The Journey to Portugal is much better on a Chartered Plane

Getting to Our New Home in Portugal was a grand adventure

If you ever have the chance to fly on a privately chartered plane, DO IT. It is more than worth every penny.

When we first decided to make the move to Portugal, we didn’t have any idea what sort of adventure just getting there would be. We knew that taking 2 dogs and a cat would be a challenge, but we didn’t know it would give us the opportunity for a once in a lifetime trip.

We left Winston Salem around 3pm on March 23 to start our journey to Newark, New Jersey. As we were planning our move, getting the animals across the ocean was our biggest obstacle. We have large dogs and one is a bulldog and many airlines won’t allow them in cargo. Plus, we really did not want to put them in cargo. 

We checked on the Queen Mary II, a cruise liner that runs back and forth from New York to England but they were booked 2 years out and by the time we rented a car and drove from England to Portugal, it would have cost many dollars and many years of our lives.

Luckily, Beth is the most resourceful person I have ever met. She belongs to many groups on Facebook that focus solely on moving and living in Portugal. She found a group that plans chartered flights for pets and found us a lovely group of people to fly with. And let me tell you, I need to learn to make bazillions of dollars so that we never have to fly commercial again.

But first, we had to get there. Our flight was leaving on Saturday night and that gave us a few days to get there. Beth broke up the travel so that the most we drove in one day was about 4 hours. We stopped in Lexington, VA where the dogs and cat stayed in a hotel for the first time. Except for the fact that the dogs wanted to sleep in bed with us and not on their own bed, they did wonderfully.

The second night, we stayed in Harrisburg, PA and we all got better sleep that night. We also met Beth’s sister, Amy to drop off the last of the family stuff and have a quick visit. The next day, we took our time since we were only a couple of hours from the airport. 

We flew with 365 Aviation and the whole experience was amazing. First, there is really only one terminal. It was quiet with nice comfortable seats and ottomans. Although there was not bar, we were allowed to bring our own beverages so we sipped Prosecco and beer for 3 hours while we waited for our flight. There was no airport security to endure. Someone loaded ALL of our luggage on the plane for us—big suitcases and our back packs in side the cabin. And although the plane was a mere 25 meters from the terminal, a small van took us to the plane so that we could load with the animals.

Once we finally got all the animals on board (Pattycake was not ready—I basically had to push her up the stairs) we settled in with drinks!

Flights to Lisbon range from 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 hours depending on weather etc. The first part of our flight went very quickly since we had drinks and dinner was to be served. We hit a little turbulence leaving and it delayed dinner, but no matter. Turbulence on a private plane was no biggie at all!

We had choices for dinner–and I don’t mean chicken or vegetarian (although it did boil down to that). There was a choice of salads (Caesar or crab), mushroom risotto, salmon, or chicken for dinner, and dessert too! Plus, we had our choices of wine with our meals. It was fabulous! I thought the meals in first class were nice. This doesn’t even compare.

We tried to sleep a little on the plane, but the dogs were a little restless and honestly, as soon as I dozed off, we were approaching Lisbon. It was the shortest overseas flight I have ever had and the sunrise was amazing!