I'm traveling from the US to London (and from there to Paris, Rome, and Barcelona:aktion033 for the first time this summer, and I'm ridiculously excited...but also worried how I'm going to make it that long on a plane! I was wondering what advice the Europeans who make the long trek to Mexico can give me for being comfortable on the plane (any travel pillow suggestions? Should I just take sleeping pills when we take off?), surviving the jet lag, and making life easier while traveling?
I travel to all of the locations you mentioned regularly for business. It's only 6 1/2 hrs from the east coast to London ( 7 1/2 from Chicago ) most flights are overnight but if you can score a morning flight it's the way to go since you would arrive at LHR late evening then just go to bed at more or less your normal time and avoid the jet lag. With overnight flights it's difficult to avoid jet lag since you arrive in LHR early in the am - the best method to adapt quicker to the time zone change is just stay up the day of your arrival and then sleep at the local time you would normally go to bed. Wear comfortable clothes and shoes, drink lots of water or juice during the flight and avoid carbonated beverages, coffee and tea during the flight
9 hours to the UK from Cancun and 11 hours back I cannot sleep on planes, ever. Depends what kind of in flight entertainment they have, but if it's decent there's usually enough to last the trip. If not load up an ipad full of things to watch. Jet lag going there is much worse than coming back. I'd advise get some sleep as soon as you can after you arrive, for the reverse stay awake as long as you can once you get home or you'll wake up full of energy at 3am.
