As our Canada trip gets closer and closer, I get more excited. I’m always excited to go to Canada because of it’s beauty and how peaceful it feels. However, being from the south, I’ve never look forward to the flight. But, that was before I was a self-proclaimed ‘experienced traveler’ and survived a 12 hour long flight. So I’m feeling pretty confident that I can last a 4 hour flight to Calgary. Over the last couple flights I’ve learned it has nothing to do with you as a person and how long you can remain dormant, but rather preparation. Being prepared for a long ass flight is the only way to survive and I’ve finally developed a list of my go-to tips for surviving an international flight. Keep reading to find out what I swear by.
- Be comfortable
- Bring a pillow/blanket
- One of the main things to do to ensure that your flight goes as smoothly as possible is to sleep. I personally can sleep without a pillow, but I have noticed that I sleep longer with a pillow. I use this one from Amazon and it’s nice because you can form it to whatever you like, not just around your neck. I also have to sleep with a blanket, even if it’s super hot. typically I’m not carrying a literal blanket with me, that would be a little excessive, but I do bring a poncho or a wrap so that it can double as a blanket. For my 12 hour flight to Buenos Aires, I used this one from Amazon.
- Wear comfy shoes.. or bring a pair of socks. I will say that I get jealous when I see people looking cute at the airport, in their nice outfits and cute wedged shoes. But, what I’ve also noticed that those same people change into sweats right before their flight… smart move because on a long flight, no one cares what you’re wearing.
- I typically wear my boots on the plane, in order to save room in my luggage and will change into some comfy/fluffy socks. Just be aware of yourself and if you know you have smelly feet, then don’t do this!
- Bring your own snacks
- It’s hard and nearly impossible to eat healthy in an airport. I too have craved the candy section on more than one occasion. But it’s a trap, not only is everything insanely marked up and overpriced but the high amounts of sugar and fat will make you cash big time. And no one wants to be tired when they get to their destination.
- I alway carry a couple of protein bars because airplanes because weather can be unpredictable and you never know when you’ll be without food and no one wants to get hangry (hunger+angry for those of you living under a rock).
- I have many horror stories about being stuck in an airport at 2am when everything is closed and it’s the worst when peoples blood sugar is low.
- My favorite snacks to bring to the airport are Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Nut bars and Sargento Balanced Breaks because they can satisfy any sweet or savory craving that you might have.
- Bring something to prop your feet up on the plane.
- I know this sounds a bit far fetched but it works, I promise. When you’re (trying) to sleep on the plane, it’s much for comfortable to have your feet propped up (even if it’s just a couple inches). This makes it so much easier to fall asleep! I typically try to prop my feet up onto my backpack and it works wonders. This makes sense because the closer you are to fully laying horizontally, the easier it is to fall sleep.
- Bring drugs to help you sleep on the flight (but read the instructions first!)
- There are plenty of (legal) drugs that can help you fall asleep, and stay asleep, on a flight. The most important is to test it out before your flight so you know how your body reacts. My favorites are the allergy medications, like Benadryl.
- One good thing that airlines do is space out their food and beverage times so that it’s convenience for passengers to sleep. For example, on all the 9 hour flights (that I’ve had) they serve the meal and beverages within the first hour of the flight. That way you can sleep the remaining 7 hours.
- Don’t drink alcohol (unless it’s free)
- I hate drinking alcohol on the plane because 1) the altitude makes you get drunk faster and 2) it’s so easy to get dehydrated and hungover faster than if you were on the ground.
- Bring lots of water
- I typically bring two large (1L) empty water bottles with me into the airport and then fill them up. But it’s so easy to get dehydrated when flying. When people say that flying makes them feel bad, chances are they are just dehydrated.
- Plan your time accordingly
- There is no time to be spontaneous on the plane. This is not the time to ‘wing it’. This is the time to plan out every minute of your flight, or else you’ll go insane with boredom. This isn’t as hard as you may think, especially with movies and podcasts to listen to. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been given was to spend a full hour eating your meal, it helps pass the time.
- Podcasts, Podcasts, Podcasts.
- This may be a millennial thing but I love listening to podcasts. It’s like my friends are sitting around talking to me and they are usually a full hour long so it makes time go by super fast. Just make sure to download them before you get to the airport.
- Neflix and Chill
- Has anyone else binge watched an entire season in the span of one weekend? It’s pretty easy to do. Now, with the new download feature on Netflix, you can download a couple episodes of a show before your flight and watch them on your flight! It makes the time fly by.
- Make sure you bring all your chargers, and portable chargers
- One upgrade that most airlines made was that each seat comes with it’s own charging port. This is the first thing that I do when I get on the plane is start charging my phone. Because you never know if there is a delay. You always want to make sure your devices are charged at all times!
- Don’t be one of those people crammed around the charging stations at the airport. Especially when a flight is delayed, having a dead phone or tablet is the absolute worst.
- If you do become one of those people that has to charge their phone, please turn it off so it can charge faster, don’t be using your phone at the same time.
