Hubby and I are going for the first time the first week of December. We’re staying right next to Hyde Park in the Mayfair section.
We land at 7am London time. I don’t know how tired we will be, I’m not the world’s best sleeper in the best of circumstances. We’re on East coast time now.
Check in isn’t until 3pm. My thought was to at least go to the hotel to drop off the luggage and go from there.
What is the best suggestion for the day in that area that won’t run us even more ragged?
What is the best way to adapt quickest to the time zone change…nap in the afternoon or power through to get on their time schedule immediately?
I’m on the hunt now for shoes. My shoes won’t cut it with all the walking.
Every person is different and my guess is you will get lots of responses on how to adjust to the time change. I don’t handle naps well, I just emerge groggy, migraine-y , and more jet lagged. It works best for me to “power through” until I can have an early night turn in. I try to do lots of walking outside in the sun - if you can find that in December London!
Maybe I’ve been very lucky, but it seems that I’m often able to get into my European hotel rooms around noon despite the 3 PM official check-in. You can ask at check-in when the room can be ready.
I skip the airline meal and movie selection and try to nap soon after we’ve taken off (Central time). I know that doesn’t work for all, DH included, but I usually have some luck in getting in a nap or at least long relaxed rest.
Many places will let you check in earlier than their stated check in times, although its better to just plow through that first day to speed up acclimating to the new time zone IMHO. It’s nice to take a shower, though.
If your flight lands at 7am, plan on an hour to get through immigration. Then perhaps another hour to get to your hotel depending on your mode of transportation. (We usually take the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station and then a cab to our house). Check your bags at the hotel and go for a walk in Hyde Park. There will be a huge Christmas fair set up, but it may not open until later in the day. Or you can walk across Green Park to Buckingham Palace. IMO, the best way to take care of jetlag is to get as much sunshine and exercise as possible.
If there are no major events, and the hotel is not that full, you might be able to check in earlier. By the time you get your luggage and get to the hotel, it will be likely closer to 10 am. Ask the hotel front desk about early check in. Otherwise, leave your liggage with them and explore a little. I find that getting out into fresh air and sunlight (maybe not much of it in London that time of the year!) and eating meals on the new schedule helps a lot. I personally think the third day is the hardest when it comes to fighting jetlag.
Best way to adapt to time change–immediately adopt the zone you land in. For you–no naps! Power through until after dinner and then go to bed. If you take a nap in between you will be off the rest of your trip.
When we went, we grabbed some breakfast, sat around the hotel lobby until we could check in, and napped for a few hours. We woke up, had dinner, walked around a bit and called it an early night.
The next morning we woke up rearing to go.
You’re going to LOVE London!!! Have a wonderful trip!!!
Glad for your trip. Sometimes early check in can be requested in advance via email. For some, a quick post flight shower seems to generate a second wind to help with schedule. I find powering through works best, but some trips jet lag endures more than others and I can’t always figure out why.
I do the power through thingy. I can’t nap and I can’t sleep during the day even if I am exhausted. Can’t sleep on a plane, either. Since it gets dark pretty early in London in December have an early-ish dinner and then call it a night.
I’m excited, I started working on the itinerary today. I already booked a day trip to Stonehenge and the baths and a show. I’m debating whether to do the London pass. I am trying to make sure I don’t overbook since I could come up with a schedule that keeps us moving sun up to sun down.
Just got back from a wedding in London, so I got to watch multiple people of various ages adjust. If you can possibly nap on the airplane, do that. Eat a big lunch before you board, skip the airplane meal, and sleep as much as you can. In our family, the under-30 crowd was able to power through (although there were some vacant stares toward the end of the rehearsal dinner), but the over 50 crowd all took short (1-2 hour) naps the first day, then powered through the rest of the way. Before or after your nap a walk in Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens would be good, so get those walking shoes.
We stayed just south of Hyde Park, and found it was faster to take the tube straight in from Heathrow rather than taking the Heathrow express and taxi combo. It depends on how close your hotel is to the tube and whether you have to transfer much. Have fun!
You will definitely be able to drop off your luggage. Personally I power through to not lose an entire day. East coast to London is a short flight and hard to sleep. Melatonin works for many but take it about 15 minutes before you want to sleep. I think both Harrods and the National Gallery are close to Mayfair
I’m in the power through camp. I fly from the west coast so flight leaves at noon pdt and arrived 7am gmt. What I try to do is go to bed late the night before eg midnight and set my alarm for 4 am. Then when I get on plane, do stuff for two hours (thus making it around 10pm gmt ) and then sleep as much as possible the rest of the way. Since I’m already tired from the short sleep, I often get 6+ hours on the plane.
As for the rest planning - I advise clustering things. If you want to see Westminster abbey and St Pauls, do those together. Add in Buckinham place and that’s a day all in a short distance all walkable.
What you don’t want to do is spend your time racing back and forth across London. The tube is great but after five minutes the rest is all the same. Go to one district, spend the day there. Do another area the next day.
We did the same thing in 2005. That first day, we dropped off our baggage at our hotel, and then we took that red double decker hop on, hop off tour bus. You get headphones, and you can sit and look at all the sites while hearing about them. It’s a fairly long ride…we did that and then were able to check into our hotel. We did the two day bus…and used it the following day to get around as well.
After we checked in, we went for a long walk. We were staying in Kensington, so we just went to the park.
I just did this two weeks ago (though to Manchester instead of London, but same difference). My flight left ORD at 5:20 pm and arrived MAN 6:55 am and then I took a train to my final destination, Liverpool. I normally fly business but this time I was coach but I had no problem because this is what I did:
No caffeine on flight day
Eat carb rich dinner around 3-4 pm - do not wait for plane.
The minute you get on the plane, set watch to UK time, pop a Benadryl or Tylenol PM, put in ear plugs and mask and go to sleep. I slept through dinner and woke up just as they were serving breakfast.
Power through - eat a big meal around 1-2 pm in London - then just try to stay awake enough that you can get to 7 pm or so. Don’t worry if you miss dinner that night.
Have fun! Your first day in London, just walk around - Westminster, Soho, Covent Garden, the Strand, Trafalgar, Piccadilly - it all just flows and you will get a great sense just people watching. Leave “serious” sightseeing to the next day.
On this trip, after Liverpool I took a train to London and I had forgotten how very cool of a city London is.
Lots of fun things to do in London in December. I would recommend walking down Regents St and Oxford St after dark to see the lights. Also, try to go see a traditional pantomime (panto). They are uniquely English and completely ridiculous. Kind of like twisted fairy tales - lots of silly jokes, singing and dancing and audience participation. And save room for an ice cream at the interval (intermission)! If you only have time for one museum - I would go to the National Gallery or the V&A.
Add me to the get outside, don’t nap the first day camp. Like BB, it’s a 9 hour time change for us and it’s better to do everything you can to sleep that first night as normally as possible.
Last time we were in London the hotel had a huge room just for holding on to luggage. We packed a backpack with items to spruce up a bit in the airport before heading down to the tube; no need to dig through the big suitcases. We bought the Oyster Cards in the airport and sold them back, full refund, when we returned. It is a super convenient way to travel around.
We got in early, dropped the bags, and had a really good but low-key day planned that included a pretty fancy Indian meal for lunch (with tea, lots of tea). That allowed us to relax a bit before check-in. Don’t forget, the sun sets before 4pm in December so get your sunlight early. There is so much to see and do in London that you shouldn’t notice how tired you are.
What we’ve typically done is drop off luggage at hotel and find out how soon we can get early check-in. Then we find something to do until we can get in our room, which is usually early to mid-afteroon, even if it’s just grabbing a light lunch and walking around the neighborhood. Then we go back to the room and take a solid nap, usually around 2-3 hours - we wake up feeling SO much better, then continue on with our day, and have dinner at a normal hour and stay out as late as we want. We still then have no problem going to sleep once we get back to the room.
The first time I ever tried to ‘power-through’ a jet lag in Italy fifteen years ago, I was a basket case. I have very little memory of that first day when we had tickets to the Uffizi in Florence, which was a shame because I had been really looking forward to it. Never again.
I guess what I’m saying is that some people are just not designed to power through it.
I’ve traveled to London quite a bit and although I’ve learned to avoid the overnight flights in favor of morning ones, I agree with all the power-through the day suggestions. I think that an excellent thing to do after dropping off the luggage at your hotel is to have the concierge find you the nearest pickup spot for any of the hop-on/hop-off busses and buy a day ticket. You will get a route map and be able to get a good feel for the city and plan for how to schedule the rest of the trip. I love going to Fortnam & Mason for a full afternoon tea for an early dinner on my first day, then return to the hotel for a glass of wine before bedtime.