The drop is the point. Here is where to take it.
What a Madeira canyon costs before you get wet. Which Queenstown jet boat actually runs the rock walls. How cold a Slovenian gorge is in June. Reviews of the adrenaline trips you can book, in the places that run them properly.
Four adrenaline days worth crossing a border for.
A canyon, a jet boat, a cliff and a cable over the jungle. What each one costs, and what the people strapped in ahead of you had to say.
01The famous oneShotover River Extreme Jet Boat Ride in QueenstownNinety degrees at speed, a hand signal from the driver, and canyon walls close enough to touch. The trip Queenstown built its reputation on.
02The wet oneCanyoning Madeira Island – Level OneBasalt, cold water and a rope every fifty metres, an hour up the mountain from Funchal. Level one, so no experience is asked for.
03The all-day oneBarcelona Costa Brava Kayak, Snorkel & Cliff Jump Day TourPaddle the Costa Brava coves, swim into a cave, then climb out and jump back in. The Catalan version of a beach day.
04The loud oneExtreme Adventure, Wildest Bridge, ATV & ZiplinesA suspension bridge, a quad through the Sierra Madre and a cable run out over the canopy above Puerto Vallarta.
Portugal runs the best water-canyons in Europe.
Volcanic rock, an ocean that stays swimmable into November, and a guiding scene that has been descending the same watercourses for twenty years. Madeira and Sao Miguel drop through basalt. The Algarve trades the rope for the swim. Three honest ways to spend the day wet.
What an adrenaline operator asks before you are allowed to jump.
Most cancelled bookings are not weather. They are a weight limit, a swim test, a licence sitting in a hotel safe, or a canyon that only opens for four months. Read the conditions when you book, not at the meeting point.
- 01Weight and ageBungee and canyon swings run a floor and a ceiling, usually around 35kg to 120kg, and most operators will weigh you on the day.
- 02Can you swimCanyoning, coasteering and cliff jumping all end in deep water. A wetsuit floats you, a non-swimmer still gets turned away.
- 03A licence, sometimesQuads and buggies on public road sections need a car licence in Portugal, Spain and Mexico. Off-road only, usually not.
- 04The season is shortAlpine canyons run on snowmelt and open roughly May to September. Winter bookings on those routes are a different, colder trip.
Canyoning is the biggest thing on this site, and it is not close.
Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia and the French Alps all run commercial watercourses with a rope, a wetsuit and a guide who has done that descent three hundred times. Start with the three most-booked, then pick a country and a grade.
- 1Canyoning Da Lat Vietnamfrom $69
- 2Full Day Canyoning Activity in Da Lat with Lunchfrom $80
- 3Matacanes : Canyoning + Hiking + Water Jumps + Rappel + Cavesfrom $149
The adrenaline trips more people strap into than any others.
Every adrenaline review on the site →Ordered by how many travellers have actually been through the harness, with what earns each one the slot.
1
ThrillSeekers: Aruba UTV Tour & Cliff Jump at Natural Pool
Review of Aruba’s 6-hour UTV adventure through Arikok, with cliff jumps, snorkeling, coastal landmarks, lunch, and practical booking tips.
Read our review →
2
Aruba UTV Tour with Natural Cave Pool and Cliff Jumping
from $121
3
Barcelona Costa Brava Kayak, Snorkel & Cliff Jump Day Tour
from $102
4
Extreme Adventure, Wildest Bridge, ATV & Ziplines
from $129
5
Chichen Itza Gastronomic, Valladolid and Cenote Extremo
from $29
6
Shotover River Extreme Jet Boat Ride in Queenstown
from $113
7
Costa Brava Kayak, Snorkel & Cliff Jump & Lunch
from $100
8
Quad Bike Tour, Snorkeling, and Cliff Jumping
from $62
What one of these days actually sets you back.
Every trip here, grouped by price. A surprising number of the good ones come in under the price of a decent dinner.
Turkish rafting, a Cancun zip line, an adventure-park pass, the short jet boat circuits.
The standard day: a guided canyon, an iron route, a full jet boat run, half a day on a quad.
Multi-canyon days, private guiding, helicopter access and the descent you plan the trip around.
Six countries that build the whole week around the adrenaline.
Atlantic canyons in Portugal, iron routes bolted across Spain, cenotes and jungle cable in Mexico, red-rock rivers in the American southwest, New Zealand where half of this was invented, and the Cetina running out of the Croatian karst.
Three adrenaline sports that need the right geology.
You cannot coasteer without sea cliffs. You cannot run an iron route without a wall somebody bolted a century ago. And a cenote only exists where a limestone roof fell in.
Coasteering
Pembrokeshire guides named it in the nineties: swim the base of a sea cliff, scramble the ledges, jump the gaps, repeat until the tide turns you round. It travelled to the Algarve, Mallorca and the Istrian coast because those places have the same undercut limestone and warmer water. Helmet, buoyancy aid, old trainers, and a guide who knows which ledge is deep enough today.
- 1Award Winner Premium Kayak and Coasteering Adventure with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 472 reviews
- 2Coasteering Experience in Newquay★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 465 reviews
- 3Half-Day Coasteering Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 447 reviews
Via ferrata
The first iron routes were strung across the Dolomites to move troops in 1915, and the hardware never came down. A steel cable runs the length of the wall, you clip two lanyards to it and move one at a time, and exposure does the rest. Spain and Italy have the densest networks. No climbing experience is needed, a head for height is.
- 1Banff: Mount Norquay 2.5 or 4-Hour Guided Via Ferrata Climb★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 305 reviews
- 2Sant Feliu de Guixols: Climb Via Ferrata Cala del Molí★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 253 reviews
- 3Via Ferrata / Rappel Adventure in East Zion★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 224 reviews
Cenotes
The Yucatan has no rivers. Rain drains straight through the limestone into a flooded cave system, and where a chamber roof collapsed you get a cenote: a shaft of daylight, water at twenty-five degrees, and visibility measured in tens of metres. Some are open pools, some are half-lit caverns you rappel into off the rim.
- 1Chichen Itza Gastronomic, Valladolid and Cenote Extremo★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,558 reviews
- 2Selva Maya Eco Adventure Park: Ziplining, Hanging Bridges, Rappelling and Cenote★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,057 reviews
- 3Chichen Itza Gastronomic, Valladolid and Cenote Extremo★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 710 reviews
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