What Helps Me With Jet Lag After 200+ Flights

Travel

After 25 years and 200+ flights, I've learned to make a few choices around arrival that make the transition easier.

Did I resolve my jet lag?
It depends.

But one of my superpowers is pattern recognition. After investing a ton of self-observation and plenty of flights, I am now on a good track to resolving it.

Here are some of the things I’ve found that help so far…

CHOOSE THE FLIGHT ACCORDING TO WHEN IT ARRIVES

I arrive in Havana. It is late afternoon. Check-in at the hotel is smooth. They already know me. It feels like coming home.

I drop off my heavy suitcases in my room, take a quick shower and leave immediately.
I have dinner. Protein-rich and not a slow meal.

Then I meet friends. This is part of my arrival.
And they already know it. We will walk.
Down the Malecón avenue and into town.

It is usually a long-distance walk.
Depending on their time, a walk can last more than 1.5 hours.

It is my way of arriving and my way of letting my body finally ease into a new climate, environment and time zone.
As well as an important friend update.
(And, yes — I have friends who love walking as much as I do.)

The walk doesn’t need to be super long, even though I prefer it to be.

I always try to choose flights that arrive in the late afternoon. The perfect arrival time for me is 4–5 PM. I can't do arrivals in the morning, when your already exhausted body still has the whole day ahead of it.

So for me it needs to be:

Arrival in the afternoon, departure in the evening and arrival in Europe the next morning.
I sleep all 9 hours on the flight and I barely feel the 9 hours in the air.

SOLVING JET LAG

My jet lag has depended on the following:

how tired I am when I leave home,
how much I slept on the way,
the full moon,
my menstrual cycle,
temperature changes

Do you see a pattern? Me neither!

I haven’t discovered how to control jet lag.

But after all this observation, I have discovered a few things that help me.

Here is another significantly small detail.

EAT LUNCH AT LOCAL TIME

It is midday local time in Marrakech. Lunchtime.

We have lunch scheduled for this time, but nobody is hungry.

No wonder. Back home, local time is not even 6 AM yet.

Just the thought of it makes our stomachs cringe.

But we eat.

And once we start eating…
The body loves it.

Eating at local time helps our body understand what time it is now.

Lunch is one such small adjustment that we all have control over.

If you are interested in more detail about my combat with jet lag, follow our Socials. I post advice and insights into how I travel and how our tours feel there daily.

If you would like to receive the friendly Letter I send out every week, I invite you to subscribe via the Join the Letters form in the footer of the website.

See you around… and in the meantime:

Do you have any interesting, unusual or useful travel rituals? Please reply and tell me. I would love to test them myself. And perhaps one day pass them on to someone else who needs them. Thank you.

⚜️ With Elegant Cultural Tours we are guiding you across travel rituals

Alja