Guide · 9 minute read
Seasickness on a boat in Dubai is rarer than people expect, because the water inside the Palm crescent and along the Creek is close to flat. If you are prone to it, take a tablet an hour before boarding rather than when you start feeling it. After the fact, nothing works well.
By Roshan Shriwastav · Published
Not all boat trips in Dubai are equal for motion. The Creek and the Water Canal are fully sheltered and effectively flat in any conditions. Inside the Palm crescent is nearly as calm. The Marina channel is sheltered until you clear the breakwater.
The open sea beyond the breakwater, and anywhere out towards the World Islands, is where movement starts, usually a gentle roll rather than anything violent, but enough to matter if you are susceptible.
Antihistamine-based tablets (cinnarizine and dimenhydrinate are the two commonly sold in UAE pharmacies) work well if taken sixty to ninety minutes before you board a dhow cruise or a charter. Taken once you feel unwell, they are close to useless, because the stomach has stopped absorbing anything.
The usual trade-off is drowsiness. If that matters, the wristbands and ginger sold alongside them do help some people, though the evidence is thinner. Scopolamine patches work best of all and need a prescription.
This is general information rather than medical advice. Ask a pharmacist, particularly if you are pregnant, taking other medication or buying for a child.
Position matters more than most people expect. The middle of the boat moves least; the bow moves most. Stay outside where you can see the horizon rather than in the saloon, and keep your eyes on land rather than on a phone.
Eat something plain before you board. An empty stomach is worse than a full one. Drink water rather than nothing. And tell the crew early; a captain who knows can slow down, change heading or move you into calmer water, and that fixes it more often than any tablet.
This surprises almost everybody and it is the single most useful thing to know. People brace for the transit and are fine, then start to feel unwell during the swim stop, which they assumed would be the easy part.
The reason is the kind of motion. Under way, a boat meets waves at a steady rate and the movement is a long, predictable roll your inner ear can anticipate. At anchor in any swell the boat lies beam-on and rotates slowly in three directions at once, with no rhythm to learn. That is the motion that causes sickness.
The practical consequences: if you start to feel it at anchor, the fix is usually to get under way rather than to sit still, and the crew know this. Standing on deck watching the horizon is better than sitting down, and going below to lie in a cabin is the worst thing you can do despite being the thing everybody wants to do.
You do not have to gamble on this. Dubai has a genuine spread of options from completely flat to properly lumpy, and picking correctly matters more than any tablet.
If you know you get seasick, book a Creek or Water Canal dhow cruise. These are heavy, slow boats on enclosed water with no swell at any point, and the sensation is closer to a floating restaurant than a boat trip. If you want a private charter, ask for a route that stays inside the Palm crescent and take a morning slot, when the sea off Dubai is at its flattest.
What to avoid: an afternoon charter in winter when a shamal is blowing, anything heading out to the World Islands on a breezy day, and an offshore fishing trip, which is the roughest thing on this coast by a wide margin.
Several ordinary decisions stack the odds against you before you board, and they are easier to change than anything else on this list.
Alcohol the night before is the biggest one. Dehydration and a fragile stomach are exactly the wrong starting condition, and a hangover on a boat is indistinguishable from seasickness until it is much worse. A large greasy breakfast is nearly as bad; something plain and small an hour before is right, and nothing at all is wrong.
Heat and dehydration compound everything. On a Dubai charter you will drink roughly twice what you would ashore, and the early symptoms of mild heat exhaustion (nausea, headache, clamminess) are the same symptoms people attribute to the sea. Drink water steadily from the moment you board rather than when you notice you are thirsty.
Children are more prone to motion sickness than adults, particularly between about two and twelve, and they are much less able to explain what is happening. The same rules apply (outside, amidships, looking at the horizon), but the practical version is keeping them occupied and looking outward rather than at a tablet screen, which is the single most common cause of a sick child on a boat.
Dosing for children, and anything at all during pregnancy, is a question for a pharmacist rather than for us. UAE pharmacies are easy to access and generally happy to advise; go in the day before rather than on the way to the marina.
The same applies to anyone on regular medication, since the common antihistamine tablets interact with a number of things and cause drowsiness on their own. If drowsiness is a problem (you are driving afterwards, or you want to actually enjoy the charter), that is worth raising, because it is the main reason people stop taking them.
Tell someone immediately rather than trying to ride it out quietly. Every crew on this coast deals with it regularly, nobody thinks anything of it, and the responses available to them work.
What the crew can do: change heading so the boat takes the sea at a better angle, get under way if you are at anchor, move you to the best position on deck, and in the worst case cut the route short and head for sheltered water. What they will also do is produce water, something plain to eat and a place to sit outside, all of which help.
The one thing that genuinely does not help is going below to lie down. It removes the horizon, adds engine noise and smell, and turns a manageable twenty minutes into a bad hour. Stay outside, look at the land, and it usually passes.
Antihistamine tablets such as cinnarizine or dimenhydrinate, taken sixty to ninety minutes before boarding rather than after symptoms start. Scopolamine patches are more effective again but need a prescription. Ask a pharmacist about your own circumstances.
Very unlikely. Creek and Water Canal cruises run on fully sheltered water that stays flat in almost any conditions. Marina dhows stay largely inside the channel. Offshore charters are where motion begins.
In the middle of the boat, outside, where you can see the horizon. The bow moves most and an enclosed saloon is the worst place to sit. Watching land rather than a phone helps considerably.
A Creek dhow cruise or a Water Canal cruise. Both are fully sheltered. For a private charter, a route that stays inside the Palm Jumeirah crescent is close to flat almost every day of the year.
Because anchored motion is worse than moving motion. Under way the boat meets waves at a steady, predictable rate; at anchor it lies beam-on and rotates in three directions with no rhythm. The fix is usually to get under way rather than sit still.
No: going below is the worst thing you can do. It removes the horizon and adds engine noise and smell. Stay outside, amidships, standing if you can, and look at land. It usually passes within twenty minutes.
Yes, particularly between about two and twelve. The most common cause on a boat is looking down at a tablet or phone screen. Keep them outside and looking outward. Ask a pharmacist about dosing rather than halving an adult tablet.
Considerably. Dehydration and a fragile stomach are the wrong starting condition, and a hangover on a boat is indistinguishable from seasickness until it becomes worse than both.
The clinical guidance behind the advice on this page: what causes motion sickness, what actually helps, and which remedies have evidence.
Leave the date and roughly how many of you there are and we will come back with the boats that are free and what each costs. No deposit at this stage.
WhatsApp only — messages and calls