Dealing with "Day One"

I do activities that are "low cerebral" in nature (as little sensory overload as possible) because I would rather be much more sharp when visiting a museum or attraction that I really care about (and there's a lot of reading and digesting the info type of work involved). I spend my time in a very low-key way like just strolling all day, taking in the lay of the land, and trying to drink and eat as regularly as possible to sustain energy. I definitely overload on espressos because I couldn't function otherwise. I do everything I can not to nap or sleep early unless I just can't help myself (that happens sometimes). I also avoid shopping of any kind when I'm not 100% "there" - anything that requires good decision-making abilities is best done after you've acclimated to the new place and gotten over the jetlag. I think of the first day as the day when I'm most vulnerable to all sorts of stupidities (getting ripped off, losing something valuable, making bad decisions, etc), so I do my best to minimize any damage by just keeping things as simple as possible.

Sometimes "Day Two" is as foggy as "Day One" so you may need to take it easy until you feel like you can ramp up. It really varies by person.

When there's a choice (and I know there isn't always), I try to get a flight that leaves as late in the evening as possible and gets to my destination later in the morning. This has two advantages: It's a lot easier to sleep on a flight that leaves at 10 PM than on one that leaves at 5 PM, and it makes "Day One" a lot shorter.

Other than that, I just do the best I can. I don't think there's any "quick fix" to jet lag. Don't plan anything too strenuous, but try to stay up and about at least until dinnertime - but if you can't do it and need a nap, go ahead and take one.

Try to get some sleep on the plane over. And one other tip is, if at all possible, try to get a direct flight from your gateway city to your destination city. When you arrive at your destination, get settled into your room at the hotel, then get outside in the fresh air and (hopefully) sunshine, and keep moving until dinner time. Have a nice dinner, get a good night's sleep, and your biological clock will be reset to European time. At least that's how it works for me, with the caveat that everyone's metabolism is unique and that they feel the effects of jet lag in different ways. I also will admit that, after the first day in Europe, I usually feel a little fatigued around 3:00 pm or so for a few days, but that's a good excuse for a coffee break. An example of our last trip to Berlin - arrive at Tegel Airport, cab to hotel, settle into room (hotel in Mitte), walk to Topography of Terror, walk to Checkpoint Charlie, lunch in a restaurant near Gendarmenmarkt, walk to Bernauerstrasse (Berlin Wall Memorial), then walk to a beer garden in Prenzlauer Berg. Cab back to hotel and lights out. I walk a lot at home and am >60.

I take 2 benadryl on the flight over and try and get as much sleep as possible on the plane. Once I land I try to be active, ie - walk around, until 8pm before I let myself go to sleep.

DJ

We normally land before 9am, do some easy sightseeing, walking around, etc. Go out to an early dinner, get to sleep around 8 or 9pm local time. Next morning were up early and feel fine. We normally feel pretty enthusiastic once we get out of the airport and realize we are in Germany.

Our flights from the west coast (at least the ones we typically book) come in later in the afternoon. We get a nap for about an hour, a shower and then head out walking around to get our bearings. We don't do more than explore our first day, but we don't get there at 8 am either.

Hi,

Dealing with "day one" ie, day of arrival is absolutely no problem. First, I don't have jet lag, certainly am not walking around in a daze or "brain dead" (that's impossible upon arrival), since I can count on sleeping on the plane. One of the reasons for choosing a flight apart from the price is also the time of arrival. It's best to arrive prior to noon local time. So, anytime from 0800 to noon (the latest) is fine. Getting through Immigration is faster, sometimes 10 mins, instead of standing in line and wasting 45 mins, which was my experience once at LHR because of an afternoon arrival. In Paris or FRA closer to 0800 is even better. London LHR is all right too in the early morning, since I know I can leave the luggage at the B&B without being allowed to check in until 1500, a little more inconvenient but still doable.

With or w/o the luggage in tow, the first real job is to relax, have a nice, unhurried, hot lunch at a train station or a restaurant nearby. In London I go to Paddington station, or Frankfurt Hbf. That first day I don't turn in until normal time. Likewise, with a night train when it arrives at 0600 or so, the same set of variables, depending.

Agnes' response is my mind-set exactly. I usually plan to arrive in Europe from San Francisco in the early to mid-afternoon, that way I can almost always get in my room and freshen up before heading out for some low-key exploration. Nothing major, and as long as I stay up until 8-9 pm I'm able to hit the ground running the next day.

I'll be arriving in Paris at 10:30 am on a Monday on my upcoming trip and since check-in isn't until 4 I have my doubts about getting into my room, so I'll be heading out to the Pompidou on the metro, and maybe hitting Notre Dame on the way back in the late afternoon. Conquering the metro and 1 museum will be a good start, and with so many museums closed on Monday it was that or the Louvre, definitely need more energy for that.

I'll relate two experiences that i have had. First is a trip to Venice. We left the US east coast around 6 PM, had a stop over and arrived at noon. We took a water taxi from the airport to our hotel. The trip took around 50 minutes. We were in the bright sunshine and breeze and were wide awake when we arrived at the hotel. We freshened up and went out to explore. We didn't have dinner until around 9 PM. We went to bed around 11 and were on Italian time the rest of the trip with no issues. The second trip was to Rome. We arrived around 10 AM, checked in and wandered Trastavere a bit until lunch time. We had lunch and returned to the apartment. We decided to rest for 30 minutes and that turned into about an hour and a half! We then ventured out and wandered around Rome, had dinner around 8 and turned in around 11. We were ready to roll the next day bright and early.

A whole discussion on jet lag.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/jet-lag-2afe73b2-d271-4592-b0fe-73bc32c2845c

Your arrival day is not Day One. It's Day Zero. I do not count it as part of my usable time in Europe. It's my day to just get acclimated, recover from geospatial displacement trauma, and get used to being on the other side of the world. I figure that I've just jumped to the other side of the earth, and that's not something to take lightly or pretend has no effect on me. It does.

I agree with those above who advocate putting more thought and planning into your flight details. Those who only shop based exclusively on price should not be surprised if other things suffer (a lot). I've taken that idea several steps further: if I'm going all the way to Europe (or Asia), which are flights from 10-14 hours long for me (US west coast) I now try to only fly business class. And not just any business class: one with a good lie-flat seat. And not from an east coast connection: I want a flight from my home (Seattle) or other west coast gateway non-stop all the way to Europe (if I have to connect, I will, but not from the midwest or east coast - because that makes the trans-Atlantic leg too short for a good stretch of sleep). For me, it's all about getting a decent bit of sleep on the way over, and after many tries, I've concluded that a flat, comfortable place to sleep at least a few hours without getting jostled is what I need. I know that's not an option for everyone, but it makes all the difference in the world to me and is well worth it. The difference is I now arrive rested, happy, with a big smile on my face and a spring in my step, and ready to hit the ground running (as opposed to arriving miserable, grumpy, exhausted, and physically sick, which is how I usually have been after prying myself out of a coach seat upon arrival in Europe). Essentially, that comfy seat "buys" me an extra day in Europe. My days in Europe are worth it to me, YMMV.

That said, my arrival day is still dedicated to being outside as much as the weather will allow, getting plenty of fresh air and some sun, staying active and walking around smiling. Check in and drop the bags if possible (if not, just drop the bags). Never, ever allow myself to "just take a short nap". Stay awake until a reasonable dinner time (slightly early is OK), have a light meal, then sleep deeply. The next day I'm on European time and it's all good from there.

Actually I think that taking a short nap <two hours - is critical to my adjustment. Have tried it both ways, and for us a short nap late PM 2-4, 3-5 makes all the difference.

I stay outside as long as possible. Once I actually went to a musical that night. Bad idea. The next trip, I started to feel exhausted at around 5 pm.

On my last two trips, I arrived at 1030 pm, so I went to my hotel and to bed and the next morning felt great! On my next trip, I'll be arriving in the a.m., so who knows what will happen?

My tactics for dealing with arrival day are somewhat a "work in progress" and I fine tune these a bit every time. Although my flights typically arrive in the morning, it's usually early afternoon by the time I get to the hotel and get checked-in, and I've found that I often need a short power nap in order to keep going until bedtime in the new time zone. I usually do a bit of exploration and get a meal before the nap, but that depends on how I feel at the time.

I am so excited just to be on vacation in Europe, that I couldn't sleep even if I wanted to.

I fly to Europe from the west coast USA. You could knock me out with a sledgehammer and I would not sleep.. For me, I always try and arrive around 3 PM. That way I don't have much time to force myself to stay awake.
I flew to Europe once arriving at 7:30 AM...never did that again! I don't do jetlag well! I don't sleep on planes, ever!

Everyone is different. Take a daytime flight if possible (rare few go to London from the U.S.) or pray your room is ready early. The last time I flew over I got into CDG at 5:30am. Awful--I was physically nauseous by the time I got the hotel. Fortunately I could get into my room. I slept for four hours then went outside and got something to eat.

Do what you need to do and listen to your body. If you feel good, great. But if you don't--don't beat yourself up for not feeling like Merry Sunshine. Also, your adrenaline may still be running as you're processing entry, figuring out transportation, and getting your luggage, but once you reach your hotel, the s*** may hit the fan. Good luck! Have fun!

Just by necessity I did do the "power" nap around 2PM after about a 9 AM hotel arrival and some sightseeing - was just too tired. But that 2 hour nap "bought" me another few hours, so I could go eat dinner around 6 PM and then go to bed around 8 or 9 PM, and then I was right on track with local time. The catch is to set an alarm and don't accidentally sleep into the evening hours.

I was about to say - the likelihood of arriving at your hotel at 8 am is probably not very great. Take a flight that comes into Paris at 06h55. IF it arrives on time, you can count on about one hour to disembark from the plane, make it to the line for immigration control, get through there, get to baggage, pick up your baggage, and exit the controlled part of the airport. Then an hour to an hour-and-a-half into town if you're taking public transportation between finding your departure spot, waiting if you've just missed the prior bus, and traffic into town (can be shorter, obviously, but even in a taxi it's a good 45 minutes it seems).

Then you arrive in the center of town, and if you've not taken a taxi, you need to switch to metro or bus to your hotel destination. By now it's 10:00 or 10:30. But guess what! Your hotel room isn't ready (of course the previous night's residents haven't checked out yet!), so you leave your bags after checking in and head out in to the city.

My gues is that it's about 11 am or 11:30 before you're out on the street and looking for something to do . . .

And of course arriving as early as 7 am depends on what flight you've taken from the States. As many folks have pointed out here, it depends where your gateway flight is out of and what time. Can be quite a bit later.

I leave from Florida so there is only a five hour adjustment in time. Since my time in England is so precious, I deal with jetlag here in the States. I slowly move my body clock to where I am waking up at about 3am and going to bed at 8pm. It is basically getting up about 15mins to 30 mins earlier a day. I also do this with my pre-teen son. This adjustment starts about two weeks out. So for about a week before we leave, we are already on London time. Our nonstop flight leaves at 7:30 from Orlando and gets to London at about 8:30. (3:30am Orlando time). After we eat dinner on the flight, we sleep. We usually get about 6 hours of rest. We don't have any jetlag in London and usually last until about 10pm the first day.

For me, Day One is the day I arrive in Europe. When possible, I like to fly into a familiar city, so I know what to expect in terms of local transportation, ATM services, hotel location and availability for early check-in or luggage dropoff. I find this makes a big difference in starting the day, since I usually arrive between 7-10am.

I set my watch to the destination time as soon as I get on the plane. I try to sleep a little, but don't expect to - so any rest on the plane is a bonus.

I usually spend part of the first day running a few errands - getting my European phone updated and stocked with minutes, buying whatever toiletries I decided not to bring (full-size toothpaste, for example), getting money from a bancomat (Italy).

The first, and most important thing when I get off the plane, is to get a cup of coffee (that's why I always have some euro from the previous trip - coffee and transportation to my hotel).

I do what Joci does, but I'm on the west coast so the time adjustment isn't as easy. For about a week to 10 days ahead of departure, I work my way toward East Coast time (+3 hours). It's amazing what you can accomplish in the wee dark hours of the morning when you're excited about a trip! West coast flights usually get to Europe early to mid-day. I very rarely sleep well on the plane, but I try not to worry about it and just rest - put on eyeshades and not watch the entertainment (the light wakes you up). Whatever meal they serve on the plane closest to landing, I have a cup of coffee. Once I get to my hotel, I take a power nap (60 minutes or less) and then get outside and moving. I can usually make it to an early dinner (6 p.m.) and then I hit the wall. For me, I prescription sleep aid helps with that first night of sleep (I sleep worse when exhausted) and then I am just about adjusted to local time. I learned the hard way that you should not do any kind of indoor activity, a bus tour, or anything that would qualify as a bucket list item (you want to be able to remember it).

Coming from the west coast, I've arrived in Europe anywhere from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. I can't sleep on a plane. After arrival and check-in at the lodging, I'm walking and starting my European experience, even if it's late at night. Then, I crash around midnight, get up around 7 or 8, and start fulfilling my dreams. My wife and I don't have to deal with jet-lag, as we've never experienced it.

That time scenario outlined by Kim sounds very familiar to what I've experienced in Munich and Vienna arriving in the city on the night train between 0630-0900, still a very early arrival time, if not on a flight. You don't necessarily lose all that time until almost noon. Stay near the train station. True, if you get to the hotel at 0800 or earlier, there is the possibility your room is not available regardless of reason but that doesn't mean the hotel can't store the luggage, especially if it's a 3 star. Then you can have breakfast at the hotel. In Munich after arriving on the CNL night train, I went to a three star hotel nearby in the station, luggage in tow, told the receptionist I was not a guest at the hotel but could I buy a breakfast ticket. Yes, and the luggage could be stored behind the desk...worked out perfectly. I was at breakfast shortly after 0800.

With a transatlantic flight I don't calculate having a hot lunch at station like Frankfurt Hbf or Paddington until noon if I don't linger at the airport. Two time delaying factors are baggage claim and Immigration...a matter of luck finishing both quickly.

To me, CL really encapsulates a good point here, it's worth underlining:

I learned the hard way that you should not do any kind of indoor activity, a bus tour, or anything that would qualify as a bucket list item (you want to be able to remember it).

Excellent advice!

I'm envious of all you east coasters!

I've dealt with two different varieties of jet lag and my advice is to listen to your body. If you feel great, walk around outside. If you feel like a zombie, take a nap but don't sleep too long!

Sleeping on the plane seems to make a huge difference for me. My sister and I went to Europe in 2012, didn't sleep on the plane from D.C. to Paris, and were zombies by 10:00am. Luckily our hotel room was ready, but we made a big mistake by sleeping for four hours. We were less zombielike for the rest of the day and managed an evening walk, but were then wide awake at midnight.

In October last year, I flew from Chicago to Amsterdam and actually slept on the plane for a little while, probably no more than an hour, but it made all the difference. I felt pretty normal was but a little tired and wired at the same time if that makes sense. I walked around outside, came back to the hotel for a nap at 1:00 (I set my alarm and slept only an hour and a half), then went back out. I went to sleep that night at 10:00, then woke up at 3:00am and was awake until 5:00am. Then I woke up at 8:00am and felt totally normal, 100% on Amsterdam time.

So I would say to walk around outside as much as you can. Don't do anything where you would want to concentrate on something, like go to a museum or on a walking tour. Just stroll and look at the buildings and marvel that you're in Europe!

If you arrive in Europe at 8 AM, get out into the daylight, in the sun, and start convincing your body that it's really daytime.