Motion sickness medicine names around the world: Gravol, Dramamine and their equivalents

You know exactly which box works for you at home. Then you land somewhere else, walk into a pharmacy, say the brand name, and get a polite blank look. It is not the pharmacist's fault: the brand you trust may genuinely not exist there, and in a few cases the drug inside it does not either.

This is the cheat sheet for that moment. One table, then a short tour of each drug family: who sells it, what it is called there, and what to ask for when the answer is "we don't have that here."

The one table to bookmark

Screenshot this before you fly. The left column is the name that matters: the generic drug name printed in small type under every brand. It is the one name a pharmacist anywhere will recognise.

Dimenhydrinate: Gravol, Dramamine and friends

This is the classic North American motion sickness drug, a sedating antihistamine sold over the counter. In the US the famous brand is Dramamine Original Formula, with Driminate as a common generic. In Canada the exact same active ingredient wears a different coat: Gravol, whose manufacturer states plainly that dimenhydrinate is the active ingredient in all Gravol and Gravol Kids products. So the answer to "what is the US equivalent of Gravol" is simply Dramamine Original, and vice versa. We compare the two labels in detail in Dramamine vs Gravol.

In Australia dimenhydrinate mostly appears inside Travacalm Original, a combination tablet that pairs it with hyoscine hydrobromide and caffeine. In the UK it is the odd one out: British pharmacies rarely stock dimenhydrinate as a stand-alone travel product, because the UK shelf grew up around different drugs entirely.

Meclizine: Bonine, Antivert and the UK gap

Meclizine, spelled meclozine outside the US, is the "less drowsy" antihistamine with a long labelled duration: MedlinePlus notes it is taken about an hour before travel and doses can be 24 hours apart. In the US it is everywhere, as OTC Bonine and Dramamine All Day Less Drowsy, and as the prescription brand Antivert. In New Zealand it turns up as Sea-Legs.

The gap is the UK, where meclozine is not a standard pharmacy item. A British pharmacist asked for "something like Bonine" will usually reach for cinnarizine or cyclizine instead, which brings us to the two drugs Americans have never seen.

Cinnarizine: the European staple Americans cannot buy

Ask for travel sickness tablets in a UK pharmacy and there is a good chance you leave with Stugeron, the brand name for cinnarizine. The NHS lists it as a pharmacy medicine for travel sickness, taken about 2 hours before the journey. It is a fixture across much of Europe too.

In the United States it simply does not exist: cinnarizine is not FDA approved and is not sold there, which is why "stugeron equivalent in usa" has no one-word answer. There is no American product with the same active ingredient. The honest reply is that a US pharmacist can offer a different drug for the same problem, most likely meclizine or dimenhydrinate, and that swapping drug families is exactly the kind of decision to run past the pharmacist rather than guess at.

Cyclizine and hyoscine: the UK pharmacy shelf

Two more names complete the British shelf. Cyclizine, long sold under the brand name Valoid, is an antihistamine the NHS lists as available both over the counter and on prescription. The Valoid tablets themselves have given way to plain generic cyclizine on most UK packs, one more reason to ask by the generic name. Its US history is a dead end: the American brand Marezine was discontinued, and cyclizine is not generally available there. Americans asking for a cyclizine equivalent usually leave with meclizine, its closest US shelf relative, after the same pharmacist conversation.

The other is hyoscine hydrobromide, sold in the UK as Kwells and Joy-Rides chewable tablets and in Australia as Kwells and Travacalm HO. Here the confusion is the name itself: hyoscine and scopolamine are two names for the same molecule. The US uses the name scopolamine and sells it only as a prescription patch, Transderm Scop, while the UK sells the tablets straight off the pharmacy shelf. So an American asking for "scopolamine tablets" at home and a Briton asking for "Kwells" in Miami are both going to hit a wall.

What travelers can buy where

• Americans in the UK or Europe: your Bonine and Dramamine brands are absent, but the pharmacy counter has cinnarizine, cyclizine, hyoscine tablets and promethazine. Most are pharmacist-handed rather than supermarket items, so the conversation happens anyway. Have it.
• Britons and Europeans in the US: Stugeron, Valoid and Kwells do not exist there. The drugstore shelf offers meclizine (Bonine) and dimenhydrinate (Dramamine) instead, different drugs with their own dosing and warnings.
• Canadians heading south: easiest swap on this page. Gravol and Dramamine Original are the same active ingredient at the same 50 mg strength; read the label anyway.
• Anyone in Australia: Kwells, Travacalm and Avomine cover the local shelf, and our medication guide walks through each drug family one page at a time.

Asking at a foreign pharmacy: what to say

Pharmacies abroad are usually excellent at this, if you give them the right handle. Brand names are marketing; generic names are universal.

• Lead with the generic name. "Dimenhydrinate", "meclizine", "cinnarizine": these appear on packaging worldwide even when the brand differs.
• Show it written down. Type the generic name into your phone and show the screen. It sidesteps accents and spelling variants like meclizine versus meclozine.
• Say what it is for. "For motion sickness" or "travel sickness" lets the pharmacist offer the local equivalent even if the exact drug is not stocked.
• Check the active ingredient on the box, not the brand. Some brands change ingredients between countries and even between products in the same line.
• Ask about drowsiness and your other medicines. These are sedating drug families, and the right choice depends on your health, your other prescriptions and who is driving. That question belongs to the pharmacist or your doctor, not a blog table.

The option that needs no translation

There is a quieter lesson in that table: no single pill crosses every border. If your trip spans a few countries, the thing you rely on at home may be unbuyable halfway through, and the local swap is a different drug with different rules. The non-drug basics, a steady horizon, fresh air, the front seat, travel with you for free; we walk through all of them in how to stop motion sickness.

Dizzout sits in that carry-anywhere category too. It is one option, not a promise: precisely calibrated audio through any headphones, designed to help calm the response in about 90 seconds. Drug-free, no drowsiness, nothing to declare at customs, and the same app on both iOS and Android in every country you land in. And if the wave is hitting right now, mid-ferry, mid-descent, start with the feel sick right now protocol.

The relief that crosses every border

Stop the nausea

Your usual pill may not exist where you are going. Dizzout is one option that needs no pharmacy at all: precisely calibrated audio through any headphones, designed to help calm the response in about 90 seconds. Drug-free, no drowsiness, free to download with 3 free sessions.

Try it free

Free to try, no card needed. Or go straight to the App Store or Google Play.

Try 15 seconds in your browser first

Scan to open on your phone

On a computer? Dizzout installs on your phone. Scan the code, or open dizzout.com/get on your phone and it'll take you straight to the right store.

Copy dizzout.com/get

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