36° 10′ N · 115° 08′ W · From 12,500 feet over the Mojave to the sand · Ground 23
The only city where the tallest thing
is built to be jumped off.
Las Vegas has no mountain, so it built one: a 1,149-foot tower on the north end of the Strip with rides bolted to the top of it and a wire down the side. Below that, a coaster wrapped around a fake Manhattan, ziplines over two streets, and a desert twenty minutes out where the sand starts. Above all of it, a plane door at twelve and a half thousand feet. Scrolling means falling. We show every stop on the way down with real prices, and we say what is not on the platforms – because the busiest zipline in town is not.
Stop 1 · Tandem skydive · Skydive Las Vegas, Jean
12,500FT · OVER THE MOJAVE
The plane climbs out of Jean until the Strip is a grey smear on a brown valley and the mountains are the only thing with edges. Then the door, and thirty to forty-five seconds of Mojave coming at you before the canopy.
One listing, and it is the expensive way in. GetYourGuide has a single skydive product for Las Vegas with hotel pickup at about $299; the operator sells the same jump direct from $199 with a free shuttle from the Strip. About 13,000 people a month search for skydiving here, so we list both routes. Photo: a tandem skydiver in freefall, by a Las Vegas photographer – not this drop zone.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
You are already 921 feet up when they strap you in. Then the Big Shot fires you 160 feet up the needle at 45 miles an hour, and for a second at the top there is nothing around you but Nevada.
The deck is on GetYourGuide, the rides are on Tiqets. The GetYourGuide ticket gets you to the observation deck at 855 feet; Big Shot, X-Scream and Insanity are bought at the top – or picked as add-ons on the Tiqets ticket, which is why it is listed here as a second button. Rides close Tuesday and Wednesday, and in high wind.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Stop 2 · Tower rides · the STRAT, 1,149-ft tower
1,081FT · TOP OF THE BIG SHOT
Stop 3 · Controlled descent · the STRAT
855FT · OFF THE OUTDOOR DECK
A harness, a cable, a machine that has decided how fast you go. None of it helps when the gate opens and the Strip is 855 feet straight down. You step off, and the ground arrives at 40 miles an hour, then gently.
Not a bungy. There is no rebound and no rope – a descender machine pays out cable at a set speed, like the SkyJump in Auckland it is copied from, and you land on your feet. It is the most extreme thing on the Strip that lets you keep your dinner. Photo: the SkyJump's wire and landing pad at the base of the tower.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
The train climbs past the Statue of Liberty and the fake skyline, tips over a 144-foot drop at 67 miles an hour, then a loop, then a dive loop. It has rattled round this casino since 1997, and it feels like it.
The gentlest big number on this page. It is a coaster, so no harness, no briefing, no age limit beyond the height bar – and the most-booked ride on the Strip at GetYourGuide. Go after dark: the drop looks out over the whole lit-up boulevard.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Stop 4 · Roller coaster · New York-New York
203FT · TOP OF THE LIFT HILL
Stop 5 · Zipline · the LINQ Promenade
114FT · LAUNCH TOWER
An elevator to a deck above the promenade, ten cables side by side, and the whole row launches at once. Thirty-five seconds over the crowds and the restaurants, seated or superhero, and you unclip under the High Roller.
Short, and that is the point. It is a two-minute thrill in the middle of an evening, not a half day. The High Roller next door is listed because the zipline lands at its foot and it is the second-tallest wheel in the world at 550 feet – no pulse, all view. Photo: the High Roller, where the lines end.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
The launch tower is a twelve-storey slot machine. The Zip Line drops you from 77 feet and sends you three blocks down Fremont Street seated; the Zoomline goes belly down, five blocks under a canopy of screens.
The most-searched zipline in Vegas, and you cannot book it here. Around 15,000 people a month look for SlotZilla, and neither GetYourGuide nor Tiqets carries it – Fremont Street Experience sells tickets at the tower and on its own site. We would rather tell you that than sell you the LINQ instead. Photo: the SlotZilla tower on Fremont Street.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Stop 6 · Zipline · Fremont Street Experience, downtown
77FT · ZIP LINE LAUNCH
Stop 7 · ATV · Nellis Dunes & the Mojave
0FT · ON THE SAND
Helmet, goggles, a 450cc machine and a guide who points at a dune. The casinos are still on the skyline behind you, and then they are not, and it is just sand, creosote and the throttle for two hours.
The operators publish no dune heights, so this sits at zero. It is the most-booked adventure outside the casinos, from about $97 for a self-drive to $109 guided. Summer afternoons top 100 °F; morning slots are the ones to take. Photo: the Mojave near Jean, south of the city – the same desert, not the dunes.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Twelve minutes over the lit-up boulevard from the airport – the second most-booked thing in the city after the Grand Canyon buses, and the only way to see the whole Strip at once. Operators quote routes, not altitudes, so it stays out of the fall.
Two and a half hours east on the Hualapai reservation, a glass horseshoe hangs 70 feet out over the rim. The tribe says 4,000 feet to the canyon floor; Wikipedia puts the drop directly beneath the glass at 500 to 800 feet – both are true, depending on where you look down. By bus it is a full day, by helicopter a morning.
The flight from Vegas drops 3,200 feet below the rim to a ledge above the Colorado for champagne. The most expensive half day in this ground and the best-rated one.
Below the Hoover Dam the river runs clear and cold through Black Canyon; the paddle to the green-lit cave at Willow Beach is four miles of it. No rapids, cold water, bighorn sheep on the cliffs.
A ranch ride out of the city with the sun going down behind the Spring Mountains and a barbecue at the end. The slow way into the same desert the ATVs tear up.
| Activity | Pulse | The number | Duration | From | Reviews | Bookable online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tandem skydive · Jean | Book now → | |||||
| SkyJump · the STRAT | Book now → | |||||
| Big Shot, X-Scream, Insanity · the STRAT | Book now →deck on GYG, rides at the tower / Tiqets | |||||
| STRAT entry + rides · Tiqets | Book now →Tiqets | |||||
| Big Apple Coaster · New York-New York | Book now → | |||||
| Fly LINQ zipline · the Strip | Book now → | |||||
| SlotZilla · Fremont Street | 2/5 | 77 ft / 11 storeys | flexible | counter | — | no – sold at the tower |
| ATV · Nellis Dunes | Book now → | |||||
| Helicopter · the Strip at night | Book now → | |||||
| Grand Canyon West Skywalk | Book now → | |||||
| Helicopter landing · Grand Canyon | Book now → | |||||
| Kayak · Emerald Cave | Book now → |
855 feet – 261 metres – off the outdoor observation deck of the STRAT, by the operator's figure, with speeds “topping 40 mph” on the way down. It is a controlled descent on a cable, not a bungy: a descender machine sets the speed and you land standing. Riders must be 14, at least 52 inches tall and under 265 pounds. Guinness lists it as the highest commercial decelerator descent facility in the world.
The Big Shot on top of the STRAT: it fires you from a platform at 921 feet to a peak of 1,081 feet at 45 miles an hour. Insanity spins riders over the edge at 900 feet and X-Scream tips a car 27 feet over the side at 866. The tower itself is 1,149 feet, the tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States. The rides close Tuesday and Wednesday.
Yes, from Jean, about 30 minutes south of the Strip: Skydive Las Vegas jumps from 12,500 feet with 30 to 45 seconds of freefall and a free shuttle from the Strip, from $199 direct. GetYourGuide lists one product with hotel pickup at about $299 (Sept 25, 2026). Views take in the Strip, Mount Charleston, Red Rock Canyon and the Valley of Fire.
Two places. Fly LINQ on the Strip runs ten side-by-side lines 1,121 feet over the LINQ Promenade from a 114-foot tower, about $42 on GetYourGuide. SlotZilla downtown launches from 77 feet (Zip Line) or eleven storeys (Zoomline) under the Fremont Street canopy, from $49 and $69 at the counter – it is not sold on any booking platform. Neither operator publishes a height above the ground beyond the tower.
For $35 and no queue at GetYourGuide, yes: 203 feet tall, a 144-foot drop at 67 mph, a loop and a dive loop, wrapped around the outside of New York-New York since 1997. Minimum height 54 inches. It is rougher than a modern coaster; ride it at night for the view of the Strip from the top of the lift.
About 130 miles by road to Grand Canyon West on the Hualapai reservation – two and a half hours each way, so bus tours run 10 to 12 hours from about $99. Helicopters do it in a morning from about $639. The Skywalk itself extends 70 feet out over the rim; the tribe quotes 4,000 feet to the canyon floor, Wikipedia 500 to 800 feet directly beneath the glass. The South Rim, the one in the photos, is a different trip, five hours away.
On GetYourGuide on Sept 25, 2026: the Big Apple Coaster about $35, Fly LINQ about $42, the STRAT deck about $27 plus rides at the tower, a desert ATV tour about $109, a Strip helicopter flight about $99, the SkyJump about $145, the skydive about $299. The best value is direct: SkyJump from $139.99 on weekdays and the skydive from $199 with the operator's shuttle.