I'm about to leave tomorrow for my first trip to Costa Rica. My daughter (15) and I are both prone to motion sickness. We are bringing dramamine with us, but I'm wondering how likely we are to need it - I hate to take it ahead of time (as they recommend) and then be sleepy and find it really wasn't needed.

Main routes I'm concerned about:

4-in-1 tour (Poas, waterfall, etc)
Drive from San Jose to Arenal
Cano Negro tour
Jeep/Boat/Jeep from Arenal to Monteverde
Drive from Monteverde to Nosara
Nature Air flight from Nosara to San Jose

If anyone can enlighten me as to the motion sickness factor of any of these routes, I'd be most appreciative! Thanks.

How are you getting around? Car or Interbus or other? Are you normally affected extremely with carsickness? Regular airplanes? I assume boats are the worse for you?

We will be using interbus.

Regular airplanes don't bother us, even when turbulent. But I once took a glider ride over Napa Valley that was torture!

At home, we are mostly affected by boats out on the ocean. We live in Marina del Rey, California and are fine in boats in the protected main channel, but as soon as we hit the open ocean...ugh. Last year we took a glacier cruise in Prince William Sound, Alaska and were fine - I was really glad I did NOT take dramamine!

Also, driving on curvy mountain roads is definitely a problem.

Thanks for your reply.

I saw the 4 in one tour awhile ago but now can't find it. Please let me know if you like it and where I can so infomation on this.
Thanks

jfkosu - I have not actually booked the tour yet, but I just googled "4in1 tour costa rica" and a bunch of sites came up. I don't generally like those type of large group tours that squeeze too much in, but someone told me this was a good one and a good way to get a nice overview.

There are several tours that are similar. The one I have taken twice is The Highlights Tour. The 4 in 1 is basically the same. I am normally not one for alot of tours but this one gives you a quick overview of some of CR. I took my nieces on it last summer (ages 11 and 18) and I think they thought it was worth it.
http://www.ecoscapetours.com/

raquel

If you get seasick mostly in the open ocean, I don't think either Lake Arenal or Rio Frio will bother you. At least for the river, there's not a lot of tossing about and you have your bearings because you're close to land on either side. For Interbus, I recommend you let them know about your motionsickness and ask them to hold front seats for you. They will do this for you, as we requested this as well. (I don't know about you, but back seats are worse for us). The road to La Paz is quite windy, but I don't remember ups and downs, pretty much up, up, up, so it's not too bad in that way. The Sansa/Nature air airplanes will not be as bad as a glider. Of course you can't predict turbulence, but they don't have the swaying motion that gliders do, at least with my experience. I'm not sure about the Jeep/Boat/Jeep. The Jeep ride is probably pretty bumpy and rough from Arenal to Monteverde, as I hear that road is terrible (although I haven't done it myself).

The road up to Poas has a lot of curves as does the San Ramon to La Fortuna portion of the drive to Arenal.

The drive from La Fortuna to Cano Negro is over fairly straight roads, as is the portion of the Moteverde drive from Tilaran to Nosara and neither should be much of a problem, but can't comment on the Monteverde to Tilaran section.

My daughter always gets motion sickness & we use Bonine instead of Dramamine because
it doesn't cause the same drowsy side effects that Dramamine does. On our first trip we didn't think to bring it so she did get sick on the drive from SJO to Arenal. The Monteverde drive isn't that bad (motion sickness wise) you're driving very slow & it's extremely bumpy which seemed to keep her from getting sick. I would definitely suggest taking some before the Nature Air flight..we recently took a small plane in Panama & were very glad we all took it before. Have fun!

Thank you very much. I appreciate all the helpful replies. I think we will try Bonine, for all but the boat rides, just to be on the safe side. And ask for seats up front, if possible (that's assuming all our fellow passengers have not made the same request!)

I really don't suffer from motion sickness very often, but I got queasy on the drive from SJO to Arenal. Our driver gave me something for it, and that seemed to help. Next time, I will take Dramamine for that drive. We also took it before our Sansa flight just as a precaution, but it was a smooth ride. Definitely did not need it on Cano Negro - smooth ride along the river, and I think it helps that you're out in the open air. Have a wonderful time!

Thank you!

I realize it's a bit (!) late, but I realized I never reported back on our experience - so in the off chance it might help someone else....

- never took the 4-in-1 tour

-can't remember the ride to Arenal,so it couldn't have been THAT bad

-Cano Negro definitely was not a problem - smooth and peaceful ride there and boat ride.

-jeep/boat/jeep was more "roughing it" than I had expected (had to walk a little ways on rough, rocky hill - perhaps the pouring rain made it seem more challenging - jeep was crowded) but ended up being a fun experience,and motion sickness was not a problem because the ride was super bumpy and slow, but not wildly twisty.

-Drive from Monteverde to Nosara - don't remember any motion sickness, just several challenging river crossings that necessitated us changing jeeps and walking across narrow bridges to a new driver on the other side!

-Nature Air flight - we talk precautionary Bonine and were fine. But two other people we saw on the flight (one poor pregnant lady in front of us) ended up making use of the air sickness bags.

All together, it was a wonderful trip! Thanks to everyone who advised me.

Look for meclizine (Bonine), it is better than actual Dramamine. I have noted that lately some Dramamine is actually meclizine. Check the ingredients.

The 24 hr nondrowsy dramamine is the same drug as Bonine. This is much better to take as it really is nondrowsy. My son had severe motion sickness. (It has gotten better with age) We also used the wrist bands. If you get motion sickness, I would take Dramamine for most transfers in CR.

Agree! I even got carsick--and I never do--on the drive from San Jose to the Arenal. We stopped for a few minutes, I took some Dramamine, and it went away, but there are some very curvy roads in CR.

I'm not even sure they make the old formulation of Dramamine (dimenhydrinate) anymore. The new Dramamine (meclizine) is the same as Bonine. It can still cause drowsiness in some people, but nothing like the old product.

I'm a pharmacist.