Seasickness on the Ferries

Not all Canarian ferry crossings are equal: the half-hour hop between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura is usually flat calm, while the open-water run between Tenerife and Gran Canaria has a long-standing reputation for emptying stomachs. Which boat you take, which route you take it on and where you sit make far more difference than anything you swallow beforehand.

The islands are connected by a genuinely good ferry network — several operators, frequent sailings, cars carried, and fares that often undercut flying. The mechanics of booking, timetables and vehicle loading are covered on our guide to getting between the islands by sea. What follows is the narrower question of whether you will enjoy it.

The short answer: choose a sheltered route if you can, choose a big conventional ship over a fast craft when the sea is up, sit low and central, look at the horizon, and take something an hour before you sail rather than when you start feeling green.

Why some channels are rough and others are not

The Atlantic swell arrives from the north-west, and the trade wind blows from the north-east almost all year. An island in the way of either creates a wind shadow and a wave shadow behind it. Crossings that stay inside those shadows are comfortable; crossings that cut across open water between two tall islands are not.

There is a second effect that explains the worst of it. When a steady wind meets a high island it cannot easily climb, it accelerates around the ends — and in a channel between two high islands, those accelerated streams meet. The strait between Tenerife and Gran Canaria is exactly that geometry, with two peaks of nearly 2,000 and 3,700 metres on either side of a deep, wide gap. The water is usually calmest in the first and last few miles, close to land, and roughest in the middle third where the funnelled wind has the most fetch to build a sea. Our page on how windy the islands really are covers the same forces on land.

The crossings, from calmest to worst

Treat those times as typical rather than exact — they vary by operator and by vessel, and timetables change with the season. The ranking, though, is stable, and locals will tell you the same one. Agaete is a beautiful little port, and the bus link down to Las Palmas is efficient, but on a windy day that crossing earns its reputation.

Fast ferry or conventional ship?

The fast craft are catamarans and trimarans: light, aluminium, riding high on slender hulls and doing well over thirty knots. They are wonderful in calm water and get you there in half the time. In a swell they behave quite differently from a conventional ship — instead of rolling slowly they slam, pitch and shudder, and the motion is quick and unpredictable. Quick motion is what the inner ear struggles with most.

The big conventional ferries are heavy, deep-draughted steel ships. They are slower, sometimes by a factor of two, and they roll rather than slam. That slower, more regular movement is far easier to tolerate, and there is space to walk about, lie down or sit outside.

So the useful rule is: on a calm morning take the fast boat and enjoy the saved hour. If the forecast is windy, or if anyone in the party is a known sufferer, book the slow ship and accept the extra time. If the sea is bad enough, the operators cancel fast sailings while the conventional ones continue — which tells you everything about the difference.

Where to sit

Motion is smallest near a ship's centre of gravity: low down and midships, roughly over the waterline and halfway along. That is the seat to aim for, and on most Canarian fast craft it means the middle of the main saloon rather than the panoramic seats at the bow.

• Avoid the bow. The front rises and falls furthest, and on a fast craft it slams.
• Avoid the top deck aft in a following sea, where the corkscrewing is worst.
• Take a window seat if you can, or better, go out on deck. Fresh air and a fixed horizon are the two most effective free remedies there are.
• Face forward. Sitting backwards makes the mismatch between what your eyes see and what your inner ear feels considerably worse.
• Do not read, and do not scroll. A phone held in a moving cabin is the single fastest way to feel ill. Look at the island ahead instead.

What to take, and when

Every effective remedy works better as prevention than as cure. Once nausea has started, your stomach has largely stopped absorbing anything, so the tablet you take at the first queasy moment may never get into your system. Take it an hour to ninety minutes before boarding.

• Hyoscine (scopolamine) — tablets or the behind-the-ear patch, widely regarded as the most effective option. The patch needs applying several hours ahead and is not suitable for everyone; it is prescription-only in some countries.
• Cinnarizine — sold in the UK as Stugeron, an old favourite for sea crossings and generally well tolerated, though it causes drowsiness.
• Dimenhydrinate — the standard Spanish answer. Ask a pharmacist for Biodramina and this is what you will be handed; it is sold over the counter in every farmacia in the islands, including at the ports. There is also a formulation combined with caffeine intended to offset the drowsiness, so say whether you are driving at the other end and let the pharmacist pick. Our guide to using a Canarian pharmacy explains how the over-the-counter system works.
• Ginger — capsules, crystallised root or a strong ginger drink. The evidence is mixed but it is harmless, and plenty of people swear by it.
• Acupressure bands — no convincing trial evidence, no side effects, and a placebo that works is still a result on an 80-minute crossing.

Check interactions and suitability if you are pregnant, on other medication, or buying for a child — several of these have age limits. The advice for travelling while pregnant is worth reading first.

Eat something, but not that

Sailing on an empty stomach is a mistake; so is a full fried breakfast. Something plain and dry an hour before — bread, a banana, plain biscuits — settles things better than either extreme. Keep sipping water. Skip the coffee if it usually makes you jittery, and skip alcohol entirely: last night's wine is a reliable predictor of this morning's misery, and the bar on board is not your friend.

If it starts anyway

Get outside, or at least to a window. Fix your eyes on the horizon or on the island you are heading for, because a stable visual reference is what your brain is missing. Keep your head still against the seat back rather than letting it move independently. Loosen anything tight. Breathe slowly. Cold air on the face helps a lot.

If you are going to be sick, go to the rail on the downwind side or use the bag — do not try to make it to the toilets, which are usually the worst-smelling, least-ventilated part of the ship and in the wrong place for motion. And take comfort from the fact that it nearly always stops the moment you step ashore; genuine seasickness that persists on land is rare.

Ways to avoid the question entirely

Two of them. The first is to fly: the little turboprops described on our page about hopping between the islands by air cross the same channel in twenty-five minutes and are unaffected by swell, though they have their own bumpy moments in the lee of the mountains.

The second is to design the trip so the worst crossing never comes up. There is no rule that island-hopping must include the Agaete run; our suggested multi-island routes can be built around the sheltered legs. If you simply want a taste of the sea, the short run over to La Graciosa from northern Lanzarote is ten minutes of exposure rather than ninety, and the flat little island at the other end is worth the fidget. For transfers, timetables and booking across all of this, our sister site viamo.net is the place to compare operators.

So, is it worth worrying about?

For most people, no. The Lanzarote–Fuerteventura and Tenerife–La Gomera crossings are shorter than a bus ride and calm the great majority of the time, and thousands of visitors make them daily without a thought. The routes that deserve respect are the long exposed ones and the Gran Canaria–Tenerife channel on a windy day.

If you know you suffer, do the simple things: big ship, low seat, middle of the vessel, tablet an hour before, eyes on the horizon, no phone. Done properly, a Canarian crossing is one of the best parts of the trip — dolphins alongside more often than you would expect, as our page on the islands' whales and dolphins explains, and a view of the volcanoes from the water that no road gives you.