Hello!

Whenever I write about travel I’m painfully aware that the only ‘big’ trips I’ve done were project work trips to Tanzania in 2013 and Ecuador in 2015 and I’ve not been abroad since but being able to write about travel doesn’t mean you have to fly regularly or have been recently or make me any less valid.

A little bit of good old self justification to start a blog post never hurt anyone, right?

So, I don’t think anyone enjoys a long haul flight – even if you are a seasoned traveller going all over the world, long haul flights are bring.

When I went to Tanzania it was two six-hour flights and Ecuador was a ten-hour and a six-hour flight. Here are six tips for how to keep yourself entertained on long flights assuming you don’t plan to sleep for nine hours and fifty-eight minutes.

1) Bring a notebook and pens – personally, I’m someone who likes writing things down on paper, I always start my journal for the trip on the plane, but even if you’re not planning on documenting the trip, you can write, draw or play silly games if you’re flying with friends. Nothing wrong with paper and pens!

2) Handheld gaming – if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on a new Nintendo Switch, then you can bring big screen games to the sky, however anyone else who has a 3DS or 2DS or a gameboy or, I don’t know, a PSP maybe, I know I can get lost playing games from an altitude of two feet let alone fifty thousand – if you’ve got some good music and lots to do in game (I love seeing that full 100% completion on a game) you’ll find you’re a good few hours closer to your destination.

3) Music – always music – if you’re fully prepared with an up to date iTunes library or some good Spotify playlists downloaded, music can make hours feel like seconds. Music’s a good one for if you’re travelling with friends too because a headphone splitter and new music is a great way to find the song or make the playlist of the trip.

4) Games – word games, card games or even travel board games – there’s so many easy little games that you can squeeze in your hand luggage. Uni is a fun, sometimes friendship destroying, card game, or there’s the alphabet game that my family always liked to play. You pick a topic (i.e. films) then go through the alphabet letter by letter and thinks of something for each letter, for example – Avengers Assemble, Baywatch, Chronicles of Narnia, Deadpool etc. The Alphabet Game gets more exciting more and more family-destroying the more you narrow the topic.

5) Organisation – this might be more of a me thing, but I’d take the time to organise my life – sort out my bullet journal, plan ahead on my calendars, make a lot of lists that would make me very happy and would take a good chunk of my flight. I love coloured pens a lot.

6) Mindless iPhone games – I guess it counts as handheld gaming, but there are enough mind numbing basic phone games (you don’t have to have an iPhone, it’s just a phrase, there are lots of very nice Android phones) that are much cheaper than a handhold gaming console and have a habit of passing time just as quickly. I’ve been playing a game called Riddle Stones recently and I’m thoroughly enjoying that.

Obviously there’s always films to watch and perhaps talking to the people you’re travelling with, lots of snacking, y’know – there’s plenty of things to do! If I was travelling now I’d probably take my laptop and blog or write or edit videos, but depends entirely what you’re travelling for and what you’re interests are. Let me know what you’d do on a long haul flight in the comments!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

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