11 Tips to Surviving Long Flights

We all know the quote, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” However, in terms of long grueling flights sometimes all we can wish for is the final destination. Here are ten tips and tricks to surviving seemingly never-ending flights.

1. Charge Your Laptop and Cell Phone

In most cases, planes traveling overseas will have outlets for you to utilize next to your seat. However, you can never be too careful so charge up and don’t forget to put your chargers in your carry on! In addition, bring an extra power pack for you to utilize throughout your travels.

2. Download Your Playlists

Nothing and I mean absolutely nothing is worst than the plane taking off only for you to realize you forgot to download your playlists and have no access to music for the next 14 hours. If using Spotify, press the download button located at the top of your playlist to ensure you have access to music throughout the entire flight.

3. Bring Snacks

Although you can’t get your own snacks from home through security, make sure to snag a few in the terminal before take off.

4. Stay Hydrated

A headache on the ground is irritating enough. However, a migraine in the air is not the best way to start off your trip. Make sure to keep hydrated but don’t go overboard as to annoy your neighbor with endless bathroom runs.

5. Bring a Sweatshirt and Extra Pair of Socks

Being cold on a flight happens often as the temperature changes throughout the duration of the flight every few hours. Bring an extra sweatshirt or a scarf to double as an extra layer or a self-made pillow for some extra cushion. If you are wearing flip flops make sure to wear socks to avoid frozen toes!

6. Bring a Neck Pillow

Planes will more often than not supply you with one of their own pillows. However, having your own is a comforting piece of home you can bring with you on your trip. Also, I'm not sure about you but I always fall asleep on airplanes and then wake up with a sore neck or worse, too close for comfort with my plane neighbor. Avoid this nuisance by bringing along a neck pillow. No one likes to wake up on someone else’s shoulder and then have to pretend it didn’t happen for the next 7 hours.

7. Bring Tissues

Crawling over your neighbor to get to the bathroom gets tiring especially if you are sitting in the window seat. Bringing extra tissues can alleviate the amount of times you have to squeeze past your sleeping neighbor.

8. Stretch your Legs

Long flights can often cause you to cramp up and feel uncomfortable. Getting up every couple of hours to walk up and down the aisle is a good way to avoid cramps and stretch your legs!

9. Bring entertainment

You can quickly become restless or bored on long flights so bring some form of entertainment with you. For instance books, journals, magazines and tablets are great entertainment options for flights.

10. Sync up Your Internal Clock with the Time Zone of Whatever Country You are Traveling to

It is so important to be mindful of what time it will be in the country you are landing in. Once you know this information, make sure you are mapping out your sleep schedule on the plane in accordance with whatever time it is at your destination. This helps avoid jet lag once you land!

11. Wear Comfortable Clothing & Bring an Eye Mask

If you are going to be on this flight for hours and hours, make sure you are wearing something you’d want to sit in for hours and hours. An eye mask is hugely helpful if your neighbor is reading with the light on throughout the hours of the night. It also makes it easier to sleep with light streaming through the windows as you fly over different time zones.