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Well. I guess Mac and the OP are simply too precious and delicate for international travel. I have to go to Geneve every few months and the only daily flight out of here arrives at 6:00 am. I never sleep while flying (can't) but nevertheless a car picks me up and takes me straight to the office where I am in meetings all day. Somehow I manage to survive.
Wake up refreshed. Sidenote: Why travel on the weekend? It's more expensive, crowded at the local area and you might fall into a Sunday trap where everything is closed. Also, there is always a Bar open if you badly need somewhere to step into
If I know I'm going to be arriving late or perhaps early, I just book the extra day in the hotel and pay in advance. That way, the room is waiting for me when I arrive. This costs a little bit more, but if you want to go to bed when you get there and not wait all day for your room to be ready, I think it's worth it.
I did this exact same thing once when I arrived in Amsterdam at 7am. The travel agent thought I was being silly... Um, no I wasn't! Good thing I thought about this ahead of time, as the hotel was fully booked when a cruise docked there. It was so worth it to check right into a room....otherwise, we'd have had to wait until 3pm. When we arrived and got to the hotel, I was so exhausted I was going to cry like a 3 year old as it was.
Right; but you won't know that until you get there. Sure, you can ask the hotel before you travel whether early check-in is available, but they'll most likely tell you yes if there's a room available. Which you won't know until you get there.
The only way to be sure of having a room available early is to book it for the night before and let the hotel know that you won't be checking in until the morning.
And I am sure the O.P. isn't overstating the acute discomfort of arriving in Europe early in the morning, desperate for sleep. This happened to me every time I went to Europe. I cannot sleep on an airplane, and if I take drugs or alcohol then I arrive in Europe not only exhausted but groggy or hung over.
Which is why I've called a halt to flying anywhere overnight. Just not gonna do it anymore.
I hear ya; I can't sleep on an airplane either. My two remedies, as stated in my earlier post, are to either take an earlier flight (afternoon or late afternoon), or take a morning flight to London out of JFK, arriving about 9pm their time.
Traveled to London two times already, managed to survive the journey. To me, the worst part was connecting in Toronto (love Air Canada). The airline is great, but sometimes the waits are a bit long. On the plane, I can take a nap and watch a few movies. Not bad
You pretty much always waste a day in one direction--usually eastbound from Asia and westbound from Europe.
Well, for Eastern NA at least, you don't really waste much on westbound flights from Europe -- for example I have an upcoming AMS-YYZ flight in a few weeks, takeoff is at 9:35 AM in Amsterdam with an 11:40 AM landing in Toronto. Of course, connecting flights add up, but that is true whether or not you're changing time zones.
When my husband and I travel we start out by not expecting to sleep on the plane, then if we do, it's a bonus. No to alcohol or caffeine, yes to water and juice. Off the plane, we stash our luggage and find fun stuff to do wherever we land. We stumble and bumble around from exhaustion but keep moving. We eat dinner and go to bed at the time zone we are in. we usually need to take a sleeping pill the first night to get to sleep but whatever works. The next morning we get up at local time and start our trip in earnest. We learned to do it this way when we were young, i.e. get on local time right away, traveled this way with kids and do it the same now that we are old. Most recently from west coast of USA to Australia.
Well, for Eastern NA at least, you don't really waste much on westbound flights from Europe -- for example I have an upcoming AMS-YYZ flight in a few weeks, takeoff is at 9:35 AM in Amsterdam with an 11:40 AM landing in Toronto. Of course, connecting flights add up, but that is true whether or not you're changing time zones.
My last flight home from Europe was ATH to PHL connecting to MCO. Had it gone as planned, it would have been 11:00 am departure from ATH arriving around 64:00 pm PHL and an 8:40 pm flight to MCO arriving around 11:00 pm. Hence a full day of travel.
The reality was that the ATH flight was significantly delayed and didn't leve until 6:00pm causing me to miss my connection in PHL and requiring an overnight. I was rebooked on the first flight the next am around 6:15 and arrived MCO around 8:30 am.
It depends on where on the east coast you are going, and which city you are leaving from. Keep in mind that much of Europe is not located along the Atlantic coastline, and many airports (even large ones like MCO) in eastern NA don't have direct service to much of Europe
My last flight home from Europe was ATH to PHL connecting to MCO. Had it gone as planned, it would have been 11:00 am departure from ATH arriving around 64:00 pm PHL and an 8:40 pm flight to MCO arriving around 11:00 pm. Hence a full day of travel.
The reality was that the ATH flight was significantly delayed and didn't leve until 6:00pm causing me to miss my connection in PHL and requiring an overnight. I was rebooked on the first flight the next am around 6:15 and arrived MCO around 8:30 am.
It depends on where on the east coast you are going, and which city you are leaving from. Keep in mind that much of Europe is not located along the Atlantic coastline, and many airports (even large ones like MCO) in eastern NA don't have direct service to much of Europe
Perhaps I should clarify what I meant by "wasting" a day, maybe you'll see it as moving the goalposts Of course traveling takes time when you fly long distances, that much is true whether your trips spans 10 time zones or it's a big north-south flight. (I quoted AMS-YYZ earlier but my full trip is TLL-YQB so I understand what you're saying.) What I meant is with every return trip from NA to Europe, you will lose (i.e. waste) some hours to time changes, and gain the same number of hours to time changes, and as a North American I'm just happy the wasted hours are evening/night hours instead of daytime hours.
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How to survive timezones
Of course traveling takes time when you fly long distances, that much is true whether your trips spans 10 time zones or it's a big north-south flight. (I quoted AMS-YYZ earlier but my full trip is TLL-YQB so I understand what you're saying.) What I meant is with every return trip from NA to Europe, you will lose (i.e. waste) some hours to time changes, and gain the same number of hours to time changes, and as a North American I'm just happy the wasted hours are evening/night hours instead of daytime hours.