What do do after landing with jetlag and kids?

Is your flight direct or do you have to change planes in the east coast somewhere?

In general, sleep on the plane as much as possible. Use earplugs/eye masks or whatever you need to be comfortable. Put your mind on London time as soon as you leave - a chunk of jet lag is mental.

Once you land you will probably want to drop off your bags at the hotel but then spend as much time as possible outside. Walk, find a park or cafe with outdoor seating. You won’t be alert enough for museums or major sights.

Luckily you will get in to town around 4-5PM. So really all you have to do is keep yourself awake until 8/9PM then you can sleep for the night. And getting dinner is in there - find somewhere casual but lively. A quiet, formal dinner could put you to sleep!

Make yourself wake up at a normal time the next morning, and you should be in good shape. You might be tempted to sleep in very late the next morning. Don’t. Wake up at something resembling the time you want to get up every day.

Everyone has a different strategy, but in this mine would be: lots of sunlight, no napping until bedtime, low-stakes activities, normal rise the next day.

Lots of sunlight -- light has an influence on your body's internal clock, via melatonin. I realize London isn't always sunny, but if it cooperates you should spend time outdoors!

No napping -- your arrival is relatively late in the day so this probably won't be as much of a concern, but strive for a relatively "normal" bedtime, say 9 pm or so. If you nap for hours immediately upon arriving at the hotel you may have trouble falling asleep that night.

Low stakes -- don't do anything that is a "once in a lifetime" or expensive paid tour or anything like that. You'll be in a bit of a haze so don't do anything where you want to be 100% present for the experience. I like running "errands" on the first day (pick up SIM card, maps if going on a road trip, any needed supplies) that I've mapped out on the first day since then I can be on autopilot, knock out all those tasks, and spend time outdoors moving from place to place.

Normal wake-up time -- you might want to sleep in until very late the next day; don't. If you can manage a relatively normal wake-up time it will help you immensely.

If you land at 2:00 PM, it will probably be 5 to 6 PM before you get to your hotel. Passport control at that time of day is backed up, at times it can be 45 minutes to over an hour. Lots of US flights landing at that time. LHR to Clapham is over an hour depending on your mode of transportation. Plan on going to your hotel, taking a walk in the area, light dinner and crash. I would not plan doing anything major. Probably we can give you more insight depending on what hotel you are staying at and how you are getting there from LHR.

Looking at Google Maps the train/bus we will need to take to get to the hotel in Clapham will be about 45 minutes. I am guessing we will need about 45-60 minutes to get off the plane and clear immigration/customs and find the train. So yeah, by the time we get to the hotel it will be about 4:00 PM, none of us are good at napping anyways so no worries there. We will need to eat dinner somewhere (no clue where yet) so maybe we are at 5-6 PM by then?

I'm tempted to try to go into London but it is a little ways off from Clapham so it might be a better decision to just stick around there and maybe find something local to do.

How old are the kids? If young, I would just head to a park near the hotel where they can blow off some steam and get that sunshine recommended. Young kids will have slept on the plane so will need some exercise after being cooped up for hours on end. If older, well they will most likely also have slept, but it might be harder to get them to stick to the great outdoors...unless it is in some funky neighbourhood they might be interested in. In that case, a 'free' walking tour might be the way to go.

All good tips.......
I was trying to figure out how long you would actually be "Up" if you didn't sleep on the flight and stayed up until 9 or so that night.
Your "apparent" traveling time is 18 hours and 30 Minutes if it's non stop.

Total Actual travel time is about 10.5 hours.

If you crashed at 9 that night it will feel like you have a 25.5 hour day under your belt.
I always take a 2 hour nap when I get there, BUT that is early morning usually London time.
I would listen to them and stay up another 7 hours and then get some sleep. You will actually only be on a 17.5 hour day (only!!). Just gotta hang tough really, after the first day you'll be OK.
Don't make any big plans like they said above, just chill, get some sun, look around, stay up and begin the journey on day 2!

I take that exact flight to London. Even after years of overnight flights I still only manage about 3 hours of sleep.

There will be a lengthy walk from the Terminal to the immigration so legs will get stretched which is a plus because standing in the immigration lines can be frustrating.

You’ll then have lengthy transport to Clapham.

My suggestion is this, get settled at your accommodation, unpack and then with kids in tow explore your neighborhood. Find the closet bank ATM to withdraw your pounds, the closet market to get bottled water and snacks and a pub or cafe or restaurant for a meal. Walk around some more and then get some sleep. You’ll all be better for it for the remainder of your trip.

Kids are 11 and 13, knowing them the younger one will sleep fine on the plane and the other will not at all or get very little sleep but who knows. I'm not sure about me, I'll be praying I can sleep, would be nice to get sleep and feel like a shorter plane flight. Any suggestions for dinner around the Premier Inn Clapham would be appreciated.

I prepare by staying up later at night for the few nights previous to leaving.
When we arrive, we try to get to our rooms mid afternoon. Then we take a couple of hour hap and go out for a light dinner in the neighborhood where we're staying.
When we wake up, we're ready to hit the tourist sights.

Google Maps shows the in-house restaurant (Thyme Bar and Grill), the Corum Restaurant a block north on Queenstown Road (one review on Yelp), the Queens’ Arms pub, and an assortment of pizza, burger, tapas, and fast-food choices.

I like Emma's idea to hop a 77 bus to Waterloo. A fair few things there and nearby, and leg stretching opportunities.

A double decker bus, should be able to find seats upstairs (might be a bit crowded on the return if in rush hour) and a view of the London Eye on arrival in Waterloo.

I have two kids and we have lived overseas their entire lives, so travelling internationally is routine for us.

Assume you all will not sleep in the plane. Consider yourselves lucky if you do. Any sleep you get will be brief short intervals. Combine this lack of sleep with the idea that you will be landing when you body thinks it's midnight. So imagine taking a nap at dinnertime, waking up at 11 or 12 pm and then staying up all night and then all the next day. That is what this will feel like. In addition, rule of thumb is that it will take you one day for each hour's difference in time to normalize. In preparing for travel from the US to Europe, we start to wake our kids up earlier and get them to bed earlier in advance of the trip. Once in Europe, we allow them to stay up much later and sleep much later. In other words, do not plan anything in the mornings on the first few days. Fortunately, you are also on vacation, so sleeping in and staying up late isn't really a big deal. Helps with adjusting when returning as well.

On the day of arrival in Europe, we usually let our kids just sleep if they want to sleep. My husband and I are tired, the kids are exhausted and dragging them around like zombies is just not fun at all. We try to get back to normal the next day. With all the germs around you while flying, it is also a good idea to get some sleep upon arrival to ward off any colds, etc. We do, however, try to get out in the sun for an hour or so on the day of arrival at some point, but that doesn't always work out.

Expect that you'll need sleep and be pleasantly surprised if your family has energy.

We used to fly frequently to Europe and agree with Emily. The adults will be tired and a bit grumpy themselves, and adding kids to the mix is just not worth forcing them to stay up and/or see tourist sites in that state of mind.

Since you are arriving about 2 PM, and probably get to your hotel to check in about 4 you should plan on dining about 6 and after dinner plan to have a nice long sleep until the next morning. You might have a couple of hours to check out the area around your hotel. I think staying awake (not napping) until after dinner works best.

When we fly into London or Europe from the East coast, we usually arrive in the early morning and rent our car and get on the road to our first destination, usually about two hours away. It probably isn't the right idea for everyone, but I am always so pumped up about the trip that I am not sleepy.

When we fly long haul now it's either business or first and even then, with the benefit of a bed and full use of the bar I don't get that much sleep, usually because of turbulence which absolutely cripples me. As for trying to sleep in economy, forget it. My kids can do it (11 and 14) and I've seen others do it but I find it impossible.

It's commonly accepted that jetlag is experienced worse going east than west and in my experience of flying to the US every year over the last decade I find it to be the case. Usually we'll land mid to late afternoon in the US, we'll have a hotel booked close to the airport for the first night so typically make use of the pool, have dinner at our usual time and settle down in the hotel to unwind before finally giving in to the tiredness. Invariably we'll wake up at around 4 am and just twiddle our thumbs waiting for places to open. After breakfast we'll pick up the rental car and set off for our destination. I find it takes another day or two to get adjusted.

The return home however is worse. I'll get the same lack of sleep on the plane, typically land early morning and invariably nod off in the taxi home. That first day is a real struggle not least because we're back at home and the chores of unpacking, laundry, grocery shopping are what awaits us rather than the excitement of being in a new city and all the sights to see. I don't think I've ever managed not to fall asleep at some point in the afternoon on that first day back and the average time for me to fully get over the effects of jetlag coming back is about a week.

I previously read about melatonin being useful as an aid to combat jetlag. For some reason it's prescription only in the UK but I found it on the dietary supplements shelf of Walmart when I was in Florida last year so I bought a couple of bottles. I find it effective in being able to realign my sleeping pattern. Within 20 minutes of taking one I'm usually asleep. Repeat this one or two days in succession and I've found I'm back to normal.

Are you getting the impression that you might not be 100% fresh and energetic the day you arrive? ;-)

I'm with those who say get to Clapham and stick to the neighborhood of your hotel that first afternoon. Ask the hotel clerk to recommend options for dinner. Emma and Nigel are usually spot on but it seems like the bus to Waterloo would be too much on that first day. It might be a good way to introduce yourselves to London the next morning, after that good night's sleep you'll so well deserve.

Unisom (doxilamine succinate) is my sleep aid of choice for that first night after arrival. Melatonin is helpful for getting to sleep (might help on the plane), but staying asleep all night is the problem after arriving. The next day I'm pretty much good to go.

Often times when I land in Paris, London or Frankfurt in the morning after the 10-11 hr nonstop flight from SFO, there is no sunlight, either in the morning or all day. I can count on sleeping on the plane, no doubt about that, ....so get as much sleep as possible, the more the better, obviously.

I wait one or two hours after getting out of the airport to have a hot lunch, eg, land ca 10-11 am, by 12:30 to 13:00 is the hot lunch.

On flying with a child: I did that once with my 4 year old grandson in June of 2005 on the Air France flight from SFO to Paris, arrived as usual by 11 am or so. He was fine, slept also on the plane.

As soon as you get there, check in, then get you and the kids outside! Get yourselves some coffee and get the kids some ice cream and head to a park where they can play. There are playgrounds in Battersea Park and another one called Lavender Gardens. Grab dinner early, head to your hotel, and go to bed around 7-8. Sleep through the night and then you'll be fairly good for the next day. When you start to fade in the late afternoon of your first full day, more coffee and ice cream :) eat, go to bed early, and the next day you'll be good to go for the rest of your trip!