Nausea Index: road trips

The bumpiest road trips, ranked

Some famous drives earn their reputation one hairpin at a time. This table ranks every route in our road trip guides by how likely it is to make a passenger carsick, and names the exact stretch where it usually starts.

This cut of the Dizzout Nausea Index ranks 46 road trips. 17 entries sit in the top band, rated notorious: Chiang Mai to Chiang Mai (loop), Coll dels Reis to Port de sa Calobra, Curtea de Arges to Cartisoara and 14 more. Every rating is the one already published in the entry's own Dizzout guide, so a row summarizes a full guide, not a lab test.

Sort by length or country to plan around it, and open any drive for its full guide: the risk sections, the best seat, and what helps mid drive.

Rank
1	Chiang Mai to Chiang Mai (loop)	Thailand	mountain loop road	373	Notorious 92	Route 1095 Chiang Mai to Pai (signed at 762 curves)
2	Coll dels Reis to Port de sa Calobra	Spain	cliffside hairpin descent	7.6	Notorious 92	Nus de sa Corbata (270 degree loop)
3	Curtea de Arges to Cartisoara	Romania	alpine switchback pass	70	Notorious 92	Balea waterfall to Balea Lake (13 km of switchbacks)
4	Denver to Aspen	United States	mountain highway	200	Notorious 92	Eisenhower Tunnel approach
5	Inverness to Inverness (loop)	United Kingdom	single-track rural roads	516	Notorious 92	Bealach na Bà (Applecross Pass)
6	Kahului to Hana	United States	jungle cliff road	52	Notorious 92	Twin Falls to Wailua
7	Lauro Muller to Bom Jardim da Serra	Brazil	escarpment switchback climb	21	Notorious 92	The 12 km escarpment wall
8	Nikko to Lake Chuzenji	Japan	one-way mountain hairpin roads	9.8	Notorious 92	Second Irohazaka uphill hairpin stack
9	Prato allo Stelvio to Bormio	Italy	high alpine hairpin pass	29	Notorious 92	The hairpin ladder above Prato allo Stelvio (48 bends on the South Tyrol ramp)
10	Rome to Amalfi	Italy	highway then coastal cliff	175	Notorious 92	SS163 between Vietri and Amalfi
11	San Francisco to Los Angeles	United States	coastal cliff road	460	Notorious 92	Big Sur (entire stretch)
12	Sorrento to Salerno	Italy	coastal cliff road	35	Notorious 92	Positano to Praiano cliff stretch
13	Sospel to La Bollene-Vesubie	France	narrow rally mountain pass	19	Notorious 92	Sospel to Moulinet hairpins
14	Tail of the Dragon (Deals Gap) to Tabcat Creek Bridge	United States	tight two-lane mountain road with near-continuous curves	11	Notorious 92	The named curve clusters - Copperhead Corner, Hog Pen Bend, Gravity Cavity and Brake or Bust Bend
15	West Glacier to St. Mary	United States	mountain pass	50	Notorious 92	The Loop switchback
16	Zhangjiajie to Tianmen Cave	China	stacked mountain switchbacks (bus only)	6.7	Notorious 92	Lower switchback wall
17	Zurich to Zurich (loop)	Switzerland	alpine mountain roads	1,000	Notorious 92	Fluela Pass (2,383 m)
18	Andalsnes to Valldal	Norway	mountain hairpin wall	31	Rough 75	The 11 hairpin wall above Isterdalen
19	Baddeck to Baddeck (loop)	Canada	coastal mountain road	185	Rough 75	MacKenzie Mountain switchbacks (descent to Pleasant Bay)
20	Bruck an der Grossglocknerstrasse to Heiligenblut	Austria	engineered alpine toll road	30	Rough 75	Fuscher Torl climb from the Bruck side
21	Cherokee, NC to Waynesboro, VA	United States	mountain scenic highway	469	Rough 75	Asheville to Boone (most curves)
22	Da Nang to Lang Co	Vietnam	coastal mountain pass	13	Rough 75	South side switchbacks above Da Nang
23	Dubai to Fujairah	United Arab Emirates	mountain highway	85	Rough 75	Wadi Ham mountain pass
24	Dubai to Muscat	United Arab Emirates / Oman	desert highway then mountain	290	Rough 75	Wadi Jizzi mountain pass
25	Hout Bay to Noordhoek	South Africa	coastal cliff road	5.6	Rough 75	Ascent out of Hout Bay to Chapman's Point
26	Los Andes to Mendoza	Chile / Argentina	high Andes switchback crossing	165	Rough 75	Los Caracoles switchback wall (29 bends)
27	Manali to Leh	India	high altitude mountain highway	265	Rough 75	Gata Loops (21 hairpin bends)
28	Marrakech to Ouarzazate	Morocco	mountain pass highway	122	Rough 75	Taddert to the summit climb
29	Queenstown to Wanaka	New Zealand	high country hairpin road	43	Rough 75	The zigzag above Arrow Junction
30	Te Anau to Milford Sound (Piopiotahi)	New Zealand	alpine valley road with a steep hairpin descent	74	Rough 75	Homer Tunnel descent (1.2 km, ~1:10 grade, single-lane, unlined granite)
31	Torquay to Allansford	Australia	coastal cliff road	150	Rough 75	Lorne to Apollo Bay
32	Underberg to Mokhotlong	South Africa / Lesotho	gravel 4x4 mountain pass	58	Rough 75	Switchback stack below Sani Top
33	Bangkok to Chiang Mai	Thailand	mixed (highway then mountain)	435	Manageable 50	Lampang to Chiang Mai mountain section
34	Cape Town to Port Elizabeth	South Africa	coastal highway	470	Manageable 50	Sir Lowry's Pass
35	Chicago to Santa Monica	United States	mixed (urban, plains, desert, mountain)	2,448	Manageable 50	Sandia Mountains (New Mexico)
36	Killarney to Killarney (loop)	Ireland	narrow coastal loop road	111	Manageable 50	Coomakista Pass between Waterville and Caherdaniel
37	Los Angeles to Las Vegas	United States	desert highway	270	Manageable 50	Cajon Pass
38	Miami to Key West	United States	overseas highway	165	Manageable 50	Seven Mile Bridge
39	Reykjavik to Reykjavik (loop)	Iceland	two-lane rural road	813	Manageable 50	East Fjords (entire stretch)
40	Dubai to Abu Dhabi	United Arab Emirates	desert highway	95	Gentle 25	Interchange 8 traffic backups
41	London to Edinburgh	United Kingdom	motorway	405	Gentle 25	M25 entry traffic
42	Nashville to Natchez	United States	scenic parkway	444	Gentle 25	None significant
43	New York to Washington DC	United States	highway	230	Gentle 25	New Jersey Turnpike near tunnels
44	Paris to Nice	France	autoroute	580	Gentle 25	A7 Vallée du Rhône heavy summer traffic
45	Sydney to Melbourne	Australia	highway	545	Gentle 25	Goulburn descent
46	Tokyo to Kyoto	Japan	high-speed rail	320	Gentle 25	None - entire route is smooth

46 entries. Equal ratings tie on purpose: the guides rate in four bands, and this table does not pretend to more precision than they carry.

How this table is ranked

Each drive inherits the rating already published in its Dizzout route guide. A guide rates a route in one of four bands, gentle to notorious, from the road's own geometry (switchback density, grades, how long the winding sections run), its terrain, and what passengers consistently report. The bands map to fixed scores (gentle 25, manageable 50, rough 75, notorious 92), and equal ratings tie.

This is a motion sickness ranking, not a safety ranking. A road can be superbly engineered and still fold a back seat passenger in ten minutes, and the worst stretch column names where that tends to happen.

The data behind this table

The full Nausea Index: every rated journey on the site in one cross category list.
The World Nausea Map: the same ratings placed where they actually are.
Motion sickness statistics: who gets motion sick, and how often, with sources.

Riding one of these roads soon?

The back seat on a hairpin road is where it hits. Sit up front, eyes on the road ahead, and keep Dizzout in your ears: drug-free sound therapy, relief in about 90 seconds, works with any headphones.

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.

Stop car sickness

Try it free

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

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.

Questions people ask

What is the bumpiest road trip for motion sickness?

Our guides rate 17 entries notorious, the top band: Chiang Mai to Chiang Mai (loop) (Route 1095 Chiang Mai to Pai (signed at 762 curves)); Coll dels Reis to Port de sa Calobra (Nus de sa Corbata (270 degree loop)); Curtea de Arges to Cartisoara (Balea waterfall to Balea Lake (13 km of switchbacks)); and 14 more. Equal ratings tie on purpose, and each name links to the full guide behind its rating.

What pushes a drive into the top band?

Continuous switchbacks with no straight recovery sections, long steep descents, and curves that arrive faster than a passenger can anticipate them. The Sa Calobra road packs about 26 bends, most of them hairpins, into under 8 miles, the Stelvio carries 48 bends on its South Tyrol ramp alone, and the Road to Hana runs 620 curves in 52 miles. Length matters less than density: a short pass can outrank a full day drive.

Is a very high rating a reason to skip the drive?

Usually not. These are some of the best drives in the world, which is exactly why they are in our guides. The rating tells you to prepare: put the queasiest passenger in the front, plan stops at the viewpoints, keep eyes off screens through the worst stretch, and have relief ready before the bends start.

Keep going

Other cuts of the index: roughest sea crossings, biggest cruise ships, worst disney and universal rides.

Updated 2026-09-05. Ratings and figures come from the Dizzout guides linked in each row and change only when a guide changes. This page is educational and is not medical advice.