THE SKYDIVING GUIDE · TANDEM JUMPS WORLDWIDE
The ground has never looked better than from the door.
Reviews of the best tandem skydives on earth, drop zone by drop zone. The Swiss Alps over Interlaken, the reef off Airlie Beach, glaciers at Franz Josef and the Palm in Dubai. We read through the listings so you book the jump that is worth the climb to altitude.
Worth the airfare
Three jumps you can only make in one place on earth.
You can do a tandem from almost any airfield now. But freefalling over the Interlaken lakes, past the ice at Franz Josef, and onto the sand beside the Whitsundays reef happen at these drop zones and nowhere else.
The Swiss Alps
Freefall over the Interlaken lakes
The plane climbs out of Interlaken until two turquoise lakes sit far below and the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau fill the window in snow. You roll out the door into the thinnest, clearest air in Europe, and for the first forty-five seconds the whole Bernese Oberland is laid out under your feet. Nowhere else do you freefall with 4,000-metre peaks on one side and glacial lakes on the other.
See all 2 →The Southern Alps
Jump past a glacier at Franz Josef
From a small strip on the New Zealand west coast the aircraft spirals up over rainforest that runs straight into ice. Exit at altitude and you fall past the blue tongue of the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers with the Tasman Sea on the horizon and Aoraki Mount Cook to the south. It is the only tandem in the world where the freefall view is a living glacier under your boots.
See all 3 →The Whitsundays
Land on the beach by the reef
Off Airlie Beach the plane banks out over the Whitsundays, and below you the Great Barrier Reef draws its shapes in turquoise and white against seventy-four islands. You freefall toward the famous swirl of Whitehaven sand, canopy open over water you could read a book through, and touch down on the beach itself. Reef, islands and white sand, all in one jump.
- 1 Airlie Beach: Tandem Skydive over the Whitsundays
- 2 Airlie Beach: Tandem Skydiving Experience with Beach Landing
- 3 Airlie Beach Tandem Skydive Over the Whitsunday Islands
The jump everyone books
If you only ever jump once.
More first-timers book this one than any other on the site. A safe, well-run choice when you have decided this is the year you finally do it.
The classics
The World’s Most Popular Tandem Skydives
Auckland, Dubai, the Whitsundays, Queenstown, the Swiss Alps. The exits first-timers book most, at the drop zones travellers travel for.
Where to jump
Pick your patch of sky.
Australia for beach landings by the reef. New Zealand for lakes, volcanoes and glaciers. The Swiss Alps for the Interlaken exit, the USA for desert and skyline drops, Portugal for the Algarve coast, Dubai for the Palm. Each country, with the jumps it does best.
Which kind of jump
Decide how you want to fall.
Every tandem is a leap into the same sky, but they are not all the same jump. Three ways to do it, depending on whether it is your first time, you want the longest freefall, or you came for the view.
The reef & the coast
Australia made the beach jump its own.
No country runs more tandem skydives, and almost all of them finish on the sand. You exit over the Great Barrier Reef off Airlie Beach and Cairns, over the surf at Byron Bay and the Gold Coast, over the wine country behind Adelaide. Freefall above turquoise water and seventy-four islands, then float down to a landing on the beach itself. It is the most relaxed first jump on earth, with the best view going.
See the best skydives in Australia →The South Island & beyond
New Zealand jumps over its own postcards.
Nowhere packs this much scenery under a canopy. Queenstown drops you over the Remarkables and Lake Wakatipu, Taupo over the country’s biggest lake and a live volcano, Franz Josef past a glacier into rainforest, the Bay of Islands over a turquoise coast up north. The exits run as high as 15,000 feet, and whichever you pick, the view does half the work.
See the best skydives in New Zealand →The best part
There is the door, and then there is no floor.
The whole thing comes down to a few seconds. The plane levels off, the door slides up, the noise and the cold rush in, and the instructor on your back counts you out into open air. Then the ground stops being something you stand on and becomes something you fall toward, and for the longest minute of your life there is nothing under you but the view. Almost no one regrets it.
Browse every tandem skydive →The Palm & the desert
Dubai built the most photographed jump on earth.
No drop zone has a backdrop like it. You exit at 13,000 feet directly above the Palm Jumeirah, that vast man-made island spread out in perfect symmetry against the Gulf, with the skyline and the desert beyond. The freefall is the same anywhere; what is below you here is not, which is why the Dubai jump tops more bucket lists than any other in the world.
- 1 Dubai: Skydive at The Palm with Photos, Video & Yacht Tour
- 2 Dubai Skydive Tandem Over The Palm including Transfers
- 3 Tandem Skydive experience in Dubai
By exit altitude
How high do you want to go?
Every extra thousand feet buys you a few more seconds of freefall and a bigger view at the top. Some want a standard beach tandem, some want a little higher, and some want the highest exit on the board. Pick the altitude, we will point you at the jump.
10,000 - 12,000 ft
The standard beach tandem.The most common first jump: a climb to around eleven thousand feet, thirty-odd seconds of freefall, then a canopy ride down to a beach. Plenty of rush, easy to say yes to.
14,000 ft
Go a few thousand feet higher.A longer climb buys you close to a minute of freefall and a wider view at the top. The mid-range exit most reef and alpine drop zones run, and the sweet spot for most jumpers.
15,000 ft
Take the highest exit going.The top of the climb: a full minute of freefall before the canopy opens, the thinnest air and the biggest view. The jump you book when you want every second there is.
From coast to coast
The USA has a drop zone for every skyline.
From the deserts of the Southwest to the Atlantic coastline and the skylines of Chicago, Dallas and Denver, American drop zones run every kind of jump there is. Big-aircraft operations climbing to 14,000 feet, year-round weather in the south and west, and instructors with thousands of jumps in the logbook. Wherever you are in the country, a tandem is usually a short drive away.
See all 14 skydives in the USA →By drop zone
Pick a drop zone and climb out.
Interlaken for the Swiss Alps and the lakes. Airlie Beach for the reef and the sand. Queenstown for the Remarkables. Franz Josef for the glacier. Dubai for the Palm. Taupo for the volcano and the highest exit.
By country
Every country worth the climb.
From the beaches of Australia to the alps of New Zealand, the Swiss lakes to the American desert, the Algarve to the deserts of Dubai. Browse by the country whose sky you want to fall through.
Ground to landing
What a first jump is really like.
Never done it and not sure what you are signing up for? Here is how a tandem actually goes, from the forms at the desk to the soft landing back on the grass.
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