papers, make reservations for the plane (limited numbers of dogs allowed on each flight, and smaller planes allow fewer dogs), wrangle your dog along with your luggage at both ends, etc. When you pay a service, they do most of that for you.

Here's a thread about some of the options and issues (including a post of mine, with my partial knowledge of the subject): https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/flying-with-my-large-dog

If by cost you are referring to the dogs transportation, take a look at the following link and read through the entire thread for some solutions other people on this forum have researched and used.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/flying-with-my-large-dog

Note this was for a large dog that wouldn't be able to ride in the cabin. You don't say what bred, size of dog nor time of year you are planning to fly. All of these make a difference in transporting pets via air.

EDIT: looks like Harold and I were typing at the same time...

And remember you will have some huddles, (vet statements, shots, etc.) getting your dog into the first Schengen zone since you will need the equivalent of a doggy passport. And be careful with your 3 month comments. You are only allow 90 days and not three months unless it is Jan, Feb, and March in a non-leap year.

thinking of flying into the uk from California ,she is a 70lb pointer. The only airlines that will take her is British air and they want you to go thru a carrier co. which charge a lot. did not know about a 90 day rule but 90 days is plenty.anybody ,ideas ?

Book a nice kennel and travel sans canine.

@ Bruce, I don't know about your neck of the woods, but in the area Mr Herman comes from a kennel, nice or otherwise, can cost up to $75 per night for boarding a dog. I just looked up several for my son's dog for their 1 month road trip and ended up driving up to the Bay Area and bringing the dog back here to pet sit him myself! For a 90 day trip that would be a minimum of $6,750 to board his dog.

Our son's family looked at rover.com too but most people wanted $45 per day and they are complete strangers with few reviews.

ojaiherman, the "90 day rule" is maximum 90 days in any 180 in the Schengen Area for non-EU/Schengen citizens.
As you now say you are flying into the UK (which is not in Schengen and has it's own separate limits), you will be OK.
Any mention of "3 month trips" or similar ring alarm bells with the regular posters on this site whether the poster is aware of the 90 day limit, and the amount of mis-information about it on the web.
It has been discussed much on this and other sites, just search for "Schengen limits".

Another possible issue, you say road trip, starting from the UK. Any car you hire in the UK will have the steering wheel on the right, OK for the UK but wrong for mainland Europe. You will not be able to do a one-way hire with this car and leave it in another country. Many hire car companies do not allow their cars to be taken across the channel, they seam to think driver's cannot cope with driving on the wrong side of the road, even though millions of Brits do it every year.
You could take the Eurostar train from London to Paris or Brussels, except they do not allow dogs on that train. The only way to get a dog across the channel is by car - catch 22. See here for more: http://www.seat61.com/dogs-by-train.htm

@Mona: In my neck of the woods, canines can board at kennels for much less than $75/night. Also, college students and younger singles can be found to dogsit. Our large dog loves going to the kennel and I just budget that into each trip. Having a dog is more than playing fetch and watching football games together. I would not take our dog to Europe given the significant stress of flying, safely and properly meeting exercise requirements, leaving in unattended autos at even mild temperatures can lead to a deadly conditions, etc.

Animals are great and loving companions, but sometimes they are also burdens. My much loved two cats, now, alas, in cat heaven, cost me mucho dinaro when we travelled and had to make arrangements for their care. The OP must do two things to do a road trip in Europe. (1) eliminate the UK from his plans and (2) bite the bullet and pay the thousands to transport the dog to Europe. Or, or, or ...... a road trip in the US or Canada will have to suffice for the time being.