What We’re Reading, Watching, and Playing on Our 26-Hour Flight
Last Updated on June 12, 2025 by Charlotte
(Because Hawai’i Is Gorgeous But Extremely Far Away)
When you live in Hawaii, your “quick trip” options start at five hours. Want to see family on the East Coast? That’s 12 hours with a layover. Want to visit Europe? Congratulations: you’re now on a 26-hour travel saga across multiple time zones, sustained entirely by caffeine, pretzels, and the hope that your neck pillow might finally work this time. Luckily, this isn’t our first sky rodeo. We’ve learned how to entertain ourselves across oceans and continents, and more importantly, how not to. So here’s a peek at what we’re watching, reading, and playing to stay sane on our very long flight (plus a few random rituals we fall back on when all else fails). It’s part survival guide, part personality test, and a guide for how not to be bored out of your brains on long-haul flights.
The Best Movies for Long Haul Fights
I always start a flight with the best of intentions: I’ll watch that poignant indie film I’ve been meaning to see for three years. Maybe a documentary that expands my worldview. But somewhere around hour six, I became a screen lurker, watching someone else’s movie diagonally across the aisle. On my last long flight from Chicago to Honolulu, I watched the entire emotional arc of A Star is Born over a stranger’s shoulder and cried at the ending like I’d been invited. But this time, I’ve come prepared (kind of).
Charlotte’s Movie Picks:
- Crazy Rich Asians – The perfect plane movie. Gorgeous visuals. Iconic soundtrack. Dumpling-based catharsis. I rewatch it on every long-haul flight like it’s a ritual. When United removed it from their catalog, I briefly experienced the five stages of grief.
- Mamma Mia! – ABBA, Meryl, and a remote Greek island, it never gets old!
- Moana 2 – I haven’t seen it yet and am emotionally preparing myself to sob into my travel neck pillow over themes of oceanic belonging and personal growth. Possibly while eating a tiny pack of pretzels.
Travel Buddy’s Movie Picks:
- The Martian – Science, survival, and Matt Damon farming potatoes on Mars. He finds it inspiring. I find it a little stressful.
- Interstellar – A haunting, time-bending space epic about love, gravity, and saving humanity. One of his all-time favorites, especially when paired with plane turbulence.
- He’ll pretend not to watch Mamma Mia! over my shoulder, but we all know he’s invested in Sophie’s journey.
The Best TV Shows for Long Haul Flights
The best TV shows for long-haul flights are all about the pacing. Something comforting, something unhinged, and something emotionally devastating for when the lights are dim and my sense of reality starts to dissolve.
Charlotte‘s TV Picks:
- Bob’s Burgers – My forever comfort show. The animation equivalent of a warm blanket and emotional resilience.
- Secret Lives of Mormon Wives – I don’t even know how I found this, but I cannot stop watching. It’s like watching someone else’s group chat implode.
- Hacks – Razor-sharp and emotionally unwell. I see myself in none of these women and all of them.
- North of North – Quite funny and endearing.
- K-Dramas – My secret weapon for ultra-long flights. Beautiful people, slow-burn romance, and subtitles that keep me focused when I would otherwise be scrolling through blurry selfies. With 16–24 one-hour long episodes per series and cinematic-level drama, it’s like stepping into an alternate emotional universe midair. Two of my favorites are Flower of Evil (a gripping thriller about identity and trust) and Crash Landing on You (a wildly romantic story about a South Korean heiress who crash-lands into North Korea and falls in love with a soldier).
Travel Buddy’s TV Picks:
- Succession – He’s finishing the final season. There will be muttering, financial scheming, and long silences punctuated by phrases like “Waystar Royco” and “boar on the floor.”
- Something Intense but Not Too Loud – If it’s a prestige drama about betrayal, politics, or the collapse of civilization, it’s probably in his queue.
Your Long-Haul Flight TV Strategy
Don’t just download randomly and hope for the best. A 26-hour flight demands structure. Here’s my go-to lineup:
- 1 Comfort Show
- 1 Binge-Worthy Drama
- 1 Reality or True Crime Wildcard
- 1 High-Effort K-Drama that will make you feel something
The Best Books to Read on an Airplane
We approach in-flight reading very differently.
I treat long-haul flights as the ultimate license to read whatever I want without judgment. Fantasy novels? Absolutely. Beachy paperbacks with cheating Nantucket wives? Yes, but only at cruising altitude. Emotionally devastating literary fiction about octopuses and remarkably bright creatures? Always. I bounce between my Kindle, Libby ebooks, and audiobooks depending on mood, eye strain, and legroom.
Travel Buddy, meanwhile, packs exactly two paperback books. He tends to stick to nonfiction (wow, so serious.) He’ll sit calmly reading about exercise science and ultramarathoning while I spiral into chapter twelve of a fantasy romance where the fae prince is emotionally unavailable.
Charlotte’s Book Picks:
- Mistborn Saga – A clever and twisty epic fantasy about a world ruled by tyrants and a rebellion powered by a unique metal-based magic system. I’m already hooked.
- The Daevabad Trilogy – A lush Middle Eastern-inspired fantasy series full of political intrigue, magical creatures, and reluctant alliances.
- Some Elin Hilderbrand novel – Set in Nantucket with rich women and messy affairs. The perfect beach read that I only allow myself to read in-flight. It probably has “Island” in it. Someone’s having an affair. I will inhale it in four hours and feel reborn.
- A Murder Mystery Audiobook (TBD) – I tend to go for twisty, slightly creepy whodunits, something with just enough suspense to keep me awake when my eyelids say otherwise.
Travel Buddy’s Picks:
- The Body – A nonfiction deep dive into the human body that he describes as “weirdly soothing.”
- Sea People – A narrative history of Polynesian exploration that pairs beautifully with flying over the Pacific.
- Born to Run – A cult classic about ultrarunning, barefoot endurance, and the surprising physiology of human movement. It’s equal parts science, story, and spiritual manifesto.
Games to Play on the Plane
Some people nap. I enter the zone. I really like games that I can mindlessly play while listening to my audiobooks.
Charlotte’s Picks:
- Candy Crush – I downloaded it “just for fun.” When I caught COVID, I played nine hours a day and briefly ranked third in the U.S. Travel Buddy eventually banned me from playing it outside of planes because I started neglecting adult responsibilities. On flights, however? It’s game time.
- NYT Crosswords – Mini, Midi, Classic. A good crossword can keep me human.
- Seatback TV Multiplayer Games – Some planes let you play Battleship against random strangers. I once silently annihilated Seat 22C, because I was sitting behind them and I could see their screen bwahahah.
Travel Buddy’s Picks:
- Stardew Valley on mobile – Chill farming, light mining, no drama.
- Offline GeoGuessr – He stares at a photo of a highway and mutters “Estonia.” And he’s always right.
- Sudoku or zoning out with a podcast about grid failure scenarios.
Other Weirdly Entertaining Things We Do on Planes
(Because eventually your phone dies, your neck hurts, and you can only rewatch Mamma Mia! so many times.)
Charlotte’s Picks:
- Cleaning out my camera roll like I’m a minimalist archivist
- Journaling (sometimes profound, sometimes just: “I am tired. Please land.”)
- Writing to-do lists
- Studying GRE vocabulary for no reason except existential boredom
- Rematch the seat back TV screen Battleship game against strangers I’ve never met and will never forget
Travel Buddy’s Picks:
- Mental math (“If we’re going 550 mph and we’ve flown 3 hours—”)
- Podcasts with calm, smart voices explaining climate systems
- Staring into the middle distance and “just thinking,” like a philosophical dad
- “Rawdogging” the flight – For a while, he tried this trend where you do nothing for six hours. No music. No reading. Just vibes and inner monologue. He claims it builds character. I call it psychological brinksmanship.
Final Thoughts Before Takeoff
A 26-hour flight is less about comfort and more about survival. We bring our books, our shows, our snacks, and our coping mechanisms, some wholesome, some wildly unhinged, and try to arrive on the other side with our knees, dignity, and personalities mostly intact.
If you’ve got a long-haul journey coming up, or you’re just nosy like me, I hope this gave you some ideas, or at least made you feel better about your own in-flight habits.
Let me know in the comments: What’s your go-to travel entertainment? Have you ever had a midair screen-lurking experience that changed you? I’ll be answering from row 43 with pretzels in one hand and Candy Crush in the other.
