43° 05′ N · 79° 04′ W · From a jump door over Lake Erie to the Devil's Hole rapids · Ground 40
The river drops 187 feet here.
You can start higher.
The falls are why everyone comes, and they are only 187 feet high. What makes Niagara a thrillground is what has been built around that drop in the last hundred years: a zipline that lands at its foot, tunnels behind the curtain, a jet boat that runs the rapids below it, and – ninety minutes up the lake – a ledge around the top of the CN Tower with nothing between you and the harbour. These grounds start at 14,000 feet over Lake Erie, where the Niagara Region's drop zone sits among the vineyards, and end at water level in the Devil's Hole.
Stop 1 · Tandem skydive · Skydive Burnaby, Wainfleet
14,000FT · EXIT ALTITUDE
Wainfleet is farm country between the vineyards and Lake Erie; at weekends the plane climbs to 14,000 feet. Sixty seconds of freefall, then the canopy opens over the lake, the mist of the falls and, on a clear day, Toronto.
Direct only. Skydive Burnaby is the Niagara Region's drop zone, forty minutes west of the falls by Lake Erie; neither GetYourGuide nor Viator lists a tandem here, and the prices are in Canadian dollars. Photo: a tandem jump elsewhere, not Wainfleet.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
You step out onto a metal ledge 1.5 metres wide that circles the top of the main pod. Then the guide asks you to lean back over Toronto, held by nothing but the rail above your head, and the harbour is under your heels.
Direct only. The EdgeWalk is booked on the CN Tower's own site; GetYourGuide and Viator sell tower entry and city tours, not the ledge. Toronto is 80 miles (130 km) from the falls – the day tours further down make the run daily. Photo: two EdgeWalkers on the ledge, seen from the ground.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Stop 2 · Hands-free ledge walk · CN Tower, Toronto
1,168FT ABOVE FRONT STREET
Stop 3 · Zipline · WildPlay Zipline to the Falls, Niagara Parks
220FT ABOVE THE GORGE
Four lines side by side leave the Grand View platform at the same moment. You face forward, the American Falls slide past on your left at 70 km/h and the mist of the Horseshoe comes up to meet you at the landing deck.
Photo: a WildPlay zipline at another of the company's parks, not the Niagara line.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
The lift drops 125 feet into the bedrock and lets you out in tunnels cut more than 130 years ago. Two portals open onto the back of the Horseshoe – a white wall of water and noise – and a deck stands at its foot, in the spray.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Stop 4 · Tunnels & lower deck · Journey Behind the Falls, Table Rock
125FT DOWN THROUGH THE ROCK
Stop 5 · Jet boat · Whirlpool Jet Boat Tours, Queenston & Lewiston
0FT · IN THE DEVIL'S HOLE RAPIDS
The boat runs up the gorge from Queenston, idles at the Whirlpool, then turns into the Devil's Hole Rapids – Class 5, with waves that come over the bow and empty themselves into your lap. Everyone screams; nobody stays dry.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Niagara Helicopters has flown the same 27-km loop for fifty years: up the gorge over the Whirlpool, past the Rainbow Bridge, once round the Horseshoe. Nine to twelve minutes in the air – and the most-booked thing on this page after the day tours.
Niagara City Cruises runs the Canadian boats into the basin of the Horseshoe Falls – twenty minutes in a red poncho in the loudest place in Ontario. It sits inside almost every tour on this page.
Across the Rainbow Bridge the Hurricane Deck puts you under the Bridal Veil Falls in winds of up to 68 mph (109 km/h), and the Maid of the Mist has sailed into the Horseshoe basin for more than 150 years (US$30.25 at the dock).
A cable car from 1916 by the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo: 1,770 ft across the Whirlpool with the floor about 200 ft above the water, ten minutes each way, C$25. The oldest ride here, and the calmest.
WildPlay's other site: four levels of aerial course and ziplines on the rim above the Whirlpool, plus the What's the Fear jump. Classic from age 7, Extreme from 12.
An elevator 70 m down and a quarter-mile of boardwalk beside Class 6 rapids running at 48 km/h – North America's largest standing waves, at arm's length. C$21 at the door; no platform sells it on its own.
| Activity | Pulse | The number | Duration | From | Reviews | Bookable online |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tandem skydive · Wainfleet | 5/5 | 14,000 ft | about 1 h on site | Skydive Burnaby | — | no – book direct |
| EdgeWalk · CN Tower | 4/5 | 1,168 ft, 1.5-m ledge | 90 min | CN Tower | — | no – book direct |
| Zipline to the Falls | Book now → | |||||
| Journey Behind the Falls | Book now → | |||||
| Whirlpool Jet Boat | Book now → |
WildPlay's Zipline to the Falls runs 2,200 feet (670 m) along the Canadian rim, starting 220 feet (67 m) above the gorge at the Grand View Marketplace and landing on the observation deck at the foot of the Horseshoe Falls. Four riders go side by side at 70 km/h. Seven and up, up to 275 lb; C$69.99 plus tax at the kiosk, usually a little less booked online.
Not over the falls themselves, but Skydive Burnaby in Wainfleet, forty minutes west by Lake Erie, is the Niagara Region's drop zone: 14,000 ft at weekends (C$419), 10,500 ft on weekdays (C$369), May to October, 18 and over, booked direct.
A hands-free walk on a 1.5-metre ledge around the top of the CN Tower's main pod, 1,168 ft (356 m) up, clipped to an overhead rail. About 30 minutes outside, 90 in all; 13 and over, 34–140 kg; roughly C$199 plus tax including video, photos and tower re-entry, April to December, booked on the tower's own site.
Children from 44 inches (about six) ride the open Wet Jet, from 40 inches the enclosed Dry Dome; the Wet Freedom Jet's power row is 13+ and 100 lb. It is 45 minutes into Class 5 water, and on the wet boats everyone is soaked to the skin – bring a change of clothes, the lockers are free.
The zipline, the jet boat, the helicopter, Journey Behind the Falls and the boats on both sides are all on GetYourGuide or Viator, often inside a Toronto day tour (the most-reviewed one has 4,030 ratings). Skydive Burnaby, the EdgeWalk and the White Water Walk are booked direct.