jet lag for how long?

[traveler_t]

How was your jet lag experience? Especially kids. We're coming from the west coast with a 6yo and not sure if we should book activities (outside the hotel) starting 6am for the first days

 

[Kooks and Bay Bay]

I live in the eastern time zone and didn't feel jet lagged at all. I tend to feel much more jet lag when traveling from west to east rather than east to west. So I arrived home at about 7pm and it took 36 hours to start feeling mor normal.

 

[_19disnA]

I agree, traveling eastbound to me is a bigger deal as it relates to jet lag. Traveling west you 'gain' time so you might arrive approx the same time as you departed. Air travel with small children tends to be a long day with travel time to the airport, checking in, security and walking to your departure gate, waiting for departure. If you haven't flown with your children, I would allow extra time to get settled once you arrive.

I avoid those 'red eye' overnight flights when traveling eastbound. You 'lose' a lot of time and when you get home it seems to take a day or two to readjust your schedule.

 

[barb969]

On our trip I was up at 3am the 1st day. I’m on the east coast, you’ll not be up that early being from the west coast. It took a couple of days to adjust.

 

[Van@Disney]

We always make sure we’re up 7:30 the first day but then just hang out and have a restful first day around the pool.

 

[maxbuffmelvin]

I'm from the East Coast, and the only minor disruptions I felt were waking up early and tired at night. The worst jet lag, like most of the prior posts, is the return to the East Coast.

 

[kristensideaoffun]

I’m from the west coast and have traveled to Hawaii with my kids many times. They usually wake up at the same time they do at home (7:30am for our toddler so 4:30am Hawaii time) and then go back to sleep for 30 minutes to an hour when they realize it’s still dark out. We are then up at sunrise pretty much the entire trip. Don’t really feel jet lagged though because it isn’t much of a time change. We are happy our kids only change their sleep schedules by about an hour because we usually experience the jet lag when we get home.

 

[kboo]

How was your jet lag experience? Especially kids. We're coming from the west coast with a 6yo and not sure if we should book activities (outside the hotel) starting 6am for the first days

We came from the east coast recently, but have taken our kids when younger too (ages toddler - 12, now). The first night (arrival night) was kind of rough and we went to bed by 6pm? 7pm? we were up around sunrise most days, but that was ok for us - we booked the first time window to go up Le'ahi (Diamond Head) and it was glorious. By the end of our 10-day trip we were going to bed by 9 and up before 7, which was fine because most of the things we wanted to do were during the day anyway.

In short - totally use that jet lag to book early things - it's less crowded, cooler, and a great experience.

 

[WinterSolider]

How was your jet lag experience? Especially kids. We're coming from the west coast with a 6yo and not sure if we should book activities (outside the hotel) starting 6am for the first days

DO NOT adjust to Hawaii time, at least not fully. Yes, plan things early for your entire trip, not just the first few days. Plan dinners at 4:00 to take advantage of happy hour specials and lighter crowds. Everything closes early in Hawaii anyways so there's no need to adjust your internal clock for the sake of staying up later. Staying somewhat on home time will make the return trip much easier as well, since flying East is way more difficult than flying West.

We fly direct from Boston and have had zero trouble with jet lag whatsoever going to Hawaii 4 times with young kids. Take advantage of early mornings, and be prepared to go to bed early as well.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

We were up at 5am every day and in bed by 8p-9p. Left for all of our adventures by 6am (Road to Hana, etc). We were only there 5 nights so I wouldn't say we ever fully adjusted to Hawaii time. If you have young kids, I imagine they're going to wake up before sunrise. Our girls were 11 and 8 when we went to Hawaii.

 

[NorCalFanatic]

We travel every year from west coast with kids. Usually not an issue on the way there. whatever you do don’t let them nap on arrival day! Taking a nap just messes it up and makes it longer to acclimate to the time zone. Short nap on the plane didn’t seem to mess things up. We found it a little harder coming back, but again, we didn’t let them nap either.