How to Avoid Jet Lag While Travelling: Real Tips That Actually Work

Jet lag used to be the part of travel I dreaded most. Not the packing. Not the long flights. The bone-deep exhaustion that hit on arrival... the kind that steals your first few days and makes everything feel foggy, flat, and harder than it should be.

As an Aussie, long-haul travel is just part of the deal. Whether I’m landing in Athens, Casablanca or Barcelona, it’s usually after 20+ hours of flying, multiple time zones, and some very questionable sleep.

But after years of long-haul travel, I’ve worked out how to avoid jet lag almost completely... without sleeping pills, gimmicks, or losing days of my trip. In this episode, I’m sharing the real-world habits that actually work, so you can arrive tired but functional… and start enjoying your trip from Day 1.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• How to start adjusting to your destination time zone while still in the air
• The simple in-flight habits that help reset your body clock
• Why meal times matter more than sleep on long-haul flights
• How to handle arrival day without crashing or losing momentum

Jet lag isn’t just about lack of sleep... it’s about timing, routine, and how quickly your body adapts to a new rhythm. In this episode, I break down the practical strategies I use on every long-haul trip to minimise jet lag and maximise energy on arrival.

Helpful Resources & Links

• Related Blog Post: How to Avoid Jet Lag While Travelling: Real Tips That Actually Work 

Connect & Explore

Find destination guides, travel planning resources and more at touristtotraveller.com, and follow along on Instagram @_touristtotraveller for behind-the-scenes planning and future travel inspiration. 

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Welcome to the Tourist to Traveller Podcast, the show that helps you go beyond the guidebook and turn your bucket list dreams into real adventures. I'm Tahnee, a travel blogger, podcaster, and everyday explorer who's been ticking off epic destinations for over 20 years while balancing a 9 to 5. Each week I'll bring you inspiring stories, destination deep dives, and practical tips to help you plan smarter, travel deeper, and capture those unforgettable moments along the way. So, grab your passport, pack your curiosity, and let's get started. If you've ever stepped off a long haul flight feeling foggy, flat and completely out of sync, like your body's landed, but your brain's still somewhere over the Indian Ocean, this episode is for you. I'm Australian and as Aussies, we don't really do short flights. Getting to Europe, the US, or Africa usually means 20 plus hours in the air, multiple flights, awkward arrival times, and jet lag that can wipe out the first few days of your trip. And honestly, I used to dread that part. But after years of long haul travel, I figured out how to avoid jet lag almost completely, without sleeping pills, without gimmicks, and without sacrificing days of my adventure. These days I arrive tired but functioning, and that makes all the difference. In this episode, I'm sharing the real-world habits that actually work, the mindset shifts I make in the air, the rituals I stick to, and what I do from the moment I land so I can start enjoying a place like Athens or Barcelona straight away, not on day four. So let's jump straight into my first jet lag hack, and that is to start adjusting your mindset in the air. From the moment the flight leaves, something that I do is I try and mentally put myself in the time zone of my destination. I've got my world clock open on my phone. I have set the time zone at my new destination and I try and adjust accordingly, regardless of what the time is on the ground when I'm leaving. So if my flight takes off at 10:30 in the morning, but in my destination it's 7 p.m., I'll try and start to get into mindset that it is 7 p.m. So what does that mean? When I look at the time zone in my destination, I will eat when I would normally eat according to those time zones. I would sleep when I normally sleep, and I expose myself to light when I normally would. So if it is daylight in my destination and it's daylight outside, I've probably got those blinds up so that I can start to, you know, see some sunlight. But when it's dark in my destination, the blinds are down so that I can start getting into the mindset of that time zone. And honestly, I think this hack is the number one tool that helps me to avoid jet lag. This ties in perfectly to hack number two, and that is to follow the caverns rhythm. Airlines have become really good at helping you to adjust to your destination, and they will actually set their meal times, turn the lights on, dim the lights down in line with your destination to help you adjust. So, yes, this is something that I do naturally on my own, but I also follow the cabin's rhythm. If the lights are going on, regardless of how deep my sleep is, I will force myself to stay awake. If they are serving food, I'm going to eat even if I'm not hungry. It's something that helps your body clock adjust so that when you land, you can hit the ground running. Okay, hack number three. This one is a little bit controversial, and well, it's probably not a hack really, but I'm going to bring it up anyways because it is a hot topic. And that is whether you should or should not drink alcohol on a flight. Most experts will recommend not drinking alcohol on a plane, and we know that alcohol can disrupt sleep. But for me, personally, I'm on holidays. If I want to drink, I'm grabbing a drink. And even though it might be disrupting my sleep, it means that I get to chill and relax and just get into the mindset of being on holidays. So, yes, I do drink on the plane. I'm really keen to know whether you drink on flights or not, and if you find that it impacts your sleep. For me, it probably does, but hey, I'm gonna do it anyways. Now, while we're on the topic of drinking, what about coffee? This is another controversial topic on flights. Should you drink the coffee? First of all, you've got the caffeine to think about. And yes, of course, caffeine is probably going to keep you awake on your flight. So when it is morning time in your destination, it might be a great time for a coffee. If it's evening and you should probably be getting to sleep, it might not be. There's no real right or wrong answer here, but one thing I'm very mindful of is all of the stories I've heard from flight attendants around the coffee. More specifically, the water. I have heard time and time again that flight attendants never drink the coffee on flights because of how disgusting the either the coffee pots are or where the water comes from. For me, I am hypersensitive to mold. And if there is a slight risk that there is mold in the uh in the water tanks, in the coffee pods, I am not touching that coffee. So unless I'm incredibly desperate, I'm not drinking coffee on the flight. Where this gets tricky because I'm Australian and I'm often on very long haul flights. Most coffee drinkers understand that if you go without for long enough, you get the good old coffee headaches or the coffee migraines. Essentially, it is a withdrawal from the caffeine in your coffee. And I think the last time I experienced this, I was flying from I was flying from Barcelona back to Australia, and we did have a stopover, luckily enough, in Qatar, and I refused to drink the coffee on the flight, so I had to get a coffee there, and it was probably the worst idea that I had. I think the cheapest coffee that I could find in the airport in Qatar was about $15 Australian dollars, which is just insane for a coffee. My coffee order, by the way, um before you start judging me, is nothing fancy. I just wanted an almond latte. That was it. A small one at that because my migraine was getting pretty bad, and I knew that all I needed was caffeine. This could easily go away. So uh I do drink alcohol on flights, but I do not drink the coffee. Hack number four, this one is sticking to your bedtime rituals, even when you're in the sky. When I'm on a long haul flight, I always will pack a bit of a sleep kit. So a couple of the things that I bring on the flight with me is I will always bring a toothbrush and a mini toothpaste. I will always have socks with me. And if I'm wearing makeup during the day, I'll usually bring a single-use makeup wipe or makeup remover. And then when it is time to go to sleep on my flight, I'll go through my standard bedtime ritual of washing my face, brushing my teeth, freshening up, um, and getting comfy by popping my socks on, wrapping myself in uh my blanket uh and any extra blankets that I can pinch on the flight because I'm always freezing on a long haul flight. Um so I can start to wind down and get ready for bed. So this does a couple of things for me. First of all, it just helps me to wind down and get in the mindset of sleep. I think it's more of a habit thing than anything else. And number two, I get to go to sleep feeling fresh and wake up feeling much fresher than I would have had I just nodded off. A lot of flights now will actually provide you with a little bit of a sleep kit, which I love. Sometimes they'll even be like uh an eye mask. They'll often give you socks, um, they'll give you a travel size, toothbrush, toothpaste. And this is also an economy, um, but you'll often get these in business class, first class. But regardless of the flight and regardless of the airline, I pack my own because I refuse to go to sleep, at least without brushing my teeth. So highly recommended stick to your bedtime rituals. I see people on flights take this even further by bringing things like uh uh I can't even remember what to call them, but they're kind of like moisturizing eye masks. They bring their whole skincare routine, they're bringing face masks, um they're doing a lot of things to help themselves relax while they're in the sky. And if that's you go nuts. For me, I'm very much um no frills. Uh, if I don't have to have it with me, I won't have it with me on the flight. I want to take onto that flight as little as I possibly can. But for me, toothbrush, toothpaste, socks are non-negotiables on a long haul flight. Next up, number five is do not nap on arrival. No matter how tired you are. I don't care if you haven't slept for 24 hours, for 36 hours, sometimes for 48 hours. When you arrive, when you land, if you get to a hotel and have a nap, it's game over for you. Jet lag has hit you, and you're probably gonna feel incredibly sleepy for the next couple of days. For me, if I nap on arrival, it absolutely wipes me out. I'll really struggle to wake up. It's thrown my rhythm out, and then I'm I'm really put out for the next couple of days. So don't nap on arrival. I've experienced this a couple of times recently. My most recent one was actually a work trip over to the US where we got stranded in the airport in Dallas, Texas, due to a snowstorm. And by the time I arrived at our destination in the US, I had been awake for it was about 48 hours straight. It was brutal. Actually, the only sleep I got was on the final uh, it was about a two-hour domestic flight, and I was so tired I slept the entire way. Um, I rarely sleep on flights. I can't sleep in the airport, and it wasn't from lack of trying. Um, because we were stuck in that airport for 24 hours. I tried really hard to sleep on the cold, hard airport floor, but it was freezing and it was minus 12 degrees Celsius outside. So there was no way that I was sleeping. I arrived in my destination and this was a work day for me. So I actually had to go straight and to to do work things and have work meetings and then go out for dinner later, which was rough, but it was fine because I didn't nap. I know had I napped, I would not have been able to do any of those things. Uh, on my last trip over to Greece when we arrived in Athens, same thing. It was a long haul flight from Australia. We'd been awake for well over 24 hours straight. We landed, we popped our bags off at our um accommodation before we could check in, and we just wandered for a few hours and just took in the scenery and appreciated being there instead of going in and napping, and it makes all the difference. Hack number six is to ease into your first day. Because you're tired, because you haven't napped, you don't want to hit the ground running and do all of the big things on day one. Take it easy. Go out for, you know, a long coffee or a gentle stroll or spend some time by the pool, wander down to the beach, have an easy first day where possible. Yeah, on that first day, there's a couple of essentials for me. The first one is I want to get outside. I want fresh air and I want sunshine. Um, okay, let's face it, regardless of the weather, I just want to be outdoors on my first day because I've been cooped up in a flight for potentially a couple of days. I can't wait to get out. And it helps my physical health and my mental health so much just by stepping outside as soon as I land. The second thing that I consider on my easy first day is the impact of flights on your body. Now, if you hit the ground running and you are on your feet for many, many hours on your first day, what you can often find is the blood will kind of pull around your feet, around your calves and your ankles. Your legs can feel really, really heavy and it can be extremely uncomfortable. Uh, I've definitely made this mistake off a long haul flight where I've just, you know, ended up walking about 20 kilometers on the first day, and the pain was intense. So learn from my mistake. Also, compression socks are popular for a reason. I don't have a pair, but apparently they work wonders and they are brilliant for this exact purpose. Hack number seven is once you have arrived at your destination, go to bed at a normal time. If you normally head to bed at 10 p.m., regardless of when you've landed, regardless of how tired you are or how awake you are, make yourself go to bed at your normal time. It might be hard to sleep, you might be dead tired by this stage, but stick to your normal routine because once you start to get back to your normal sleep pattern, it's going to be so much easier to wake up the next day feeling normal and hopefully rested. Hack number eight is to hydrate and nourish your body. This is just simple health and wellness. When you land, you're possibly dehydrated, you're definitely tired, and your body is going to be craving certain things. So there's a few things that I focus on here. The first one is hydration. Especially if you've been drinking coffee, you've been drinking alcohol, and you might not have had enough water on the flight. Hydration is key. So when I land, I'm either drinking water or I'm looking for really great hydration solutions. You might even bring some electrolytes with you so that you can make sure that you're fully hydrated when you land. If I'm going to a tropical destination, my go-to is a fresh coconut because coconut water is incredible to help you to hydrate. The next one for me is nourishing my body. I'll typically go to a supermarket on the first day so I can look for some fruit or some for some healthy options. And if that's not an option, if I'm going out for lunch or for dinner, I'm looking for things on my first day like salads, vegetables, fresh soups, things that are just gonna help me to nourish my body rather than upset my system on the first day. I'm trying to reduce my inflammation in my body, not increase it. So a little self-care can go a really long way here. Hack number nine, no sleeping pills, no problem. This is another controversial one because some people swear by sleeping tablets on long haul flights. A great example of this is my brother who absolutely hates flying and will avoid it at all costs. We went to Samoa for my 30th birthday, and it's the only international trip he has ever been on, and probably the only one he will ever go on because of the flight. Um, he hates flying, so he took sleeping tablets on the flight, and it was so hard to wake him up. It was kind of hilarious, but also really difficult because we were landing in destinations where he had to fill in customs paperwork and he couldn't stay awake for long enough to fill in the form. He'd open his eyes, he might write a couple of letters or tick a few boxes, and then he'd doze off again, and then we'd try and wake him up, and then he'd doze off again. And this went on and on and on. And then when we arrived at our destination, he was just so out of it. I don't know how we felt. He might have felt amazing, but um, it was quite hilarious. I don't love taking sleeping tablets. I use all of these other hacks so that I don't need to take sleeping tablets. But if that's something that helps you and something that you want to do, go nuts. This is really uh a personal preference. So do what's right for you. And finally, my final tip is on your first day, potentially on your second day, depending on how tired you think you're going to be. If you don't want to be stressed or overwhelmed, consider letting someone else do the planning for you. And what I mean by that is join a tour, a gentle one at that. Uh, a really great idea if you have a whole day ahead of you once you land after your long haul flight. Do something like a guided half day tour so that it's only a half day, it's not too crazy, it's something where you're not spending too much time on your feet, but also not too much time in transit because let's face it, if you're really tired, you might not off. But it just takes all of the hassle and all of the guesswork out of it. One thing to keep in mind though is that if your flight is delayed or cancelled, you might risk missing that tour. A lot of really big cities do free walking tours, which are usually highly popular and highly recommended. Often they're free and they just ask for a donation if you enjoy the tour. And if you have these kinds of options in your destination, I highly recommend them. So take it easy and let someone else do the planning if that is gonna help you enjoy your first day a lot more. So let's recap my nine hacks to avoid jet lag so that you can take full advantage of every single day of your trip and you don't lose the first few days to jet lag. So, hack number one was to start adjusting your mindset in the air. Number two, follow the cabin's rhythm. Number three, to drink or not to drink on flights, and that is alcohol and caffeine. Personally, I do drink alcohol, I don't drink coffee on flights. Number four is stick to your bedtime rituals, even in the sky. Number five, don't nap on arrival. Trust me. Number six, ease into your first day. Seven is to go to bed at your normal time. Number eight, hydrate and nourish your body. And number nine was no sleeping pills, no problems. That is a personal decision for you to make. And the bonus tip was to let someone else do the planning on your first day. So the big takeaway here is most people think jet lag is inevitable, and it's really not. By going through a little bit of discomfort now, you're setting yourself up to have a lot more energy later. Later when it matters. It allows you to take back the power on your first day of your trip and allow you to start making memories immediately. So jet lag doesn't have to steal the first few days of your trip. Even when you're flying halfway around the world from Australia, a few mindset shifts, some simple rich. And committing to your arrival routine can completely change how you feel when you land. You might still be tired, but you'll be present, functioning, and actually enjoying where you are. And if you want to dive deeper, I've written a full blog on how to avoid jet lag. I'll link it in the show notes. Thank you for hanging out with me today. Now go embrace the discomfort, beat the jet lag, and start making memories from day one. Thanks for tuning in to the Tourist to Traveller podcast. I hope today's episode has inspired you to travel more authentically and plan your next adventure with confidence. Don't forget to head to touristtotraveller.com for today's show notes, resources, and free guides to help you plan like a pro. And if you love this episode, please hit subscribe and leave a review. It helps more travelers like you discover the show. Until our next adventure. Go beyond the tourist track and level up your travel experiences.