Preferred time of arrival in Europe

H,mmm I would love the option to arrive in the evening.. I am tired when I arrive and by 9 at night I am struggling to stay away because of the time difference.. 9 pm in Paris is like 2 or 3 am on west coast.. so not sure why you had trouble sleeping !! Could have been a one time thing .

I would love to arrive mid afternoon. Rooms are ready to check in.. and you only have to force yourself to stay away for another 7-8 hours.

I have only seen flights from where I live that arrive early in am. I have up until then often been travelling for 20 hours.. a 12-13 hour flight time with a layover etc.. and I don't sleep well on planes.. so arriving at 7 am means I have to stay awake all day so that I can readjust my body clock by living on local time.

I like to arrive in the late morning or early afternoon. Even if I'm tired, I try to stay awake until 9pm or later. If I'm tired I'll take a short nap in the afternoon, then walk around some more and go to dinner before going to bed. If I go to bed around that time, then I wake up in the morning and I'm pretty much caught up to local time, and jet-lag doesn't bother me much.

To avoid jet lag here is what I do. First of all, I never sleep on planes. I want to be good and sleepy by the time I go to bed on my first night in Europe. I always plan my flight to arrive around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I leave the airport, get to my destination for the first night, eat an early dinner, and then go to bed fairly early, usually by 6 or 7. That way I beat the jet lag, get a really good night's sleep, and am ready to go the next day.
You are bound to feel disoriented that first afternoon. You haven't slept in a very long time and your body can't figure out why the sun is up when you should be in REM sleep! You just have to mentally prepare yourself and power through it. I think people are crazy who try to do things on that first day such as go to a show or try to see any sights at all. I guess there are some people who can do it but not me!
This arrival schedule has worked for me for many years and I swear by it.

Hi Sally,
Being from the west coast, it seems like we always end up arriving in the a.m. Our direct flight options ended up arriving in the a.m.and anything with a layover seems to end up that way as well. We usually only manage some form of twilight sleep on the plane and then just stay awake until 9 p.m. You pose an interesting question - it would be interesting to check what the front end of a trip would look like to get an afternoon or evening arrival. I guess we've gotten so used to our routine we stick with it.

We typically now arrive early afternoon, and that works well for us - stay up until bedtime and then get a good night's sleep. We try to walk a lot on the afternoon we arrive. Have learned that's not the day to do anything where we're sitting and having to concentrate. On one of our very first trips to Europe, we arrived at Heathrow in the morning, took a short flight to Edinburgh, and then took a city bus tour. There were 4 of us. At one point I opened my eyes (after a little nap) and saw others with me sound asleep.

We prefer to arrive as early in the morning as possible, which these days means late morning most of the time. We do try and sleep on the plane, usually try to check in early and nap for an hour. Then we go to bed at a normal time. Generally we wake up in the middle of the night for a night or two, but usually the transition is pretty painless.

Usually, I find I arrive in Europe at around 7 AM, which is 11 PM Denver time, about my bedtime, so I don't fall asleep on the plane. This last trip, we arrived in Frankfurt at 1300, 5 AM in Denver, so I found I managed to sleep some on the plane, which was a help on the "day" I arrived.

On the other hand, I think it is helpful when you arrive in Europe, and walk around in the sunlight when your body thinks it is the middle of the night. Starts the adjustment process.

Sally,

i prefer to arrive as early as possible so i can use that day for my "get to know the place time" and to do some sight seeing.

Im usually tired when i arrive, but once i get out and start walking, im all ready to go.

happy trails.

I seem to only find options that arrive in Europe in the morning to around noon. I try to arrive as late in the morning as possible, and early afternoon is even better. I can't sleep at all on planes, and since there are no direct flights to Europe from my area, I always have a long day of travel. So I am really tired by the time I get there. I force myself to stay awake until 9pm the day I arrive, so I want a short time that first day to force myself to stay awake. I prefer to be able to check into the hotel soon after arrival and then my excitement at being there can get me through a few hours before it becomes a struggle to stay awake.

We always arrive early morning. I kind of love arriving early and having a whole day. Also fun to see a city waking up - one of our early trips our flight arrived AMS at 5:20, we jumped on a bus to Haarlem and got there as the Saturday market was setting up and it was neat seeing the town come alive.

Get anywhere early and get busy. Take a longer flight with horrible layovers if necessary. Save a hotel bill - - sleeping on planes and naps in airports are freebies.

Do it backwards heading home. An early departure lets you chug into the airport late at night, roll up and sleep there, and get gone - - the departure day is a waste for tring to see anything. Another hotel bill saved.

There are day time flights to England, and to Europe. American Airlines has a flight departing from the O'Hare airport of Chicago at approximately 9:00 A.M. It arrives at London Heathrow Airport at approximately 10:30 P.M. I went on that flight, twice. I liked it. I went in a shuttle bus (Hotel Hoppa) from the airport to a hotel that is near the Heathrow airport. And the next day I went in a train from the Heathrow airport to Paddington Railway station in London. An other airline has a day time flight to the CDG airport of Paris. I think it flies from New York City Kennedy airport (JFK). And British airways had day time flights to London Heathrow Airport from New York City Kennedy airport, and from the Dulles airport of Washington D.C. Those British airways flights to London might be scheduled in the summer months only. The day before my daytime flight from Chicago to London, I flew to Chicago, and I was in a hotel in Chicago the night before my flight to London.
When I flew across the Atlantic Ocean, from the U.S.A. to Europe, at night, I preferred to arrive at the destination airport in Europe at an early time in the morning, like before 8:00 A.M. My sleeping in the airplane was for less than 3 hours, therefore I needed to do more sleeping when I arrived at Europe. Some hotels located near a big airport in Europe let people check in to a room in the morning. A person could sleep for two hours in the morning, and be awake all afternoon, and go to sleep in a hotel that night. I did that at England, and Athens in Greece, and at Copenhagen in Denmark. The hotels near airports say check - in time starts at 3:00 P.M., but they can let guests do an "early check in".

I have always arrived in the early morning (leaving Chicago mid-evening). I like it that way because it gives me the whole flight day to get last minute things done and get to Chicago, and my first day in Europe is a full day, not a half. I generally just keep going until close to regular home bedtime and I'm fine the next day.

We've always arrived in the early morning, except once. Due to a medical emergency on the plane to Munich and an unplanned 4 hour layover in Ireland a few years back, we arrived in the early afternoon. I would never choose to arrive in the afternoon. I SO much like arriving around 6 or 7am and having a full day. Never have too much jet lag at all. I usually sleep an hour or two on the plane and once out of the airport, ready for the day. Normally we'll stay up to 9 or 10pm the first day and wake up earlier than normal the next morning. Since we usually fly into and out of Munich from NJ, we've consistently had flights that arrive around 7am and then we depart from Munich at 3:20pm and we're back in NJ around 6:30pm. Perfect R/T flights in my opinion. We actually plan our trips to make sure we have these flights. It's really nice to stay anywhere within 2 or so hours of the airport the "last night".

Flying east across the Atlantic from North America, I am more concerned about time of departure. Later is better for me. Taking off middle of the evening means that, after an hour or two for the preliminaries and the meal, I am closer to my usual nocturnal schedule and have a better chance of dozing off for a few hours.

I seem to have a different approach from most folks. I used to arrive in Europe morning or midday. My last four trips, I left San Francisco in the early evening and arrived at my destination around dinner time. This has worked well for me. By the time I get out of the airport and to my hotel, there's time for dinner and a quick walk around the neighborhood, and then it's bedtime. I never manage to sleep on planes, and I find that with this schedule, I have no problem sleeping when I arrive at my hotel. And I wake up feeling good the next morning.

Hi,

Since I am flying from Calif., I expect certain results: 1. the flight is ten hours or more, 2. direct (what I prefer). 3. the plane lands sometime between 0900 and 1100. local time, be it at CDG, London LHR or FRA. I've landed so many times in the morning that I've gotten used to it after sleeping most of the flight. Once, it was in the afternoon at LHR....unexpected result: a very long wait at Border Control ca. one hour. Landing in the morning at LHR, I never waited so long.

It's normally claimed that the hotel will not permit you to check-in until 3 pm. Not so, only in London have I found that rule to be consistently adhered to. You show at noon or so freshly/unfreshly arrived and are told to come back at three or later. That's London, not the same in France, Austria, or Germany. I show up at the Pension/hotel sometime between 0700 and 10:00, after a flight or night train, I can bet on being allowed to check in and go to the room unless it was occupied the night before.

@ Anita...I'll keep in mind your suggestion for beating jet lag, which mostly I don't get.

We have a long flight from the west coast, we like to go nonstop and arrive around 2:00-3:00. Typically we rent a car and drive a couple hours to our destination, check in, take a walk to get dinner and then go to bed. We sleep most of the night ( I tend to wake very early ) and we are off, and fairly jet lag free.

For us that is ideal, but this summer we will arrive at 10:45 with just a quick train ride to our destination, so we'll see how that is.

Annual Statement: Jet lag is like trolls and goblins - - you have to believe in any of them to be bothered by them.