DiG

We have to cut our trip from 14 to 10 days.
1st time visitors to these places.

Original plan: November 14 days
London-Normandy-Paris
1ON Flight to London
3N London
5N Normandy
4N Paris
1 Fly home

Revised plan: November 10 days
London & Paris (See Normandy next Spring)
4N London Fly BOS 900am-Arrive LHR 830pm
5N Paris
1 Fly Home

Thought process is that if we fly and arrive on the same day, we'll have 8 full days on ground to enjoy.

We've never done this. Thinking it will be difficult to sleep on plane since it's our day time, and then after arrival, our body will want to get some fresh air & exercise after the flight and we'll be up very late.

Anyone have any experiences with this type of trip?

flanneruk

I've never had a problem sleeping after a long eastbound daytime flight, and I alwats find these daytime transatlantic flights are a lot easier on the lag than the usual overnighters.

You have to get up at some insane time anyway to catch the flight, it's not difficult staying awake on the plane (I often find bringing some work keeps me alert enough to avoid the temptation to nod off) and getting from Heathrow to anywhere in town usually leaves most people pretty nackered.

Grab an Indian or something, and you should really be able to drop off round 2300. If you're worried about sleeping, do whatever you'd do normally (for me, an extra couple of glasses of red and a lot more stodge always does the trick)

MaggieOB

We did the same Boston-Heathrow flight a few years ago and it worked out great. As you guessed we didn't even try to sleep on the flight over---read, watched the movie etc. By the time we got to our hotel we were ready to go out. Went to a local place, had a light supper and a couple of glasses of wine and by then we were tired enough to go to bed. Slept great and were ready to head out first thing in the AM.

ira

Hi D,

We always take the night flight, arrive in the AM, stay awake until bedtime local time (walk around and just look), wake up in AM with no jet lag.

The problem with arriving in London at 8:30 PM local time is that it is only 3:00 PM body time.

If you normally go to sleep at 10:00 PM, that will be 03:00.

Patrick

I did the daytime flight from New York to LHR once. Yes, we had to get up insanely early and although my time clock should have been saying "hey it's only 6 PM when it was 11 PM there, we were getting pretty tired. So we went to bed about Midnight their time, and the next morning we were raring to go.

But there's another thought. If you flight is originating from Boston, a night flight leaves around 7 or so, doesn't it? So let's say you are working on Friday and you leave Friday night. If you're taking a daytime flight, you can't leave until early Saturday morning. In other words the night flight could enable you to be in London on Saturday, the day flight doesn't get you there until Saturday evening. In a sense you can get an EXTRA day of vacation by leaving on an actual work day in the evening. Of course, that theory goes out the window if you have to travel a distance to Boston to begin that evening flight.

DiG

Patrick, we're taking Friday off. Limo will pick us up at 6am and we'll arrive at airport (2) hrs before our 900am flight. Our arrival into London that evening will be 825pm. Only have carryon to deal with.
Usual sleep time is between 10-11 pm, so as Ira said, bedtime should seem normal, along with a glass of wine as others suggested.

We'd had already thought about your Friday idea & figured we'd be too wiped out to enjoy much of anything come Saturday. Also, really wanted a full day
in London with our trip being shortened.

Yes- have to get up insanely early that day (which we hate). Despise airline food! Hubby makes pepper & egg sandwiches,I make fresh fruit cups and we take them to eat at the airport.

rex

I totally agree with Patrick - - although it is not an option for me here in the midwest... it seems like flying by day is losing an extra day of vacation, but still having to pay for the hotel night. I would always prefer leaving at the "end of a day" (I wish I had the choice! leaving in the afternoon is pretty much our only choice, west of Pittsburgh) - - and getting the "free night's lodging" on the plane.

Best wishes,

Rex

Gavin

I have done the Toronto-LHR daytime flight half a dozen times and will again in October. To me it is a much more civilized way to travel than overnight. Yes it "costs" a day and there is no "free" night on the plane. It is a price I am willing to pay. I have never had trouble getting to sleep at a reasonable time on arrival in London and getting on local time.

Patrick

Interesting how we all react differently. Like REX I always yearned to do that daytime flight. Then we did one. It worked out fine, but now when it came time to book for next summer I had both options. After thinking about it, we decided to go back to a night flight. I think I'd rather have a little jet lag on arrival than to endure that getting up at 4 AM thing to get to JFK. In our case hotel wise doesn't make much difference as we'll be staying in New York prior to flying to Europe, so we'd have a hotel at either end anyway. Actually we do an apartment in London, and we'll have the keys so we can get in in the morning -- unlike the dreadful delay sometimes for a hotel.

MelJ

Although we live in the midwest, we pick up the transatlantic flight from the East coast. We've discussed doing the daytime flight, but I really like the quiet of a night flight. Even though I don't really sleep on the plane, I much prefer the dim lighting, clean bathrooms (because they aren't used as much) and quiet cabin over the bright artifical light, messy bathrooms, noisy people that you have on the day flight home.

cw

Dear DiG,

We took the day flight, BOS-LHR, last November for the first time and it worked out well.

Our flight was about an hour late landing so we probably checked into the hotel about 10:30. We thought we'd be hungry but weren't. Instead we went out for a long walk, came back to the room, slept through until morning and got up perfectly refreshed.

We would certainly do it again because it meant that we didn't have one moment of walking around feeling jet lagged.

cw

DiG

Our itinerary has changed & we're traveling in May 06 now.

Wanted to let you all know we have booked an overnight, non-stop, flight
BOS-CDG, RT on AA.

Bottom line: 1 night in plane saves on 1 night's lodging, and will add a day to our trip. Hopefully we'll nap and can drive out of CDG to Giverny 'bright eyed and bushy tail'

Thanks Patrick and Rex.