If you’ve ever been to Amsterdam, you know it’s a bustling city full of life, culture, and opportunity. So much so, there’s hardly enough room for it all. Seriously, there are no fucking rooms. For those of you that don’t know much about the Amsterdam housing market: It’s a cutthroat game that requires fast feet, diligent communication, and the willingness to put down large sums of cash quickly.
When we decided to move to Amsterdam originally, it was back in March. Although this is a popular time of year, we wanted to enjoy the spring and summer. After we stayed for a little longer, we were never really sure when the right time to go would arrive until it did. Now that the time feels right, it’s been a whirlwind of packing, researching, and organizing every aspect of our lives.
In just the past few days, I’ve gone through the painstaking effort of narrowing down my wardrobe; a struggle so difficult it deserves it’s own post. During that time, we reached out to numerous real estate agents (makelaars) and quickly realized you have to be there to get anything done. This meant getting a short-term rental until we can meet these companies in person.
Finding a Place to Live
This was not a simple task. We wanted to book a spot for a month in a good location that allows dogs, ideally well-furnished and centrally located….available within a month. As impossible as it seemed, several days of searching on every site possible yielded a great spot in the Eastern Docklands of Oost. AirBnb was an expensive option but this place was a good price for all the amenities, a shocking $2,200 for the month. Honestly, this is the price you pay for such short notice and the soonest we could arrive is November 4th.
We’ve heard leasing prices are much better, there will be tons of future posts about the realistic prices once we arrive and can see for ourselves.We’re looking for something smaller so we expect our future budget to be more reasonable. It’s also nice to have a month to learn about the mail system, utilities, and leasing practices before we commit to something.
Getting There: Travel Arrangements
When you’re planning to move to an insanely popular city, it’s best to find a place to stay before you book any flight or train arrangements. This is especially true when you choose to travel with a dog. Not only are pet-friendly spaces limited, last minute arrangements are nearly impossible. Once we had our place booked, flight tickets came immediately after.
Traveling with a dog means you have to be research every single detail. It’s not enough that we needed a good flight deal in such a short time, we have to choose airlines with perfect pet policies. Our little dog is extremely timid and anxious so cabin travel is a must. We had to choose a flight path that wasn’t too long, our little guy would struggle to do a 14-hour flight non-stop. We explored about every option there was!
We tried the best flight deal companies we know: Airfare Watchdog, Scott’s Cheap Flights, and SkyScanner. We spent an entire day checking deals on those sites in that order. All four sites were great but the first three didn’t have anything that worked for us. SkyScanner knocked it out of the park! They had a deal that seemed perfectly tailored for us. We start on a Southwest. flight to LaGuardia with a 4-hour layover and a connecting non-stop flight to Amsterdam with Norwegian Air for $533.00/each!
For a short-notice flight this deal is amazing! Southwest and Norwegian Airlines both have excellent pet policies, although they are first-come, first-serve. They also have extremely favorable luggage policies, we each get one personal item (6 lbs), a carry-on (15.4 lbs), and two checked bags (44.1 lbs) for only $150.00/each. If you’ve ever bought a ticket with Spirit Airlines, you know this is a very good deal!
Now that we have our new home settled and our flights booked, it’s time to get everything else in order. We still have about a million things to do before our lives reset overseas and we have a million new things to do. We’re extremely excited to share our journey with you, we’re always looking for tips and suggestions, please comment or share your story below!
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Moving to Europe with a dog 
Moving to Europe with a dog 
Travel blogger taking a European vacation
