Onboard entertainment

If like me, you don’t fall asleep easily while on an airplane, or you don’t fall asleep at all, then you have to come up with some things to do to pass the time.

In most long distance flights you’ll have an entertainment screen in front of you, where you can watch movies, and often TV series and even games. Please note: this is not a free service on every flight and depends on your airline. With some airlines, you have to purchase the entertainment package in advance. You can also get the entertainment package while you’re already on the plane, only then the price is higher than if you book it in advance. And you can’t immediately watch that nice new movies, because it can take a while before the steward(ess) has activated your entertainment system. 

I also recommend that if you’re thinking about paying for the entertainment (to watch movies), you’ll check the airlines website. To see whether they have a list of the movies they offer the month you’re flying. If, like us, you love movies, then chances are that you’ve already seen most of the movies they offer. In that case it would be a waste of money to purchase the entertainment package. Unless of course you’d like to see some movies for a second time. That’s up to you.

Netflix

If you’ve seen most movies before, you are flying with an airline that doesn’t have screens in the headrests, or if your flight is not super long, you can also download Netflix movies and series for offline use. Assuming you have a Netflix account and an iPad or laptop. We personally are really happy that this is possible.

We watch our favorite series and movies we haven’t seen yet on our own iPad. We have a headphone splitter, so we can watch it together on one iPad. It’s also ideal if the weather isn’t as good as you would like at your travel destination. We have had really bad weather and storm on several locations, streets were pretty flooded, so we decided to stay in the hotel for dinner and afterwards just relaxed on our bed with a nice movie and a cocktail 🙂

Read a book

In addition to films, series, digital media and apps, it is also a great opportunity to read a good book. I’m personally not an avid book reader. But when I go on holiday, I always like to buy a good book at our airport. I read it during flights and continue reading on a sun bed at the beach or swimming pool. In the last couple of years I have read a number of interesting books. Mostly books about self development, mindfulness, being happy, traveling and personal growth.

Walk

Even though I personally don’t do it as much as I should, considering my psychical health, I highly recommend taking a walk at least every hour. If you don’t have to go to the toilet, just walk down the aisle a couple of times. Or ask if you can get your travel companion a drink in the galley, where the stewardesses are. Anything to just get a bit of physical exercise.

Learn something

If you’re into taking online courses, reading tutorials and just gaining more knowledge about something, this is the moment to do so. You have all the time you need, while you’re flying to your travel destination. Bring your iPad or laptop, download the course or tutorial to your device and start learning. I’m personally a big fan of LinkedIn Learning. It gives me the opportunity to download complete courses and watch them when and where I want.

Gaming

If you’re into gaming, you can also bring your pocket game console with you or download gaming apps onto your phone or tablet. With apps however, make sure that the game is also suitable to be played offline, since on most planes there’s no wifi available. If you have several flights in your itinerary, make sure you download all upgrades and updates when you’re in your hotel room, where you have wifi. That way you’ll make sure that you’ll be able to play your favorite game while you’re up in the air.