ItaliaBound

I'll be flying to Italy from the midwest and am debating on what time of day to fly out. I have no troubles sleeping on planes. I just want to avoid being tired and out of sorts as much as possible. Want to "hit the ground running" upon arrival. Also... how long did it take you to get back to normal upon return?

AAFrequentFlyer

I may be wrong, but I don't think there are any day flights from US to Italy. The only day flights available are between some US cities and London.

So that really does not leave you any choices. It's just a matter of how early in the morning you want to arrive in Italy and pick the appropriate overnight flight.

If you want to do the day flight from Chicago to London, the chances are you would have to overnight there before continuing to your final destination in Italy, as the flights get in late to London.

ira

Hi IB,

>Want to "hit the ground running" upon arrival.<

Take an early evening plane. You arrive in Italy in AM.

You keep walking until you fall asleep about 10:00 PM.

You wake up adjusted to the new time.

suze

If you can sleep on a plane, I'd definitely take an overnight flight to arrive in the morning.

It takes me about 5-7 days to get back to normal, but I have an exceptionally difficult problem with time changes and jet lag.

lvitaly

For me, i took an overnight flight
( left at 10pm) arrive in Germany for a two or so hour layover and arrived it Italy around 9:30 pm or so.
By the time i arrived at the Apt. it was close to 11:30pm. Got settled in and managed to fall asleep after sleeping a bit on the plane. I never payed attention to what "real" time i was on.Slept 7 hours woke up and felt wonderfull. I never had an ounce of jet lag.
So, for me i will always fly out as late as possible. Upon arrival at home give your self a few days.

SAnParis

I'm w/AA, I don't think you have many options. I always try to leave as late as posssible. Arrive, get settled, have some lunch, a short nap & I'm then on the proper time zone. I never seem to make it all the way until 10pm or so but as long as the nap is a quicky (less than an hour) it really seems to help.

vanman628

ItaliaBound:

I always say, take the earliest possible flight out. Delays and other glitches that the airlines create can completely ruin the start of your vacation. So make sure you get to the departure point of the leg to Italy, in plenty of time!

A few years ago, my wife and I were going to London to visit my daughter & family. Our flight out of Orlando was delayed and we missed our connecting flight to Detroit (departure point to London.) Northwest personnel said, "Why don't you just go tomorrow?" We told them we were meeting our children in London. They said,"How old are they?"
Go figure! I now call them "Northworst"!

I swore then, I would never wait until later in the day to start a trip.

Van

Poohgirl

Hi Van:
Those of us in Minnesota have been calling Northwest "Northworst" for years!!! Unfortunately, we're stuck with them as our major carrier. But then, to be fair, I'm not aware of any airline that's particularly customer friendly. Maybe others have had different experiences, but not me.

jules4je7

As most have posted here, most are overnight flights anyway. I'd recommend British Airways...they fly on 777s, you'll connect through London, and the service can't be beat. They fed us dinner, watched a movie, free drinks, then it was "lights out"...they woke us up in time to serve breakfast and we felt like we'd at least had some sleep. We landed in London at about noon, and hit the ground running. We collapsed around 10 p.m., and by then we were on London time and we didn't really have any problems adjusting.

On the way back, I recommend taking one solid day to sleep it off. You'll get your 8 or 9 hours of lost time back but that part is what throws your body off...I slept for a full day then was a little out of sorts (but surely able to work) for a few days following.

Good luck, have fun.

Julie

Binkieloo

Just on the return and getting accoustommed. I was told it takes a day per hour difference for your body to completely get back. The suggestion of sleeping a lot of it off the first day back certainly helps me.

Katie2

We usually take an evening flight to Europe. We don't sleep well on planes even when we've been in Business Class. When we arrive at our hotel, we take a 2 hr. nap, have an early dinner and go to bed. The next day, we're fine. Coming back is another story. It usually takes me a week to re-adjust.

Underhill

Ditto the above post.

One thing to keep in mind: most flights from the U.S. arrive at European destinations early to mid morning, and usually you can't get into your hotel room until some time after noon. So the later you can fly in the evening, the closer you'll be to being able to check in at the hotel and have a room assigned.

cls2paris

Not sure where you are flying from in the midwest, but I prefer taking the 9:00 pm flight which is direct from MSP to AMS, from there to the final destination. I can usually sleep a little bit because it is a normal sleep time. Last year, I did this and arrived in Zurich at about 3:00. I was able to check into the hotel, do some exploring, eat dinner and go to sleep at about 9. I slept about 12 hours and was completely over jet lag. I find that when I arrive early in the morning, it takes me longer to adjust to the new local time. It usually takes me a little longer to recover when I come back home. Probably 2 -3 days. I try to schedule the flight so I get home in the evening and then I can just hit the sack right away.