Happy Travel for Adults, Part 2

In the past week, I have taken some time to start thinking about how I can prepare myself for the exhaustion and stress of travel.  Like many, my travel plans are closely linked with finances.  Accordingly, I often find myself starting my vacation either flying a red eye, or with some ridicuolously long layover in a hub several hours in the wrong direction of my final destination.  Sometimes, in a worst case scenario I am stuck with both of the above.  Unable to stomach the idea of flying from Seattle to Atlanta and then to Philadelphia, we went with the flight red eye this time around. 

We all know that sleeping on a plane is not really sleeping at all.  Therefore, it should be  looked at only as a bonus.   I cannot function on less then eight hours of sleep.  I am cranky, depressed and irritable.  Not a great way to start a vacation.   This leads me to my first step in happy travel preparations: 

Rest well PRIOR to travel. 

Normally, I begin packing and getting myself ready for an upcoming trip well before I need to.   Yet, I always have a million “last minute” things to do that leave me frazzled right up until take off.  Everything snowballs from there.  I don’t sleep well the night prior.  So,  I drink to much coffee and I don’t make time for a healthy meal.  Funny, those things are all directly related my travel discomforts:  Exhaustion, irritability, dehydration and physical discomfort.

My practical and boring solutions:

Get an extra hour of sleep each night the week prior to travel.

Limit caffeine

Drink lots of water

Make nutrition a priority

Have EVERYTHING packed 24 hours prior to travel.

 I will need even more sleep that the extra hour.  For that matter, so will my children.  My husband will do fine without the extra sleep, but he will have to get up and suffer with the rest of us.  Therefore, we are waking up early the morning of our flight.  We will probably wake up by 5 AM so that we will be able to take a long nap in the late afternoon.  When we finally settle in upon arrival, we will not have any plans other then to nap, visit, read, watch movies and lounge.  This is particularly hard for me.  I would much rather jump in to our vacation.  But, it can wait until one day.

Coming soon:  Part 3, finding comfort in flight.