Travelling by plane can be stressful, especially if you got long flights and connecting flights ahead. But there are things you can do to make your journey a better experience. I've written down my tipps and experiences, enjoy reading. x
1. Wear comfy clothes and remove all your makeup. Travelling itself can be quite uncomfortable (especially on long flights) so you want to make sure you're making up for that by wearing really comfy clothes. I usually wear leggings and a thick hoodie as I'm always feeling really cold on planes (maybe I'm the only one but I always feel the need to wrap at least 10 blankets around me haha.) Anyway, another thing that I always do is remove my makeup. I mean no one expects you to look great after sitting on the plane for 20 hours. Speaking of...
2. Bring an 'emergency makeup kit'. This is so useful if you still want to make a good appearance after leaving the plane. Just apply a bit of mascara, concealer and a bright red lipstick before landing and you'll look so much more awake. Another thing you can do is wear a hat and sunglasses (the latter only makes sense if you're travelling to a warm and sunny country of course). This is a great way to hide your tiredness.
3. Get a travel organiser. This is a lifesaver, trust me. I got mine from Typo and I absolutely love it. Before I got it I literally spent 5 minutes searching for my passport every time I had to take it out. I'm really glad that these times are over. Another thing I find quite useful is a luggage tag, especially if you have to take a closer look at every single black suitcase to decide whether it's yours or not. I actually thought my suitcase was quite unique (it has a bright red colour) until the man who stood in front of me at the check-in counter had the exact same (!) one. So why not make it easier to find your suitcase by getting a luggage tag (which is also practical if your suitcase gets lost).
4. Bring loads of entertainment. Sure, you got your own TV on long flights and probably some great movies on it but I still like to bring my own entertainment, especially if I fly twice within a short period of time (and don't feel like watching 'Frozen' or 'Up' for the 5th time). My favourite things to bring along are magazines, travel games, blank notebooks (I somehow get the best ideas for blogging while travelling), books (or ebooks, depending on how heavy my bag is haha) and books like 'Wreck this book' or the 'Pointless Book'. Another thing I always do is create two different playlists when flying overnight because I would honestly have trouble falling asleep listening to my favourite dance music.
5. Talking about hand luggage, try and reduce it to a minimum. My hand luggage essentials are my travel organiser, my iPad, my mobile Phone, magazines, a bit of makeup, an external battery, my camera, sunglasses, headphones and maybe some other kind of entertainment. If you got too much hand luggage, travelling will become a lot more stressful. On my last flight I had so much hand luggage that changing flights really stressed me out. So if you got space left in your suitcase (which I didn't, as I'm really bad at travelling lightly) then rather put things in your suitcase than in your hand luggage (except valuable things of course!).
6. Bring at least one extra bottle of water. Nothing worse than feeling really thirsty at night.
7. Inform yourself about the food menu in advance if you got special wishes. Sometimes you need to order vegetarian meals in advance.
8. As soon as you've booked your flight, inform yourself about your airline, especially when it comes to seat reservations. There are airlines that allow you to reserve your seats weeks before your actual flight (e.g. Emirates) and then there are airlines like British airways that only give you the opportunity to 'buy' your seats in advance. In that case I would definitely check-in exactly 24 hours prior to you flight so that you can still choose where to sit.
9. Buy cosmetic products that are designed for travelling. Or you can just buy empty bottles and fill a bit of shower gel/ conditioner/ shampoo into them - that way you can save at last a kilo if you have a lot of cosmetic products.
10. And the most important thing, relax. Listen to your favourite song, enjoy a glass of wine (if you're old enough), read a new book and tell yourself that everything is going to be okay. As long as your flight may be, eventually it will be over. And flying also has a positive side - you got a lot of time for yourself, you got a break from social media which can be very relaxing, you get to meet loads of interesting people and you can enjoy really good entertainment. So try to look at it as an opportunity to give yourself a break and tell yourself that you're going to reach your destination no matter how stressful the journey might be.
What have you learnt about travelling by plane? Leave a comment. x