Suffering from travel sickness | 5 tips to combat travel sickness

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Especially as a child I struggled with every longer bus ride, even short boat trips and sometimes flights as well – travel sickness always accompanied me. Nowadays, the ride has to be very bumpy to faze me or for me to actually be sick. I tried a lot of different remedies to help with travel sickness and I feel like I am ready to give you tips to combat travel sickness and nausea:

5 tips to combat travel sickness

My family and friends have always provided me with helpful and sometimes even innovative tips to combat travel sickness. Some of the tips have actually helped me, others I came up with myself:

Tip 1: Prevention

Especially on Roadtrips, it is quite easy to counteract travel sickness. Drive yourself or sit on the passenger seat in the front of the car. Don’t read, watch films or listen to audiobooks. If you travel by bus, try to select a window seat in the front. Also, try to look up, this trick still helps me today.

Try to avoid caffeine and alcohol before and during such long and bumpy trips.

Tip 2: Take more trips by boat/bus,…

In my experience, it helps to face travel sickness, like a lot of other things like fears, regularly. Take more busses, don’t avoid boat trips, breathe through bendy roads,… Just don’t give up and let travel sickness stop you from travelling the world.

Before I started my dive master training in Mexico, I didn’t really feel comfortable on boats (unless the water was super calm). I did have to assemble equipment for our customers, give briefings and work on the boat in general – it was part of my training after all – so I had to be brave and push through it. I did feel a little sick every now and then in the beginning, but within a few weeks, I got really used to being and working on boats.  Nowadays, the sea has to be REALLY rough to make me feel queasy.

Tip 3: Massage your wrist on certain spots

There are certain spots on your body and if you apply pressure on them, your travel sickness can be a lot more bearable. The easiest one to get to is on the inner side of your wrist. Massage your wrists for few minutes and you should feel better soon. You are not sure which points to massage/apply pressure on? Have a look here for instructions.

Tip 4: Close your eyes and try to sleep

I try to stay awake the night before I travel to be super tired when I get on the bus/train/plane. Additionally, I also make sure to bring relaxing music and sometimes the (ir)regular movements allow me to drift off to sleep or at least to doze off. It helps me to not notice my environment as much and make the bumps seem less bad.

Tip 5: Let meds help you

BUT, if none of the above works for you, don’t be too proud to let meds help you. Vomex A Reise is a special medication, that allows you to travel without having to think about bringing puke bags. Vomex A Reise are small tablets, that should be taken at least 30 to 60 minutes before you head off. Take one of the tablets and let it melt under your tongue.

You can find the ingredients, the active ingredient and the package insert here – if you are unclear, please contact your doctor or pharmacist.

What are your tips to deal with travel sickness? What do you do when you realize you start to feel sick?

ps. pin me!