Travel letters: The flavor of New Orleans

Regarding “Super NOLA” by Millie Ball, Feb. 3. So in New Orleans, evening wear for women consisting of only a coat of paint is acceptable attire and not “tawdry”?

Alex Fernandez

Lakewood

I enjoyed the Travel section article on New Orleans. I have been there only once, in 2008. I know you can’t list all the great restaurants, but under “Whassup?” I would add Jacques-Imo’s Cafe in Uptown New Orleans (8324 Oak St., https://www.jacques-imos.com). Opened in 1996, it is one of the hottest tickets in NOLA for anyone looking for “real N’awlins food.” Outstanding appetizer: shrimp and alligator sausage cheesecake; for an entree, it serves the best fried chicken I’ve had anywhere.

Mona Evans

Marina del Rey

Fighting jet lag

I have a few suggestions for the travelers who wrote about trouble with jet lag in the Feb. 3 On the Spot column [“Catching Up on Jet Lag” by Catharine Hamm.]

1. Instead of two one-week trips, take one two-week trip each year. That way you’d have four or five days to rest and a week and a half of quality non-jet lag time.

2. Imitate the cruise ships and set your clocks one hour ahead each night. If there is a 10-hour difference, start 10 days before your trip and set your clocks ahead one hour each night. Try to replicate the difference in time with sun lamps and trips outside in the sun.

3. Give in to the jet lag. Immediately upon arrival, sleep. Ten, 15, however many hours you need. Try to time it so that you arrive in the middle of the day and can afford to crash for a good 12 hours. Then wake up at normal morning time ready to go.

4. Set your watch to Israeli time on the plane to give yourself a little leeway; forget what time it is “back home.”

Millicent Borges Accardi

Topanga

I read with interest Hamm’s article on jet lag. In the mid-1960s while enrolled in a USC master’s degree program, I researched the literature on circadian rhythms and work-rest cycles. Not surprisingly, the Air Force has done extensive research on the subject. The effects of jet lag can have significant effects on crew and troop readiness when traveling across a surprisingly few time zones. Research showed that it takes a minimum of five days for the human body to completely adapt physiologically to the changed environment.

Given the amount of research that has been done on the subject, I am amazed at companies that still rotate employees on a revolving shift carousel. The effects on productivity and morale must be huge. My in-laws and wife all worked at Camarillo State Hospital on shifts. The state required all employees to work all three shifts; however, wisdom dictated that each shift was for a year.

Paul D. Wilson

Camarillo

Cheap stopover

I think readers would be interested in a cheaper way to break up long-haul flights:

An alternative to paying for a stopover on a very long flight, for instance to South America or Asia, is to go to any of the aggregator sites, enter the particulars for your trip and then select the longest duration flights. Some, of course, will route you all over the globe before plunking you down at your final destination, but a few will get you to the same intermediate airport that the shortest itinerary would have used. What you are looking for is the earliest arrival time that is after your carrier’s last connecting flight that day to your final destination. The airline won’t charge you for a stopover, because it is its schedule that dictates the layover. In effect, you are getting a layover night, which means you can go to an airport hotel, sleep, relax and return to the airport the next morning for the continuing flight. My wife and I have happily used this trick to make long-distance travel tolerable.

Steve Horwitz

Moraga, Calif.