Compare by activity · 10 swings · 8 grounds · two rankings: height and freefall
Bungy is a drop. A swing is a drop and then the whole canyon.
A canyon swing starts like a bungy – a platform, a step off, seconds of freefall – and then the ropes catch and turn the fall into an arc through the gorge. Operators publish two numbers, and this page ranks both: the height of the platform, and how far you fall before the swing begins. The Nevis Swing, sold as the world's biggest, is measured by its arc: 300 metres.
Platform height, or the drop beneath the swing · 7 entries
250m · 820 ft
Madeira, Portugal · Ground 03 · Madeira
Pulse 5/5The swing itself is 20 metres tall; what makes it the biggest here is what is under it – a 250-metre drop down the same valley the island's zipline runs through. Sold direct.
Source: adrenalineadventures.pt, see the Madeira page
400 ft122 m · 400 ft
Moab, Utah · Ground 09 · Moab & Southern Utah
Pulse 5/5A rope swing off a 400-foot sandstone cliff outside Moab – the desert's answer to the canyon swing, from age eight, sold direct.
Who can: 8+
Source: Operator figures, see the Moab page
111m · 364 ft
Zimbabwe–Zambia border · Ground 18 · Victoria Falls
Pulse 5/5From the same 111-metre bridge as the bungee, but instead of bouncing you swoop out in an arc across the Batoka Gorge below the falls.
Who can: 14+, 40–120 kg
Source: shearwatervictoriafalls.com (Bridge Swing “111 meters above the roaring Zambezi River”)
109m · 358 ft
Queenstown, New Zealand · Ground 21 · Queenstown
Pulse 5/5The original canyon swing, since 2002: 109 metres above the Shotover River, 60 metres of freefall into a 200-metre arc, and a crew that will release you backwards, in a chair or by your ankles if you let them.
Who can: 10+; up to 210 kg combined for tandems
Source: canyonswing.co.nz, FAQs
90m · 295 ft
Grindelwald, Switzerland · Ground 22 · Interlaken
Pulse 5/5A platform wedged between the walls of the Gletscherschlucht, 90 metres above the glacier gorge: 50 metres of freefall, then a pendulum at up to 120 km/h through the slot.
Who can: April to November; from CHF 139
Source: outdoor.ch, Canyon Swing in Grindelwald
45m · 148 ft
Monteverde, Costa Rica · Ground 02 · Costa Rica
Pulse 4/5Step off a platform and swing 148 feet over the cloud forest; it comes bundled with the Monteverde zipline tours rather than as a ticket of its own.
Source: See the Costa Rica page
25m · 82 ft
Tegalalang, Bali · Ground 04 · Bali
Pulse 3/5The Instagram swings above the rice terraces: the highest at Alas Harum is about 25 metres, with 15- and 20-metre swings beside it. Gentle by this page's standards, and the most-booked swing anywhere on Thrillgrounds.
Source: Operator figures, see the Bali page
The number that decides how it feels. The Nevis Swing leads on freefall and on its 300-metre arc, which the operator sells as the biggest swing in the world.
Metres of freefall before the swing catches · 3 entries
70m · 230 ft
Queenstown, New Zealand · Ground 21 · Queenstown
Pulse 5/5Seventy metres of freefall into a 300-metre arc across the Nevis gorge – “the world's biggest swing” in the operator's words, from the same wires as the 134-metre bungy. Solo or tandem, from age ten.
Who can: 10+; single 35–160 kg, tandem up to 220 kg
Source: bungy.co.nz, Nevis Swing (“300M / 984 ft Swing”); GetYourGuide listing “70m Free-Fall”
60m · 197 ft
Queenstown, New Zealand · Ground 21 · Queenstown
Pulse 5/5Sixty metres straight down from the 109-metre platform, then the 200-metre swing at up to 150 km/h by third-party accounts.
Source: canyonswing.co.nz, FAQs
50m · 164 ft
Grindelwald, Switzerland · Ground 22 · Interlaken
Pulse 5/5“The first 50 meters are in free fall” – the operator's line, before the ropes turn it into a swing through the gorge.
Source: outdoor.ch
Records we have not measured ourselves – because the ground is not built yet or the operator publishes nothing we can check. Listed so the ranking is honest.
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Hangs beside Canada's highest suspension bridges at 130 metres over the canyon, but the operator publishes no height or freefall for the swing itself – so the bridge is in the Banff ranking and the swing is not.
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Next to the 47-metre Taupō bungy on the Waikato; the swing's own height is not published.
By arc, the Nevis Swing near Queenstown: a 300-metre arc across the Nevis gorge with about 70 metres of freefall, sold by AJ Hackett as the world's biggest swing. By platform height on these grounds, Madeira's giant swing hangs over a 250-metre drop and the Shotover Canyon Swing sits 109 metres above its river. Different numbers, different bragging rights; we list both.
A bungy cord stretches and bounces you back up on the spot. A canyon swing uses ropes fixed to the far side of the gorge: you fall until they come tight, then you swing through the canyon in an arc. The freefall is often longer than a bungy's – 60 metres at the Shotover, 70 at the Nevis – but the catch is softer, and you can go tandem.
Ten at the Shotover Canyon Swing and the Nevis Swing, eight for the Moab rope swing, fourteen for the Victoria Falls Bridge swing. Tandem swings let a parent go with a child.
Yes: single riders 35 to 160 kg on the Nevis Swing and tandems up to 220 kg; up to 210 kg combined on the Shotover; 40 to 120 kg at Victoria Falls. The Shotover has no minimum weight as long as the harness fits.
The Nevis Swing, the Shotover Canyon Swing, the Grindelwald Canyon Swing, the Victoria Falls Bridge swing and the Bali swings are on GetYourGuide and listed with prices here. The Madeira giant swing, the Moab rope swing and the Monteverde Tarzan swing are sold direct or bundled with other tickets.
On GetYourGuide on the date at the foot of this page: the Bali jungle swings from about $20, the Victoria Falls swing about $101, the Grindelwald swing about €148, the Shotover about $169 and the Nevis Swing about $186 – cheaper than the Nevis bungy off the same wires.
