I love traveling, but hate flying. At my last job I regularly flew from Boston to Tel Aviv for meetings — an 11-12 hour flight. I quickly morphed from a disorganized flyer, with everything you can imagine spilling out of my carry on, to an master packer with a method. Here’s my toolkit for keeping sane and hydrated on long haul flights.
Neck pillow: Sure it looks ridiculous, but it enables me to sleep for several hours at a time without the annoying head bob.- Evian facial mist: I know, it’s just water, but on long flights my skin starts to crack. A spritz every hour or so followed by lotion prevents me from feeling like a wilted flower.
- Emergen-C: I don’t drink enough water, so this gets me drinking more on extra long flights.
- Sanitizer: I’ve been accused of being a germaphobe, and am fine with that. Go ahead, Google what’s on that tray table. To counter the filth that you’ll find onboard, I carry hand sanitizer, wet wipes, and even a travel-size can of Lysol. Those seats sure aren’t being shampooed between flights.
- iPod Shuffle: This piece of old school electronics is perfect for flying. I snap it on my shirt so as not to lose it, and the battery lasts 10+ hours. Given my aversion to flying, I load it up with soothing music to lull me to sleep.
- Eye Gel + Masks: I don’t know what you look like after a day of travel, but I get puffy, sagging eyes. To help feel refreshed, I use cucumber eye pads (instead of slices of fresh produce), and an anti-puff eye roller with caffeine.
- Empty Water Bottle: An empty 8-oz water bottle can be used to mix up vitamin drink packets, instead of using your giant water bottle. I also fill up the mini and take with me to the bathroom for rinsing my mouth out after brushing my teeth.
- Scented Hand Lotion: Plane smell is awful. The pleasing blood orange lotion from Bliss and Pacifica help offset the stink.
- Lip Balm: Frankly, I never leave the house without at least one tube of lip balm in my bag.
And I always start my flight with a glass of airplane wine!
