Now Arriving: Exhausted Travelers
Saves us a night in a hotel and a day of paid vacation time at work
Lets us jump right into vacation on the morning of day one
Will get us to our final destination earlier
If we push through it will help us adjust to the time change
All of these points are technically true, and sometimes it just cannot be reasonably avoided. I'm here to tell you though, that planning to start your vacation fresh off from an overnight flight (perhaps unless you have had the luxury of lie flat business class) is an inherently bad idea!
I've never been successful with catching some much needed sleep on an overnight flight. When I flew them for work, I chalked it up the the subconscious hyper alert state that often possesses a woman traveling alone. I could catch a light 20 minute nap on occasion, but not the kind of sleep necessary to sustain a full day of activity with some level of mental acuity. Fortunately, when I was a business traveler, these tougher flight times ended with me in my own bed for a solid 8 hours or more followed by a routine day on my home turf. The first time I flew overnight with my husband was on a return trip from Las Vegas; so again, the associated fatigue was tempered by a return to the familiar and a crash landing into my own bed. I believe those circumstances skewed my perspective on overnight flight arrivals for leisure purposes.
The first time an early morning flight itinerary threatened our good time was during our 2016 Iceland trip. We departed Boston, on the now defunct WOW Air, at 7 pm EST. Being close to our usual bedtime, we thought for sure that some Benadryl would help ease us into a restful few hours of slumber. Wrong. While we were not interrupted by cabin service on our no-frills flight, the full cabin lights were left on the entire time! Apparently discount carrier translates to make the passengers as uncomfortable as possible...
By the time we arrived in Iceland, at 4:30 am local time (12:30 am EST), we had already been awake for over 18 hours. Still, we picked up our rental car and headed off into the rainy, predawn unknown grateful that Iceland also drives on the right hand side of the road and favors easy to read road signs. By 6 am we were one of a handful of cars in an otherwise empty parking lot waiting for the 9am opening of the Blue Lagoon. The plan was to "sleep" in the car while we waited but weather was not on our side. Gale force winds and driving rain are not exaggerations. The car literally rocked as the wind howled around us. We bundled in our warmest layers, used our beach towels as blankets and still shivered in our seats. No one was happy. Fortunately, the mystical look and feel of the Blue Lagoon during a storm melted away the body aches of cramped quarters and made us forget that we were approaching the 24 hour mark with no meaningful sleep. Somehow we zombie walked through a whale exhibit, found a grocery store and were blessed with the good fortune of an early check in at our hotel. By that time, we were effectively non-verbal and barely standing. Blissfully hot showers were taken, alarms were set, blackout curtains were drawn, and the three of us collapsed for a 5 hour nap before our dinner reservation. We had been awake for almost 30 hours.
I do not recommend it. When we returned the car to the airport at the end of the week I noticed a convenient airport hotel and remember thinking, "that would have been well worth another couple of hundred dollars for a few good hours of sleep when we got here..."
Yet, in 2018, Adam and I somehow forgot the misery and the idea of booking an airport hotel for a post flight crash before venturing out into a foreign lands. This time we flew TAP Portugal. The inflight experience was far better, but still was not enough to save us from the effects of a 6:30 pm EST departure and a 5:45 am local time arrival (12:45 am EST). On the positive side, a pre-dawn arrival made for a quick, low traffic exit from the airport and greater Lisbon area. By daybreak we were well into the countryside. We had originally planned to break up the 2.5 hour drive to our hotel with a stop and stroll through historic walled town of Evora. Flight fatigue crimped our motivation though and we drove straight through arriving at our gorgeous hotel by 10 am - now awake 24 hours.
No luck. Nothing was set to open for at least another 45 minutes. Though it was beautifully strange to walk the deserted stone streets in near silence, but soon we found ourselves in familiar territory. Back in the car. Trying to take a nap. At least in Portugal we were not freezing. It is amazing that with our clumsy exhaustion neither of us rolled an ankle, or worse, while plodding along the ramparts taking scenic photos. Our restaurant chose us by virtue of being open first. Even though we nearly fell asleep in our plates, we both remember that the food was fantastic.
With these two experiences under our belts, I am in hopes of the proverbial "third time's a charm." We are planning to take the boys to the Azores in June 2020 to celebrate graduations. This means another overnight flight from Boston with a very early morning arrival at our destination. the hotels and homes that we are considering all have check in times between 3-4 pm. This time, I am all to willing to sacrifice a few hundred dollars for our sanity! We will be booking our accommodations to begin the day BEFORE we actually arrive so that we can check in as soon as we land, have a solid rest and start our adventures fresh the next day.
