Motion Sickness on Road Trips: Route-by-Route Guide
Some routes are notoriously rough - winding mountain passes, long desert stretches, switchbacks. Find your route below for terrain, motion risk, and specific prevention tips.
Travel season:
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving week means long drives, full cars and packed flights, often in the dark.
AAA counted a record 81.8 million Thanksgiving travelers in 2025, and nearly nine in ten went by car. Source
If you ride, not drive
- Take the front passenger seat if you can, and keep your eyes on the road ahead rather than a phone or a book.
- Set the vents to fresh air and keep the car cool. A warm, packed car makes nausea build faster.
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Australia
Austria
Brazil
Canada
Chile / Argentina
China
France
Iceland
India
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Morocco
New Zealand
Norway
Romania
South Africa
South Africa / Lesotho
Spain
Switzerland
Thailand
United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates / Oman
United Kingdom
United States
- Cherokee, NC → Waynesboro, VARisk: high · 469 mi · ~14h
- Chicago → Santa MonicaRisk: moderate · 2448 mi · ~38h
- Denver → AspenRisk: very high · 200 mi · ~4h
- Kahului → HanaRisk: very high · 52 mi · ~3h
- Los Angeles → Las VegasRisk: moderate · 270 mi · ~4.5h
- Miami → Key WestRisk: moderate · 165 mi · ~3.5h
- Nashville → NatchezRisk: low · 444 mi · ~10h
- New York → Washington DCRisk: low · 230 mi · ~4h
- San Francisco → Los AngelesRisk: very high · 460 mi · ~10h
- Tail of the Dragon (Deals Gap) → Tabcat Creek BridgeRisk: very high · 11 mi · ~0.5h
- West Glacier → St. MaryRisk: very high · 50 mi · ~2h
Vietnam
Busy travel dates ahead
Holiday trips run longer, fuller and later than everyday travel, so motion sickness has more chances to start. These are the next peaks for this kind of trip.
ThanksgivingOn now
Thanksgiving week means long drives, full cars and packed flights, often in the dark.
Christmas and New Year
The run from the weekend before Christmas to the first days of January is one of the busiest travel stretches of the year: family drives, full trains and holiday flights.
Presidents' Day weekend
Presidents' Day weekend sends families up mountain roads to the ski slopes and onto full flights for a winter break.
Spring break
Through March, spring break sends students and families to beaches, theme parks and cruise ports, mostly on full flights and long drives.
Related
- The world nausea mapEvery route here plotted, with the seas, rides and parks.
- The most car-sick roads, measuredEvery bend counted on 26 of these drives, ranked by bends per km.
- The Nausea IndexThe same risk ratings as one ranked list.
- The bumpiest road trips, rankedEvery route here, highest risk first.
- Best seat in every vehicleWhere to sit in a car, and why it works.
- Long drives without the nauseaWhat to do before and during the drive.
- Films on AR glasses in the carWhy XREAL and VITURE glasses can make passengers sick, and the display modes to try.