Holidays. Are they important to you ?

I agree - plenty of holiday accommodation where dogs aren't allowed, so there's something for everyone. Personally, I think if you're that worried about hygiene from dogs, you shouldn't think too much about some humans might get up to in the properties!

Silly nanny 321. You are not being silly. As you can see by name, I ran a cattery for years in Spain with very happy repeat clients. Unfortunately, a few soft hearted people would rescue feral cats and bring them to us so they could go on a cruise or whatever. Feral cats are not tame in any shape or form and would attack their owners on their return. Luckily this only happened rarely and being experienced I somehow managed to feed their wild cats and clean their toilets but it wasn’t easy. I had a weekly newspaper column explaining how to look after cats. Cats are stronger than dogs and are capable of being very violent as I witnessed when I took my clients into my home to tend their facial wounds with germolene etc. after they returned from their luxury holiday to find a very cross wild cat.
I didn’t have my own cat as felt I was too busy taking care of other peoples as well as working a few hours as a journalist. One afternoon, I had a bit of free time to sit next to the pool I designed. Suddenly, a tabby moggy settled in on the other side of the pool. After a while I went over expecting trouble. He lay on his back offering his stomach to stroke. Strange cats just don’t do that. I tickled his tummy and he followed me inside the villa and became the family cat lying on my lap immediately. I would never approach a strange cat. I am back in the UK now and when off for a stroll cats follow me and I chat to them quietly and tell them your owner is worried and they do a U-turn. I’m not a cat woman or a cat whisperer or anything like that. They are just attracted to me because of my quiet voice.
People leaving your cats in catteries, please don’t stress. The owners as far as I know are cat lovers.

I’m coming back to this thread, even if it’s a bit older, because the topic really spoke to me. From my experience, holidays are no longer about “where do we go just to tick off something exotic,” but more about how we actually feel while we’re there.
In recent years, after dealing with delayed flights and stressful luggage situations, I changed my approach: I started looking for accommodation in the UK, in quiet areas where I can take the dogs with me and not depend on anything else. I turned to selfcatering.co.uk and discovered all kinds of places, from cabins in the woods to houses by the sea. For us, it was a good balance between a change of scenery and the comfort of still being relatively close to home.