How to get off a long-haul flight feeling your best

There are ways to minimise the impact of long-haul travel. Photo / Getty Images

Wellness expert Bryony Deery shares travel beauty tips and what she packs before she flies, an app for avoiding jet lag and the best things to do in Copenhagen.

Bryony Deery is always on the move. As the founder of online studio Pilates by Bryony, she leads workout classes around the globe, and as Dior Beauty’s wellness expert, she hosts retreats with Belmond’s Eastern & Oriental Express trains in Malaysia and the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in France. A recent trip to Los Angeles had her staying at the Sunset Tower Hotel, which she considers the best in town because of its buzzy atmosphere.

The 32-year-old, who’s also the co-founder of Cloudcha Matcha, says she’s usually loyal to British Airways, especially for frequent trips between London and Copenhagen, a city she’s just moved to with her fiance, Joe & the Juice founder Kaspar Basse. Denmark’s famous cosiness – recall that this is the country that gave us the home-lifestyle trend hygge – starts at the airport, Deery says.

“It has this dark wooden floor that just changes the vibe and aesthetic as opposed to normal airports that have these cold linoleum floors.” For trips farther afield, she opts for Emirates. “It’s just on another level. The seats and service are amazing,” she says. And, crucially, so is the food, which she will eat, breaking one of her normal travel rules about avoiding airline food.

“I don’t normally eat when I fly. I’ll bring my own food instead. But the quality on Emirates for the food is so much better.”

Here are her travel tips:

Let an app sort out your jet lag. I use this app called Timeshifter to manage jet lag ahead of time. You input your exact flight times a few days before you’re travelling, and it will teach you how to prepare and soften the blow of jet lag. For example, if you’re using melatonin, it will tell you when to take it, or when to drink or not drink caffeine throughout the day. It shifts your schedule through small changes to make everything easier on your body.

Bring these supplements to keep to your fitness goals. I’m a big foodie and I love the whole ritual of going for dinner, but I’ll always try and be mindful of whether I’m getting enough protein in my diet each day. And even when I travel, that’s my one focus. I never restrict or anything like that. One of the ways I help myself reach my protein goals is by taking little sachets of Form Performance Protein powder with me when I travel. I’ll just pop one in my handbag that I can add into a yoghurt in the morning or a smoothie or just get that extra boost of protein in. I’ll also bring Optibac Probiotics and magnesium from Viridian.

I also try to check out new cities on foot. It’s the best way to explore a destination and you make sure to get your steps in.

That hotel ice bucket can be a beauty hack. I get so puffy when I travel. To keep my face looking sculpted, I’ll just order a bucket of ice to the room and dunk the Skinny Confidential Mint Roller in that for about 10 minutes before using it on my face. I also travel with FaceGym’s Gua Sha [multisculpt tool]. It’s a must-have for improving circulation and reducing inflammation on your face.

I do my skincare routine on a plane because the thought of wearing makeup on a flight makes me feel claustrophobic. I try to romanticise the downtime that I don’t often have at home to do a full skincare routine. If I’m doing a long haul, I’ll take my Dr Barbara Sturm Mini Cleanser with me, and I also have a Mario Badescu aloe vera facial spray that’s very soothing.

When travel planning, don’t trust everything you see on social media – but do use it. I make sure to look at tagged pictures of hotels on Instagram to see if they actually match what the hotel is advertising on their website and branded accounts, to avoid being catfished by overly flattering photos.

I do find inspiration on social media, though. If anyone posts tips on cities on Instagram throughout the year, I’ll just save them and bookmark it in my travel category. And I then know I can go back there and look at it once I’ve booked a trip to a new destination. The algorithm on TikTok is also so good that it serves you all the inspiration you need.

Try this hotel during your next trip to Copenhagen. Stay at Hotel Sanders. It’s Copenhagen’s answer to Chiltern Firehouse or Chateau Marmont. If you want a really nice night, I’d start out at Restaurant Levi for cocktails at their bar. I get a margarita on the rocks with no sugar and no salt. Then go across the street to Italian restaurant Locale 21 for dinner. It’s so intimate and effortlessly low key. The anchovies and the pastas are amazing. In terms of wellness, there’s a place called One Thirty Labs that does cryotherapy and infrared saunas. And make sure to walk everywhere in Copenhagen. It’s a truly walkable city. Everything is close by and on the water.

Trade Champagne for fennel tea on your flight. I don’t ever drink on planes. It’s not helpful when it comes to bloating and how you’re going to feel when you land, and it also messes with your sleep schedule. Instead, I pack my own tea bags and I’ll drink fennel tea throughout the entire flight. It’s incredible for you. I always used to feel a little funny in my stomach after a long flight, but the fennel tea really helps with that. I also take some healthy snacks aboard like nuts or seaweed, and I’ve recently become obsessed with these new protein bars called Misfits. I get their cookie dough bars as a treat. It can be tricky trying to be healthy when you travel all the time, but the key is just being prepared and having some things on hand so you can make better choices.

Anguilla is home to the best hotel in the world. Cap Juluca, a Belmond Hotel in Anguilla, has the best service I’ve ever experienced. One day I was speaking to one of the waiters on the beach and I was telling him about how I drink my matcha every day, and he noticed I didn’t have a milk frother in my room. When I got back to my room from the beach, there was one waiting for me - they had gone out and bought me one. They just go above and beyond. Cap Juluca also has the most beautiful beaches and water that you’ve ever seen, and the little beach restaurants are so low key with the happiest, relaxed, feet-in-the-sand kind of atmosphere. Speaking of food, Blanchards Restaurant is a five-minute drive from the resort and the fish tacos there are one of my favourite things in the world.