How will my cats feel about a weekend vacation?

It will be best for your cats to stay at home, but only if you can provide water and food for them for the time you are away.

So if your cats are free feeding or you have an automatic feeder, it is best for them to stay at home.

As you know, cats will be stressed in a moving car, and they will experience stress by coming to an unknown place, and the dog there might add to this.

Cats are very dependent on marking a new place with their own scent to be able to relax, and I think 3 days is too short for them to calm down.

If you leave them at home, you will need one litter box per cat plus one extra, and you need to fill a little more litter in them than you normally do to avoid them being soaked. Three days is at the upper limit of how long you can leave the litter unchanged.

It all really depends on how well the individual cat deals with this sort of situation. From personal observation, the ones that do the worst are very timid cats and very territorial cats versus the type that are more adventurous.

A sign your cat is very terrorial is if you've noticed the cat seems adverse to any change to its territory, like if you move a piece of furniture or something like that. Another is if your cat seems timid of the area outside the door to your apartment, versus you have to be careful when going in and out or else they might try to escape.

Cats can show a variety of stress behaviors when in a new territory, and adult cats seem to get more distressed about it than kittens. Hair falling out is indeed one of them. Hiding and refusing to come out is also one. There's also rather undesirable behaviors such as failing to use the litterbox, spraying, or vomiting. Cats with certain chronic medical issues, hyperesthesia for example, might have flare ups.

Their behavior when going to the vet is probably a good relative gauge to tell how stressed they might get, and how badly they react to stress. Of course for most cats going to the vet is even more stressful than going on a trip, but it does have many things in common, such as a car ride, and arriving in an unfamiliar place, with the smell of strange people and animals.

Another possible data point is how well the cats deal with strangers. Do they hide and not come out when the cat sitter comes, or do they come out and let them pet them?

That all said, leaving them completely alone for the weekend seems overly long to leave them, although it might be doable. It certainly would be a less stressful option for them, but you might have problems like them refusing to use their box when it's not been cleaned in the past day.

I just took my cat away for a week to my parents. It was a two and a half hour drive. He travels really well. He had never met my parents before but on arrival he explored the house and then instantly settled and made friends rubbing on my mother’s feet and jumping onto my fathers lap. He slept with me the first night and slept on my parents bed every other night. He jumped up most evenings and cuddled into my father and then slept on his knee. He ate well, used his litter tray as normal and was happy and content. I think it depends on the individual cat. I would certainly take him away again. He also has a harness and lead and enjoyed walks in their garden.