Motion sickness at Phantasialand: what's rough and how to cope

Photo: JZ85, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized and converted.

Bruhl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany · Phantasialand Schmidt-Loffelhardt GmbH & Co. KG (family-owned) · ~2.1M visitors (2024, industry estimate)

The rides most likely to set you off

Crazy Bats is the hardest ride here for a motion-sensitive rider. A VR headset fills your vision with a moving world that never quite matches what the coaster is doing to your body, and that gap between what you see and what you feel is where motion sickness starts. It runs indoors in the dark, so there is no real horizon to fall back on when it begins to go wrong.

• Crazy Bats: indoor coaster ridden in the dark with a VR headset, so screen motion sits on top of real motion.

• F.L.Y.: launched flying coaster ridden face-down in a prone position, which holds your head at an unusual angle.

• Talocan: top spin that holds riders inverted above fire and water effects.

• Chiapas: log flume that finishes with a very steep drop.

• Colorado Adventure: mine train with fast helices and sudden dips.

Where to reset between rides

When your stomach needs a break, head for Wakobato (slow boat ride), Wurmling Express (kids train), Bolles Riesenrad (small ferris wheel) or Pferdekarussell (horse carousel). Slow visuals, a fixed horizon and a seat that is not spinning give your inner ear time to settle before the next big ride.

Going on Phantasialand? Set it up first

Queue time is the good time to sort this out. The ten minutes after a ride is not. Dizzout is a drug-free app that plays precisely calibrated audio through any headphones you already own, wired or Bluetooth, with relief in about 90 seconds. Free to try.

Before you need it: find out how prone you are

Take the free 2-minute test

Two minutes, no sign-up, and it ends with a drug-free plan to prepare.

Put it on your phone before you go

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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Your survival plan for Phantasialand

1. 1

   Make Crazy Bats your first big ride of the day or skip it outright. It is the ride most likely to end your visit, and it is far harder on a full stomach.

2. 2

   Space out F.L.Y. and Talocan. One holds you face-down, the other holds you upside down, and both keep your head at an unusual angle for a long stretch.

3. 3

   Take Chiapas when you want water rather than inversions. The final drop is steep, but it is one event with a clear view ahead of you.

4. 4

   Use Wakobato when you need to sit still. A slow boat with a stable horizon is the best reset in the park.

5. 5

   Pace the climbs. The park is built on levels, so the walking is steeper than it looks, and tired and overheated is queasier.

6. 6

   Keep earbuds handy and run a Dizzout session at the first queasy moment. Drug-free sound therapy on any headphones, and most people feel better in about 90 seconds.

Before you pack the wristbands or the ginger chews, see which remedies hold up under testing. Anything you take before a park day is a question for a pharmacist or doctor.

Going with kids

The gentle rides are scattered rather than pooled in one zone, so plan a loop rather than a base. A slow boat, a small ferris wheel, a carousel and a kids train cover a young child's day.

Common questions