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How To Beat Jet Lag When You Arrive

Some of the biggest threats to vacations can be bad weather, missed connections or a pickpocket helping themselves to your wallet. However travelers often forget there is a bigger threat that wants to take their vacation time: jet lag.

It has been known to take precious vacations and cause travelers to see destinations in a blurred, half asleep view. Vacations, business trips, jet lag does not discriminate. It can pop up even when you think you are well rested and ready to take on Paris after 24 hours of travel.

If you want to beat jet lag at its game, you could be fighting a one-sided battle. While jet lag affects people differently, you can choose to fight it the minute you arrive. Those steps you take toward fighting jet lag after you touchdown can be the difference in seeing a destination like a zombie or as a real traveler.

Don’t Nap Immediately: Both novice and experienced travelers can make this mistake. You arrive in London at 7AM and think a little nap wouldn’t hurt. Then you find yourself wide away counting the stripes of the hotel’s wallpaper at 3AM because of that 2-hour nap you took upon arrival.

The best thing you can do when you arrive is not to snooze for several hours, but to try to stay awake until a decent hour for sleeping.

Drink Water: Once I touch down after a long haul flight, I find the biggest bottle of water I can. If you are sleep deprived, your immune system might be at its most vulnerable.

Drinking water helps keep balance in your body. Flying can be dehydrating and draining on a body’s clock. Hydrating is always a necessary step in fighting jet lag rather than consuming alcoholic beverages or sugary sodas that will have you crashing in no time.

Go on a Bike Tour: I found this jet lag cure on my last visit to Europe. My first day of travel with just 2 hours of sleep in 48 hours consisted of a walking tour. The stopping and starting for 4 hours nearly had me collapsing in the streets.

Tired and still jet lagged the second day, I went on a bike tour. Bike tours are a nice way to get out and exercise the jet lag out of you without having to be on your feet all day. With the wind of a city whipping in your face, it will be an instant wake up to a tired body. You are also still out there seeing your destination without missing out on vacation time.

Do Something If You Can’t Sleep: On many occasions, I have tried to go to bed at my destination’s bedtime, even when at home it is the afternoon. If you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night, you might think just laying there is the best way to fall back asleep.

However hours of just thinking that you really need to fall asleep won’t help you get some shuteye. If you can’t sleep, get up and do something.

I sometimes set my accommodation’s television to a channel playing golf or some other quiet program. Play a round of solitaire. Read the driest book for a little while and most likely, you will fall back asleep in no time.

Keep Busy: On my last trip to Europe, I essentially didn’t have time to let jet lag beat me when I arrived. My first few days of travel in Berlin consisted of non-stop tours, dinners and meetings.

While it might sound daunting, if you keep busy on your first few days of overseas travel, you will be tired enough to sleep at night even if it isn’t your normal time for bed. You stand a far greater chance of getting on your destination’s schedule as a result.

Post by Angella Grey, the marketing manager at The Vacation Rentals Experts – an online and offline digital marketing agency that creates marketing solutions for vacation rentals, holiday homes and brands.

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