Does anyone take daytime flights to Europe? Jet lag? Harry Potter studio tour how long?

I also cannot sleep on planes. My jetlag strategy is to choose a flight that arrives in Europe mid-afternoon. By the time I get to my hotel and sleepily power through an early dinner, I'm ready for bed around 6:30. I force myself to sleep all night and then I'm fairly good to go the next day. I take it easy that day and by the second day I'm over the jet lag! That's what works for me.

It sounds like making sure you are packed and ready to go well before your trip would be a good move so you can sleep before you leave. We always try to power through the first day, have an early dinner and then go to bed. It seems to help get us on London time quickly.
The Harry Potter tour is fantastic - but I think how long it takes depends on how big a fan you are? We went through every exhibit, listened to every part of the audio tour (which is well worth it - very well done), even went back to areas we really wanted to take in. It took us about 4 hours. Reasonable people could do it in 2.5-3 for sure, maybe less. Travel to the studio is easy on a fast train from London, with an easy shuttle bus from the train station to the studio.

I've taken the daytime flight from Washington to London at least half a dozen times. I can't sleep on planes and it is my preferred flight. Taking the daytime flight eliminates the exhaustion from a night with no sleep. It does not eliminate jet lag, but I find I adjust more quickly.

I would recommend that you not plan anything too early in the morning. You will probably be at your hotel by 11 pm British Time. It will only be 6 pm Eastern Time. Even if you go to bed right away, you may not be able to fall asleep right away. I find that I am rarely able to fall asleep before 2 or 3 am the first night, so I generally play it by ear the first day and do things that don't require a rigid schedule. YMMV.

Might work. When you land in London at 8:30 pm, it will be 4:30 pm NB time. Get to your hotel and have dinner and it will likely be 8:30 pm your time. No different than Vancouver to St John.

After flying to England every year for the past 30 years from the US, last year was the first time I had taken a day time flight from Chicago to London on American and I loved it. We left Chicago around 9:00 am and got into Heathrow around 10:30 p.m. Heathrow was very quiet at that time of night and its was a breeze to get through Immigration. I would make sure you have a private driver ready for you at that time of night - rather than to get public transportation to your hotel. They are several companies available and easy to arrange. It will cost you, but the convenience for your mother will be worth it. There is no pretty village around the Harry Potter studio where you could just drop your mother off. There is a restaurant just inside the studio (before you have to show tickets) that she could wait in - but she may be waiting about three hours while you go through the studio. She might want to wait at the hotel - it really depends on where the Hotel is located and how she feels about traveling around by herself. If she had a bad episode of jet lag last time, she may want to take it easy the first day and let you guys do the Harry Potter thing.

I switched to daytime flights awhile back and think it is one of the best travel decisions I've ever made. I've never had jet lag ever since.

I usually fly JFK-LHR on BA 178. Leaves at 7:55 AM. Arrives 7:45 PM. With Registered Traveler I'm usually at my hotel no later than 9:00/9:15 and that's taking the tube.

To make it even more relaxing, I stay at an airport hotel near JFK the night before and take the hotel shuttle about 10 minutes to the terminal.

I'll be on that flight next month.

Thank you all for the advice. Sounds like this might work. We will be staying in a hotel near Heathrow and will have a car so we plan or driving my mom to a nearby town if she feels like it. I was given a few suggestions on another thread. After all this we head towards Bath and 21 day driving trip where we end with a week in a London flat.

I would allow yourselves at least three hours for the Harry Potter tour, and 4+ hours would be even better. You may not need all four hours but it's nice to not have to rush and to be able to see everything you want to see. When I researched the tour, it appeared that visitors spent anywhere from three hours to nine hours there. We spent three hours and could have easily spent another hour or two but we had to go to the airport.

I take the day flight from Boston to London on 95% of my trips to Europe. I allow for a little sleep in time in the morning, as one poster said, you will not fall asleep at 10:00 British time, but you can just relax, etc. Later this month I will arrive at ap. 20:00, sleep at the Sofitel at Terminal 5, and catch my next flight out the following day at noontime. It's wonderful and sure beats staying up all night.

I know BA runs one daytime flight a day from BOS-LHR. I've looked for other options but haven't found any yet.

Anyone know other airlines running daytime to London or European airports from Boston?
If not Boston, which airlines leave from JFK or Newark? Those are sort of viable options if we want the daytime flight badly enough.

I can't sleep on planes, so daytime flights are it for me.

A few weeks before departure I begin to wake progressively earlier in the morning. On flight day, I'm up pretty early. There's no panic rush to get to the airport. After clearing the airport after arrival I'll typically have been awake for about 16 hours. Falling asleep at the hotel isn't difficult.

I can never sleep on planes. I hate flying. Getting to UK or Asia is a 10-12 hour flight for me (from LAX). I just leave at night time (5pm or later) then arrive either afternoon (in Europe/UK) or morning (in Asia). I then plan on just having one icky exhaustion fueled afternoon or day (depending where I'm landing) then crashing that night and sleeping for about 9 hours. I'm usually tired the next day but can handle doing things.

I have this very weird sensation when I fly of still being on the plane for up to 3 days later- like it does something odd with my equilibrium or something. I feel like I am still in motion. I have odd-ball jet lag. I usually can suppress excessive tiredness by matching it with excessive levels of caffeine until its actual "bed time" in the country I am in.

The Harry Potter Studio tour will take you probably the whole day. Make sure you purchase tickets about 3 months in advance. It takes a good 45-60min cab ride from downtown London to get to Waterford where the studio is- or a 1.5 hour train/bus fiasco. You can book a cab from an external company to get there like uk minicabs/ 12 transfers etc or whatever suits your fancy- but don't book it through warner brother's site- they are a major rip off.- you could probably rent a cab for a whole day for the same cost. The tour experience takes most people 2.5-3 hours.

A friend of mine was just telling me how much she likes to take the daytime flight here from New York. She gets a good night's sleep before the flight and then goes to bed when they get here. Next day, she's ready to "get up and go."

The Harry Potter Studio tour will take you probably the whole day. ... It takes a good 45-60min cab ride from downtown London to get to Waterford where the studio is- or a 1.5 hour train/bus fiasco.

Can I just give a local take on this?

Waterford is in Ireland, Watford Junction is the station with the bus to the studios. The train from Euston Station (unless you get on the wrong one) only takes about 20 minutes, the Knightbus bus stop is right outside the entrance to the station and it only takes a few minutes. If it took one and a half hours something is wrong.

By cab it is only 20 miles and although the cab can never reach the 110 mph the train reaches it would be unlikely to take an hour, unless something is wrong. The cab can travel at 70 mph on most of the route, the M1 motorway.

Please refer to my detailed answer about trains to the studios in a previous thread, third answer from the bottom, at https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/london-in-4-days-is-harry-potter-studio-tour-worth-the-time

Motorgirl - we are flying to London in August. Found an early morning flight out of Montreal on Air Canada (I think BA flies out of Montreal too). Not only are there day flights, but they are significantly cheaper than flying out of Boston. Have a fun trip

Sam, hello from Halifax (NS!).

I think we have similar initial itineraries, which is what caught my eye. Are you driving to the studios and then going on directly from there? (Maybe not if your mom has the option to wait at the hotel...) We are taking a red-eye flight and spending our first day at Hampton Court--one self-contained attraction, with a hotel nearby. Then we get up the next morning, check out of the hotel, and drive to the studio. After that we are driving directly on to the Cotswolds to spend several nights there, and finishing our trip in London.

I've seen lots of people say 2 or 3 hours for the average person. That's not us, though and I expect we'll spend at least 4 hrs. Did you see there's going to be a new "Forbidden Forest" exhibit opening at the studios this spring? We are very excited!

We flew directly to Calgary last summer, then quickly on to BC, so similar time change in the opposite direction. We arrived in Calgary early evening, and took about an hour to "settle" at the hotel and be ready for sleep, but the next day we did ok. But I think going west is easier than going east. We are taking a red-eye from here via St. John's this time--St. John's to London is only 4 hours, so not much time to sleep. I am hoping that anticipation and adrenaline will get us through Hampton Court!

Not sure when you are going, but you have been advised to book the tour time early, right? We booked for a Monday in late June, and I see that availability for that day is already getting spotty.

Hello, we are now thinking that we might have to fly overnight with WestJet ( much better rates with our points) here from Moncton. We are going mid October. We will take your advice and book tickets to Harry Potter asap.....I'm thinking of not going with hubby and go with my mom. Hubby is much more of a fan than I am.

We have flown to London in the daytime from NY and Boston several times. It is a short flight from Boston, 6.5 hrs. We never have any jet lag the next day which is a huge plus.