“I’m getting too old for this.”
This is what I think to myself, without fail, upon first arriving in Europe… stepping bleary-eyed off that 10-hour, marathon, overnight flight at Amsterdam Schiphol, or Paris CDG, or London Heathrow.
I’m on the downhill side of my forties — admittedly, not what most people would consider “too old.” But even on my very first trip to Europe, as a bright-eyed college kid, I felt positively ancient on arrival. International air travel is a highly specific constellation of frustrations, maneuvers, and indignities that sap the enthusiasm of anyone, old or young.
There aren’t many hard-and-fast rules of international travel. But one of them is this: The absolute worst few hours of any trip invariably take place on your day of arrival. This period of fitful adjustment starts around the time your plane begins its descent toward Europe: Peering out the window and through the clouds at tidy green farms hemmed in by canals, you wrap up your overnight marathon of watching movies that were too bad to see in the theater, and you begin assembling your personal items to deplane in a new continent.
On arrival, you’re treated to a cramped little bus journey across the tarmac, from the plane to the gate. If you make it onto the bus quickly, you may actually find somewhere to sit down… then spend that jostling ride with strangers’ butts and elbows and neglected shoulder bags slapping your face. If you get on late, you stand up — awkwardly unbalanced as you strain against your overstuffed carry-on — then teeter to and fro, desperately hanging on to the slimy metal bar or the little dangling handle that’s always juuuust out of comfortable reach. Either way, hold on tight as the bus driver careens around the uncongested airport runways as if he’s trying to catch every yellow light in downtown Palermo.
Reaching passport control (Ah, yes: passport check between flights! Why does this always catch me by surprise?), I gauge how long the line is, and how long I have until my connecting flight, and do a little arithmetic to determine my optimal degree of panic. Thankfully, on this connection, I’ve got just enough time to keep things below “abject” levels.
The long row of about a dozen glass booths, like giant aquariums, could be churning through this line. But nearly all of them are empty. The two that are staffed process new arrivals at a rate far, far slower than the flow of anxious travelers to the back of the line.
Several flights’ worth of passengers stack up behind me. I overhear people pleading that their flight leaves in 30 minutes… 20 minutes… 10 minutes, for the sake of all that’s holy! To their credit, the agents managing the passport line — who represent an extraordinarily thin line between this fast-growing scrum of antsy travelers, and utter anarchy — survey each case in turn and make reasonable exceptions. At one point, there are enough close-cutters that they create a second line just for them; a few minutes later, as that “line” swells into an unruly mosh pit, they mold it into two discrete lines, each terminating at a passport agent.
Those of us who have somewhere between 30 minutes and 10 hours before our connecting flight can only watch the chaos unfold as we wait… and wait… and wait… and wait. The extroverts in line corner the introverts for some idle, exhausted small talk. Finally, two more passport-control agents appear from deep inside the bowels of the airport — having completed their lunch break about a half-hour after their presence here would have been tremendously useful. At this point, the mid-day rush is well underway, the close-cutters are visibly melting down, and the line, at long last, starts to move.
After a mercifully brief grilling, I’m admitted into a sprawling zone of duty-free shops, tulip-bulb stores, bookshops, vendors selling electronic gadgets it’s hard to imagine anyone buying (much less using), fancy restaurants perched in glass boxes high above a marbled plaza, escalators angling off every which way like an M.C. Escher etching, globetrotters with big black circles under their eyes staggering through the vast halls while barely avoiding careening into one another, those hyperventilating close-cutters sprinting to make an impossible connection, little golf carts weaving between the disoriented throngs, and, of course, a McDonalds and a Starbucks.
Somewhere in there, I find a bathroom. The American in me wishes for those sprawling 20-holers that you find in big airports in the USA, where two full soccer squads could relieve themselves without a wait. But many European airports, for the sake of efficiency or sadism (or perhaps both), prefer cramped little 3- or 4-holers, where an awkward queue forms in the tiny no-man’s land between the stall doors and the sinks. And, of course, there’s nowhere sanitary to set down your bag — making you wish you’d checked it, after all.
Following the maze of directional signs, I find my connecting gate. Serendipitously, both my arriving flight and my onward flight are exactly 25 minutes late. That gives me about 10 minutes to zone out — or did I actually fall briefly dead asleep? — on an uncomfortable chair between people conducting extremely loud cell phone conversations in Hungarian.
I never cease to be fascinated by the liminal space of an international airport. Humanity from all corners of Europe — and the globe— mix and mingle in its cavernous concourses. Then, you cross the threshold into a gate area…and suddenly, the internationality of the place you just left is diluted with a powerful slug of the place you’re about to go to.
The gate for my flight to Budapest is a microcosm of Budapest itself: Perhaps two-thirds of the people around me look, talk, dress, and smell like Hungarians. This is the first moment of this trip where I’m recognizably “in” Hungary — yet still hundreds of miles away. And if I backtrack 50 paces into the concourse, the concentration of Hungarians instantly plummets to numbers more in line with the Hungarians-to-humanity ratio… which is to say, I could walk all the way back to my first gate and count on one hand the number of Magyars I encounter. They’re all tidily sequestered in this one tiny sub-space of a sprawling mega-space.
(This phenomenon was particularly apparent during the late stages of COVID. If you walked along the concourses of SeaTac Airport, the number of passengers who wore masks at each gate was directly proportional to the blueness of the state they were flying to.)
This works in reverse, too: Leaving your plane, a sealed capsule representing humanity in the place you just left, you can actually feel that ratio diffuse as your fellow passengers disperse into the terminal. If you’re departing a place you love, this is a sad sensation, like graduating from high school and watching your buddies head off to colleges in distant cities; if you’re departing a place you’ve had enough of, it’s more pleasurable, like you’re finally moving on.
Then again, maybe I’m just hallucinating. Am I at my 20th, 21st hour since I last slept?
After another tortuous bus trip across the tarmac, I’m seated on my connecting flight. The guy next to me — who wears aviator glasses and a stencil of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper tattooed on his forearm, and, based on how he puzzles over the operation of his seat belt, may never have been on an airplane before — is all elbows. But by this time, I’m exhausted enough to nod off between snippets of the mindless Netflix entertainment I’ve downloaded. At one point, they hand me an individually shrink-wrapped cheese sandwich with a robin’s-egg-blue sticker that says “New — Improved Recipe,” and I snicker to myself about how much the recipe for a cheese sandwich can actually be “improved.” But then I take a bite. And it’s quite possibly the most delicious thing I have eaten in my life. Or at the very least, since I got on the plane in Seattle.
Finally, I’ve reached my destination! Following the little Arrivals stickers on the floor like a treasure map, through yet another mazelike airport — mysteriously busy for a random Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. — I find my way to the baggage claim, then step out into that brackish space where the hermetically sealed, authorized-secure world of The Airport meets unwashed reality.
A dozen people stand outside that door, clutching little signs with the names of strangers. At this moment, I wish nothing more than for my name to be scrawled on one of those placards. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to make that particular arrangement…so I’m on my own.
Worse, I’m updating a guidebook. That means that the material I enjoy updating the least — the logistics of getting from the airport into town — is also the material that I have to reckon with at the moment I’m more exhausted and less patient than at any other point in my weeks-long journey. I head out to the curb to lay eyes on the public bus stop, and to tinker around with the ticket machine to make sure it has English instructions and takes credit cards (of course it does, because, you know, it’s the 21st century). And I quiz a couple of taxi drivers about how much it costs to ride into town — an exercise that they seem to enjoy even less than I do, if that’s possible. But then, we’re all just pawns in the same big game that nobody really controls.
I stumble through my chores and decide on the shared minibus transfer to my hotel… then instantly regret it, when I realize that means I’ll have to wait for another 15 minutes until a quorum of fellow passengers arrives, enough to merit the trip. (Why didn’t I just pay €10 more for a direct taxi? These are the bewildering decisions one makes at the culmination of a long journey, and the reason why you’re more prone to epically stupid mistakes upon arrival than at any other point in the trip not involving unhealthy volumes of alcohol. One time, at the Puerto Vallarta airport, I withdrew some pesos and left my debit card inserted in the ATM — with the PIN entered! — before heading to my lodgings.)
No matter. I’m finally back in Hungary and excited to get reacquainted with one of my favorite cities. The rush-hour drive into town is a blur; unexpected detours are made en route to discharge my fellow passengers; and then, just when I’m wondering if maybe I died on the flight and have slipped into some sort of purgatory, my driver turns up an anonymous-feeling side street and — hey presto! — we’re in front of my hotel
“Köszönöm szépen,” I gargle, thanking the driver with a phrase that becomes muscle memory after a day or two in Hungary, but in this moment sounds mindbendingly foreign. Stepping into my little hotel room, I set down my bags and let out an epic fart that lasts for ninety full seconds… one that I’ve been holding in since somewhere over Nunavut.
After a few minutes lying on the bed, at precisely the instant that I’m about to fall asleep, I rally for one more little push. The sun low in the sky, and I’ll be asleep within a couple of hours. But first…
Stepping out of my hotel, I congratulate myself for having chosen this place — tucked around the side of Hungary’s achingly beautiful Opera House. I circle around to the front of the ludicrously opulent building. Wispy clouds float overhead, illuminated by the setting sun, creating an impossibly romantic European scene. And I think: I’m in one of the greatest, grandest cities in Europe — and I get to spend the next week here. Lucky me!
That’s when it hits me — that “Hey, I’m in Europe!” moment that I wait for at the start of each trip. It’s that moment when you realize all that you’ve just endured has been worth it.
In fact, let’s grab the reins here: You haven’t “endured” anything at all…you’ve been mildly uncomfortable for a few hours, maybe a little too tired. But isn’t that worth it, for the incredible privilege of living at a moment in history when you can seal yourself into a little metal tube, watch a few movies, eat some mediocre food, doze off if you can…and step off in an entirely different world?
And this is also the moment that you realize: You are not, in fact, getting too old for this.
Maybe someday.
But not yet.
I’ll be weathering this misery again soon, as I hit the road soon for more guidebook updates — this year, in Germany, Greece, the Austrian and Italian Alps, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia. If you’d like to come along on my summer travels, follow me on Facebook and on Instagram.
And if you’d enjoy this kind of travel writing, be sure to check out my travel memoir, The Temporary European.
Great article. Captured our experience to a “T” especially, “I’m too old for this!” Every trip we decide after the flight and airport that “this is our LAST trip to Europe”. Someday, it will be but we are going back soon. Thanks.
We just got back from a May trip to Budapest and your experiences were right on the mark! We hope to return to Scandinavia next July for my wife’s 80th birthday. I hope we make it!
Not only In Europe . It’s every airport I’ve visited this year including the US . The lines at the airport are too long. A 2 hour connection will not work unless you have global entry
Oh, Cameron! Thank you for this piece! I have not traveled to Europe before my recent
“my way/France” thing … and my first day in Paris … I was convinced there was something WRONG with me!!!!!!! I had the lowest energy level EVER! I felt like I needed to find a TONIC!!!! or at least a B-12 shot!!!! I felt that I could never, ever complete the tour …
and that I had made a BIG mistake thinking I could do this tour, much less the 10 MORE days I had planned on my own!!!!! I was so low, I cried. I felt defeated by life.
I called my sister … ” that’s jet lag!” she said. “Really, that’s all?? There ‘s nothing wrong with me?” “Yeah, jet lag can be REALLY bad!” she told me. I’d had NO idea what it could actually feel like.
I got over it. Had as much energy as everyone else on the tour. I’m 70 :)
I absolutely guffawed at your line about the epic 90-second fart. I know we’ve all been there!! Great job capturing the bustle and hazy fog of initial arrival. It’s fun to live vicariously through your journey until my next one begins! Wishing you safe and fun travels–and thanks for your great work updating the guidebooks!
Sarah: Totally on same page as you re the epic 90-second episode!… am still laughing. as I am getting over jet-lag from flights: Marseille via Paris-deGaulle to home in Boston.
Good for you! I do have a couple pro tips as a 59 year old who often goes to Paris for four days to see my friends and family before I have to go back to work. 1. Drink a lot of water. Irrigate yourself and keep your water bottle full all the time. 2. Use the blankets and a neck pillow on the seat, and put your feet up on your backpack under the seat for a kind of footrest.
Buda and Pest are sublime, wishing you the best!
I enjoyed this article very much Cameron. I live in country NSW in Australia and travelled to Budapest a couple of months ago. From door to door it took us around 38 hours. We had a 3 hr drive to the airport, then 4 hours wait until boarding, left 1.5 hours late, 15 hrs to Dubai, another 4 hrs transit wait, then finally to Budapest. We waited 2 hrs to get through immigration at Budapest airport. I envied the travellers we met from the US and even more the UK travellers with their 2.5 hr flights home. We live “downunder” and this is what we do.
Your comment reminds me of comedian Lewis Black’s hilarious set on flying to New Zealand, but it could apply to Australia as well. It starts at 14:42. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xw15uc
Cameron, I loved every minute of your rant – every word was so true. However, no sympathy will be forthcoming as I landed two months ago in Amsterdam at the age of SEVENTY-TWO!
I clearly haven’t learned my lesson, either, because I’m signed up for Best of South England in 13 Days starting on September 14! I plan to keep on traveling just as long as possible…please keep on writing!
I’m 77 and have made over 60 trips to Europe in the past 30 years.
Without fail on the first day in Europe I sit on the side of the bed and think ‘Why did I do this?!’. And after a good night’s sleep I wake up the next morning so grateful that I did it again.
European travel is amazing and I hope I’m never too old for it. I can’t imagine life without the joy of thinking about the next trip.
Wow!! My role model!! I’m 66…I pride myself in hanging with the younger travelers…I just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Love the challenge and the experience!!
Cameron, you nailed it! I thought it was just me. Thank you for “normalizing” those bewildering, exhausted initial hours. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our very first Rick Steve’s tour (Best of Berlin, Prague & Vienna) exactly one year ago, and we can’t wait to plan our next RS adventure. P.S. I read your travel memoir right before our trip. Fantastic!
It’s wonderful to read someone who can be honest about trave. (And I thought it was just me.)
Been there. Done that. Laughed out loud to your recounting of an all-too familiar experience.
Are you at liberty to share when and where you will be in Iceland? We arrive on June 6th (after a nonstop six-hour flight) and will depart on the 30th. Following most of Rick’s recommendations at a slower pace with multiple detours from the Ring Road.
Travel well and stay happy.
Thanks for making me laugh out loud. You captured the arrival brilliantly. We just got back from Turkey and teşekkürler rolls off my tongue with ease now. It’s taken an while, but I’ve learned that the arrangements on arrival are crucial and worth a little extra cash.
Completely agree with the jet lag assessment, and making foggy if not questionable decisions. What could make it worse? Instead of jumping in a shuttle bus, picking up a rental car. At Dublin airport. Which of course means driving a right-hand drive car on the left side of the road. For my first time ever, at age 67 by the way. Thankfully my ever-patient wife made it a team effort, spotting traffic for me. Somehow we, and the car, made it to our hotel in one piece. Though I’m pretty sure I irritated as few local drivers along the way. After a couple days practice, and some sleep, driving was a blast. Did I mention the car was a stick?
We have finally broken down and paid for a hotel room for the night we are flying to Europe. That way we can check in, nap, shower, and head out for some sunshine. It seems a needless expense but it has made all the difference in the first few days of our vacation.
I’m doing the same thing for the first time, in October. I arrive in Berlin at 8:30 AM. I booked my Air BnB reservation to begin the evening I’ll be in transit. I just cannot hang around and find something to do for five hours until I can check in, even if I able to leave my bag somewhere. This way I can go right to my apartment, check in, nap for a few hours, and head back out, refreshed, about the time I would have been checking in otherwise. It feels like the ultimate luxury!
You hit the nail on the head! I had to laugh at several of your comments which
rang so true. Last summer two of us were so tired it took both of our brains to
figure out the directions Rick Steves had given us to get from the Venice airport to Padua. It didn’t help when the bus driver headed toward Venice instead of Padua. Luckily he turned the bus around. At that point I too said I am too old for this. But at 80 I’m headed back this summer!
We are 80 and 77, and have recently been through Schiphol and CDG. Advice: never accept a transfer time of an hour or little more at these airports. Carefully study your airline schedule options and get yourself at least two hours layover or time to your train reservation out of the airport, at these two places. It’s probably the same at Heathrow (we made two short connections there when our baggage didn’t!). You might get lucky and land early, with little or no lines, but never count on it. Sleep or doze on the plane if at all possible, it can make a huge difference. HYDRATE. Enjoy as much sunlight and fresh air as you can at your destination, before you crash in the hotel room, and the following days will be much easier
All true Rick , just add twice the time when coming from Australia and landing very early in the morning. The biggest problem is that hotels are booked from mid day on and you have to decide how the time is filled after dropping bags. But some places are very helpful and Hotel Bristol in Milan took us in at 9 am without a fuss. I find that many European hotels are better at this than here in Australia and in UK.
All too true! We just returned from Europe and, on our way over, had to connect flights through CDG. I think I’ll go out of my way to avoid connecting flights through that particular airport again! We had to transfer from Terminal 2E to 2D, which I could see was about 400 metres away. But the shuttle bus went the entire distance around the airport zone (including an epic journey to Terminal 1 and dodging taxiing aircraft on the aprons), taking 45 minutes of travel time. We then hit passport control upon entering 2D and, as you described, two staffed desks beside eight empty ones. And, icing on the cake, we had to clear security (including emptying carry-on contents into trays, scanning, etc.) three separate times: once to board the shuttle bus, once upon entering Terminal 2D and again to access the wing of the terminal where our departing gate was located. We thought a 3 hour connecting time would be fine but we would have missed our connecting flight had it not been 30 minutes late!!
I am going to tell my husband about your post. During out CDG experience while people in line panicked since their flights were due to take off, the airport announced that all flights to the USA were being held. On a subsequent trip he insisted we each pay $200 more to land in Amsterdam and connect rather than CDG to connect.
I second the motion. AMS connections are so easy that they put all other airports to shame!
Cameron, you have described traveling to Europe to the “T”! Except for the “90 second fart”! I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. Heading over in late August!
What a FANTASTIC article! I felt every word of it. I especially loved when you spoke of the realization “Hey, I’m in Europe”. I have felt that myself, and yes, I even teared up. My last travels to Europe were to Milan & Genoa for Christmas/New Year in 2019/2020 (I have friends in Genoa) and on more than a few occasions, I said to myself, “I’m really in Milan!…I’m really looking at “The Last Supper”…”I’m really in and on top of the magnificent Duomo”…it went on and on. Keep on traveling friends…I’m certainly looking forward to my next trip.
Thanks, Cameron. I really enjoyed this read!
I swore the R.S. 14-days in the Adriatic trip last September was my last. I NEVER sleep on planes, even overnight flights. Traveling solo, I am more than bleery-eyed and exhausted by the time I arrive (after a canceled flight, with a reroute on a different airline to a different city, then making arrangements to get a connecting flight to where I’m going) – and attempting to stay up the rest of the day before I can sleep (after being up for 36 hours) Yes, I AM too old for this! However, I turn 80 this month and will be traveling to northern Spain with my adult kids to celebrate this milestone. So I guess I’m not too old, huh? (well, check in with me after this trip…)
As we’ve gotten older we allow 36 hours to de jet lag. Rather than driving upon landing we spend a night in an airport hotel walking distance from our arrival. We pick a hotel with room service so we don’t have to leave our hotel room.
Further we fly business class to soften the blow and do longer trips (since retired) in order to maximize the flying expense.
Wow Cameron, you hit the nail right on the head! I soon turn 69 and continue to travel to Lake Como (and back) twice a year, and on the last trip back (two days ago) I was asking myself if I’m getting too old for this. Well, yes, international travel is often extremely stressful and exhausting and maybe disgusting! But then I know I will be going back in exactly 3 months to do it all over again no matter what!
Great writing!
Hope to bump into you again in Europe some day doen the road.
Gary Flesher
You are really on to something when you realize that an extra 15 euros to reserve a taxi or an Uber or Lyft is really worth it upon arrival at the airport. Public transportation will be the way to get from place to place, starting tomorrow.
I caused us to be five hours late getting into our hotel in Copenhagen because I wanted to economize by taking the train into town and taking an exit from the station that was different from the one I remembered.
A lesson well learned. Arrival day is not one for cutting corners.
I laughed till I cried! Fabulous article, but you are such a youngster! I’m 69 and have been to Europe over 70 times, and my best advice is eat nothing on the plane, drink water, and wherever you land make sure to spend the first day/days right there. I try to check in early if possible after getting to my hotel via the most comfortable form of transportation available (usually a taxi), then I eat a granola bar and a piece of fruit, take a hot shower and grab a one hour nap. SET YOUR ALARM! Then it’s time to get up and explore the neighborhood on foot followed by a lovely dinner, another walk, and then early to bed. The hot shower is EVERYTHING! Keep on traveling!
We can’t afford business class but like Sandra we go for much longer trips just because we want plenty of time in Europe to make the unpleasantness of the flights worth it. If you can, I recommend NOT taking a connecting flight when you get to Europe. Both for environmental reasons and for fun, try flying into a airport where you can take a train to your destination. Be sure to leave time to buy some food for the ride. Many major cities make catching a train from the airport quite easy: Frankfurt, Amsterdam, to name a couple I’m familiar with. And then you can relax and doze on the train, while already enjoying (at least a little) being in Europe. For me the key thing is to get out of the airport as soon as I can, and not see another airport until I am about to fly back to the US.
All true Cameron! Thank goodness the rewards and joy of travel compensate for the ordeal of navigating from home to your initial destination. My wife and I have traveled all over the world in the past 40+ years and would not trade our travel experiences for anything. Rick Steves and your RS colleagues have contributed enormously in shaping our travel adventures. We plan to “Keep on Traveling”.
Upon every arrival, I inevitably feel I’ve attempted too much, picked the wrong hotel, etc., and have a deep sense of regret, feeling I’ve wasted money that could have been better used elsewhere. Once I sleep, however, all is well. Thank you for this article; it made me see it’s all a normal part of the experience. I am also so very encouraged by the commenters who continue to travel in their 80s. I feel like I started too late, and you give me hope!
Felt like I was there with you! I need a quick snooze now ;)
After 14 tours with RS as a solo traveler starting in 2008, and flying from the west coast, I have discovered that spending the first night at a hotel as close to my destination city airport as possible, so helpful. Sometimes you can just walk to one, (Frankfurt) or it’s just a short taxi hop away (Barcelona). I can get a meal and a shower and a night in a bed before tackling the trip into a new city on my own and finding the tour hotel. Generally the rates are comparable, and often lower, than a night in the tour hotel or other room in the city of destination.
My solution? Travel business class on long haul flights. I’m on the US east coast so I suffer through six to seven hour flights to Europe in economy – or economy plus these days – but anything longer and I use FF miles for business class. Also, forget the connection. Now I’m retired I’ll spend a couple of days in London before moving on. There is no way I’m connecting through LHR again if there is any possible alternative!
What a great article. Cameron, you are right on! So enjoyable and true! Loved it!
So it’s not just me! The arrival date I ask myself what the heck am I doing? This again at age 72! Yep Rick, I take comfort in knowing we are close in age. Let the adventure begin!
I loved reading this. Thanks for normalizing it all, and for the great laugh about your 90-second fart!!! That’s hilarious. LOL
Happy travels!
Loved this article! Love the humour! You’ve got a long ways to go before you are “too old for this”! I am a 70 year old who loves to travel, can put up with the first few hours of arrival, and the inconveniences. Aren’t we lucky we get to do this!
Oh Cameron! You had me at “I’m too old for this”. But the fart narrative startled me and I laughed so loud ’cause it was absolutely so relatable! Phew, nice to know I’m not alone on these matters.
Your opening line cracked me up! I’m 77 and just returned from a 3 1/2 week trip, where I muttered “I’m too old for this” many, many times. And now, on my third day back, still unpacking, doing laundry, buying groceries, catching up with daily life at home, I’m already planning my next trip.
I’m old enough for Medicare, but oddly enough, I rarely suffer serious jet lag when flying to Europe–an afternoon nap is enough to put me on course.
However, most of my travel has been to Asia, and there I follow a routine of staying awake till 10pm local time, no matter what. Then I sleep for eight hours, which puts me at 6am. This gives me time for an outdoor walk before breakfast. Usually I’m pretty good after that, but once I had to attend a slide lecture in the dark on my first day. I do not remember anything except the lights going out and coming back on again an hour later.
Thank you for the entertaining article. I enjoyed reading all the comments and tips about how to deal with jet lag. I prefer to slowly change my sleep schedule the week before, getting up one hour earlier each day. On the day that I travel, I get up at 2am or 3am and stay up till I am on my overnight, direct flight. No food + full glass of water plus a little muscle relaxant (ibuprofen) will usually put me under for the night. I always travel with a cashmere scarf that I use as a blanket because the dinky little blankets you get in economy don’t do much to keep you warm. They make much better seat cushions. I also use sound deadening headphones and an eye mask with my feet on my backpack. At my age (65) I don’t care how I look. I just need that shut eye. Off the plane, I keep it simple. Taxi to the hotel, hot shower and out in the neighborhood to push through the first day of mild jet lag. I never have jet lag on my second day.
Like so many kindred spirits in the Replies here (and in our 70’s too!) we always think we just ‘gunna die!’ on that first day. No sleep and those serpentine lines of hundreds at Schiphol and we’re the only ones masked. (Has it brought us to hawk the farm for a couple of business class tickets yet?). …. Thank you so much, Cameron, for a wonderful article! I laughed all the way through. Let the farts begin!
Hello Cameron
Enjoyed “On Arrival: The 1st and Worst … of any Trip”, … yes, lemons happen in making lemonade … but quenching once the Time Comes!
Enjoying your book, The Temporary European … nice and fun read.
Researching Ireland now, 2023 … time to new editions release ? 2024 or 2025 … curious non-editors want to know!
We Love everyone of your Blog’s but this one was by far the best! Everything you wrote rang true. Thank you for taking the time to write your Blog’s. We have learned a lot from them and it is nice to know that you have the same feelings as the rest of us.
As I’m getting older, I find myself getting wiser when it comes to traveling overseas. First- travel in the off season, not during the primetime holiday seasons. Second, go off the beaten track. I’ve been to many places by now, and I love traveling back to those countries. At this point, it’s about the adventure, meeting locals, getting a real feel of the culture, and inhaling everything I can so I can relax and really enjoy myself. And third- most importantly- if I’m traveling into a different time zone, I’ll adjust to the European time zones while I’m still in the US. So, for instance, if I’m going to the UK, I’m going to be getting up at 3 am in my time zone, when it’s 8 am BST. If I do that for a day or two before I leave, the unpleasant time difference is a lot less jarring. Yes, the plane will be a bit of a challenge, but I’ll bring a flashlight and make sure even on the plane over, I’m still on UK time. The more extreme the time zone difference, the more I make sure I’m going to be on their time before I go. It seems to work for me. This old lady ain’t gonna miss one day of my adventures overseas!
We arrived in Gimmelwald just last night. I’ve already had a morning walk and am waiting for the family to get ready for breakfast when finding your email and this post. This couldn’t possibly have hit the nail on the head more perfectly. As uncomfortable and tired as we felt we are thrilled to be here and suddenly more energized. PS. I rode that same bus and ate that exact same cheese sandwich on our KLM flight to Geneva! I still can’t believe how much I enjoyed it… Every word 100% accurate to my experience!
Cameron, this was so helpful, as were so many of the comments made by others—I feel encouraged by the comments. My husband and I are in our mid-70’s and planning a trip later this summer to Iceland. We’re concerned that we might be “too old for this,” but want to try at least one more trip to Europe. We always arrive in country the day before a tour starts, and we are planning to fly business class this time, so we’re hoping all goes well.
I groaned, remembering every little bit of your description. All is true and jet lag is even worse flying west.
That is – until I discovered the homeopathic remedy No-Jet-Lag.
This what you are all missing and I’m surprised Cameron and Rick don’t seem to have discovered it yet.
A small tablet you crunch and swallow every two hours you are awake, and you arrive at your destination like a human being instead of a zombie. Truly!
Available in most pharmacies in North America.
I’ve not flown without it for about a decade and get in a panic if I can’t find it in one of those many, many pockets in my day pack. I feel for all of you…you’ll not catch me without it.
Agree about No Jet Lag. Never travel without it
HI Cameron,
Since you are updating the Ireland travel guide, and I just returned from Ireland, Rick Steves guide in hand, I have a few discoveries to share.
First, the bus from Dublin to Tralee that is supposed to stop at Burgh Quay MUST be booked ahead of time. I stood for 3 hours in the early morning hours at the stop as 3 of the buses passed me by last week and was shook off by the drivers when I held out my arm requesting a stop. I think the guide needs to indicate the pre-booking requirement. I lost faith in the guide after this experience.
Second, my sense is that all long distance public transportation uses dynamic pricing, resulting in large increases in cost with day-of ticket purchasing. I didn’t find that note in the guide.
Thanks much,
Margaret
A recent discovery I have made: When it comes to the early morning flight arrivals, with hours before I can check into my room, there are often hotels that offer day use rooms. Check in for a few hours, get some much needed zzzzs, take a shower, and check out. Totally worth the money to make that one difficult arrival day a little easier.
Cameron you are delightfully hilarious!!
Write a book. I promise it would be a best seller! (And this is with all sincerity and deep appreciation for your excellency in weaving the English language together)
My wife and I have been to 67 countries and learned how very important it is to research in great detail how to get from the airport to the hotel. But before the internet was filled with U-tube videos, we had to endure our worst arrival ever in 2002. After about 2 hours of sleep, I had to drive on the “wrong” side of the road with a left hand stick shift car for the first time through numerous suburban Dublin roundabouts with multiple Gaelic/English signs ……. in the rain!! After turning a one hour drive into two, we thankfully arrived at our B&B only to be told we couldn’t check in yet, so we slept in the car. Thank goodness I was only 45 at the time.
As I sit in an airport waiting for my flight, I read this article. I love it. Having flown from west coast USA to Europe many times, this is exactly the way I feel each trip . We always have our Rick Steves bible with us but I have to admit that this article I enjoyed the most.
Thank you Rick for the chuckles amongst the truth.
I too liked the 90 second fart. But I liked even more the next sentence where you “rally for one more little push”. Heh heh.
We have found that if we plan ahead or on the spot to do something very active while we wait for our hotel room to be ready we rally immediately and are able to stay awake until Europe bedtime and sleep fairly well. In London this was going to Kew Garden and charging around for several hours. In Belfast it was taking a pre-planned trip north to the Gobbins trail to walk along ocean cliffs for several hours. After falling asleep on a Hop-on/Hop-off bus we realized that was not a good option while we waited for our room.
Cameron, you really hit the nail on the head, especially the feeling of “why, oh why, did I do this?” once you land. We’re 65 and 69, and just completed our 10th trip to Europe, 7 with Rick Steves tours. Over time we’ve established an arrival routine that always makes the first day a good one. Option A: check into hotel if possible, take a one-hour nap (no more!), and then head out for adventure with an early bedtime. Option B: if room isn’t ready stash bags at the hotel, find a pastry shop, load up on caffeine and sugar, find a lovely park with benches, consume purchases, and soak in the atmosphere until Option A is available. Nothing like sitting in Place Vendome under the trees watching the little kids and their nannies in the play area to depressurize!
Passport Control needs to be digitalized for both final destination and Transfer passengers. LHR has machines which compare your image to the one in your passport and then opens the turnstile. No human interaction & much time saved.
Connecting flight intervals are often too short to be realistic. Arriving in Frankfurt 30 minutes late from the UK I had 15 minutes to go from Terminal B to Terminal Z (on the far side of Terminal B) to make my flight home. It took 40 minutes including long lines at security and passport control in Terminal Z, where they were at change of shift. I made the flight only because they held it briefly for “late arrivals”. They left with a more than 20 empty seats on what had been a sold out flight. I’ll choose a much longer time interval for connecting and avoid the problematic airports. Enjoyed the article, thanks.
I do agree, which is why I gradually adjust my clock to Europe time *before* I go…shortening my day by ½ hour each day for 16 to 18 days prior to departure. Doesn’t work for everybody’s schedule, but heck. I’m retired! I land in Europe bright-eyed and bushy tailed, no head buzz or untimely food cravings. And wits about me for all those decisions and directions after disembarking.
What an entertaining segment! You make a great travel writer! Although my husband and I (both 78) have never been on a RS tour (only because of the level of activity), we use his travel books extensively. We have toured Europe several times, mostly on our own…we like the freedom it gives us to set our own pace. One of our earlier trips was in the 80’s that included Hungary; we loved Budapest. To this day, it is still one of our favorite cities. They were still under communist rule then, so we saw a lot of soldiers throughout the city, as was also the case in Prague.
One tip we can offer to ease the stress of travel is to hire a Limo to take you to the airport and to pick you up. Not having to drive to the airport, look for parking and then navigate to the terminal does wonders for your state of mind! Depending on how many days you will be gone, it might be a lot cheaper too.
I was with you the whole time, Cameron. Sometimes I even put my daypack on the floor and kick it along when I’m in the exhausting passport line cuz my shoulders are killing me. I always learn how to say hello, goodbye, and thank you in the language of the country of my destination and upon arrival, I have a burst of caffeine, be it coffee, black tea, or Diet Pepsi, and remain awake until I go to bed when the locals do. It’s nice to wake up with them, too, and in some cases, it might be due to a rooster’s crowing as my last trip featured.
So true, so true. And for those of us who wait at Baggage Claim for our baggage (usually the last one out), there are lots of other good stories!
You nailed it again Cameron! I think we can all relate!
Rick I like hearing your stories and adventures. I agree with everything you said, but you should try flying from Australia to Europe sometime. That’s a marathon!!
Oh my! I can totally relate with this! I find it’s always the roughest when I have just got off a plane at my destination. I feel like blegh. Yep, emotional, easy to make mistakes. But a good night’s rest helps out.. or least resting in a hotel room.
This article could not have been timed better! I arrived yesterday in Stockholm…two days early for my Rick Steves tour of Scandinavia. Left home in the early afternoon on Thursday and finally got to my hotel at 8 p.m. on Friday. I will be 75 in a few months, and although I’m a youthful and vigorous 74, I had reached the absolute end of my endurance. I definitely had that, “I’m getting too old for this.” feeling! But this morning, after 5 good hours and a couple of hours of lying awake and a great hotel breakfast, I am ready to go exploring…and eager to join my new travel companions when our tour starts tomorrow!
OMG, gotta love Cameron. This is too funny and too true!
That does sound pretty grueling, but I like the point about starting to feel you’re in the next country as soon as you get to the gate. I also find it interesting to walk by the other gates and see who is gathering there.
I hardly dare to make suggestions to someone who has so much experience, but I will say that two things make it easier for me:
1) Either take a day-time flight across the Atlantic, or sleep on the plane. You need earplugs, a sleep mask, and to decline the meals, but it’s worth it.
2) Check your bags, especially if you have to change planes at some point. Unless you are very lucky, your bags will be ready by the time you get through passport control.
My kids (19, 17 and 15) will always remember their first day in Europe. Arriving at 8am in Barcelona. After the bus to the hotel, to stash the backpacks, we walked to the zoo and wondering around the city until 1pm, when our room would be ready. Our perfect forever memory, taking cat naps in the lounge chairs at the rooftop pool, because the rooms weren’t quite ready.
OMG, LOL, I hope I am never too old! Seems I am a baby when it comes to some of these travelers at 80+. I’ll go on my 5th RS tour to Berlin, Prague, and Vienna this summer. But I love Paris, so I always fly to CDG and stay at least a day, or this time for a week with my sister, before flying to where I am touring. The last few trips, I discovered that a round trip from Chicago to CDG and booking internal European flights was cheaper than a round trip with multiple cities involved from the beginning and ending cities on my tours. And did I mention I love Paris? I’ll turn 73 during this tour, celebrated my 65th on my first RS to Greece, posing to race at the Olympic stadium. I just deal with jet lag as it is. Land in the morning, check in my bags, and spend the rest of the day walking, walking, walking. If I took a nap, I would never get up. Keep up the good work, Cameron. I love your honesty in your writing. You tell it like you experience it, just like your readers. A breath of fresh air, assuming we are not in the same room as said 90 second fart!!
Cameron, we just turned tuesday from an 85 day Europe trip,8 countries. Just missed the Paris riots 8 days in March. Mostly driving, some trains, two 78 year old RickNiks, who finished up at Meistertrunk last week in Rothenburg Love your book.
I’m reading this currently on a plane BACK from a week in Munich, Bavaria. You summed it up perfectly and I told myself the exact same thing a week ago… this feeling is only temporary and it will all fall into place — and it did! There’s nothing like traveling … I’ll take the uncomfortable for the amazing life experiences travel to Europe offers.
Rick, you hit the nail on the head. We too just hated the air travel from the US West coast to Switzerland flights !! We were so uncomfotable by the time we got to our Hotel in Lucerne!!!! Fell into bed, slept for hours, BUT were so amazed at the Scenery that we were up and on the go!! Switzerland was AMAZING and cannot wait to book our next trip!! Loved the tour and your books are spot-on!! I rave about your tours to everyone I meet and recommend they Keep on Traveling !!!!
Thank you for distilling the experience so well. And for reminding me that I am not too old for this!
A brief defense/warning for CDG in Paris. We just returned from an 11-day RS Heart of France tour (wonderful!), and Paris is very busy gearing up to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. At the airport this meant undergoing more thorough scanning procedures than ever, and a metal scanner to enter Sainte-Chapelle, as I think the travel and tourism institutions are adapting and working out the bugs for a heightened level of security to be in place next summer. Needless to say – all worth it!
Perfectly summed up except for one thing – I’m arriving in Barcelona at 6 A.M. I hope the hotel will at least take my bag from me, but I was assuming I wouldn’t be able to get into my room until around 3:00 PM, like it is here in USA. Then I do a day’s zombie sightseeing on zero sleep from the night before.
Don’t forget the crappy first night dinner. We wander around and find a restaurant near the hotel that looks good. And inevitably it is mediocre and overpriced. We’ve vowed that going forward we will always have pizza on our first night, without blowing a fortune and lowered expectations. Day two and onward is for delicious local cuisine.
This almost brought tears to my eyes. My 18yo daughter and I are travelling to Europe (Paris, Marseille, Nice, London) next month and it will be her first time. I’m looking forward to experiencing all the inconveniences, big and small, with her, that will hopefully remind us both that some things you’ve just go to earn.
Such a spot on and well written article. We will be traveling to Italy in September and yes, the” WOW I am in Italy” always hits me with a happiness beyond expectations. I live to travel. A warning to all, do not go to sleep early, try to acclimate yourself and wait till evening, this way you will wake in the morning hopefully refreshed and eager to begin your magnificent adventure. Bon Voyage!
Maybe I’m broken, but I kinda love the travel experience (maybe a bit less during Covid-times).
Deciding what to bring, settling in with anticipatory glee at each line or wait, having that small carry-on backpack that won’t trap you in a bathroom stall door, looking at other faces whose features aren’t local to you, eating guilt-free snacks because it’s travel time, reading a book I didn’t have time for, feeling pretty good that my backpack contents don’t fly out like canned snakes when it has to be reviewed by TSA, napping on the plane, playing spy at the airport, looking for clues to transportation options, and then finding them!
Once I’m out of my seat, I’m walking and fresh and raring to go – my first 24 hours of every vacation (or work trip) wraps with movement and activity so I can skip the jet lag altogether and jump in.