by Nicky W. Small

Created on: September 21, 2009   Last Updated: September 22, 2009

What you can and should take on board depends on the airline you fly with. You should always check the size and weight of the hand luggage you are allowed to take on the aircraft before you travel.

Entertainment on the plane depend on how you travel. If you are travelling with someone, you might want to kill the time with chatting. If you are travelling alone and don't feel like chatting to strangers you might want to take a few things to keep you busy during the journey.

If you are only spending couple of hours on the plane (and sometimes the same amount of time in the airport before boarding) you can easily pass the time with reading and listening music. Some people like easy reading while travelling. This is a perfect time to read magazines and papers, and usually you can find an in-flight magazine on the plane which could give you useful information about your destination. Travelling is a great time to take your unread book with you, as you will have time to read on the airport and on the plane. When you are flying to your holiday destination, you might want to look at your guidebooks to get a taste for the place before you reach it.

Besides books and magazines, crosswords and puzzles could be easily taken on the journey, but remember to take pen and pencil with you.

Nowadays more and more people take laptops and portable DVD players with them whilst travelling. Laptops can give a wide range of opportunity for entertainment and if necessary you can get some work done as well. On long flights they usually offer some entertainment with movies and music, but on a shorter flight you might want to use your laptop to watch a short movie. If the travelling time is about two hours only, it might not worth to watch anything on your laptop as you will have to turn it off during taking off and landing. People who like electronic games the options are countless.

If someone is travelling with you, you might want to take a small, magnetic board game to pass the time. In these days you can find a travel version of nearly all of your favorite board games. Card is another option, but you have to think about games which doesn't take big space, or you can use them while waiting for boarding.

Lots of people like to have some sleep on the airplane. Especially if you have a very early or very late flight, or you have to recover time zones, might be a good idea to have some rest. Some people can sleep at any time during traveling others can't doze at all, they are sitting sleeplessly for hours. Try and listen to some of your favorite music, it can help to relax and have some rest even if you are unable to have a proper sleep.

A few hours in the air can be easily passed by with only a good book which could be packed into your carry bag without difficulty. But remember by the time your plane landed you have to close your book and get back from the written world to reality, find the passport control and step into a different country.

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