Adventures
Start from what you want to do
Twenty-odd ways to experience a waterfall beyond standing at a railing. Each one lists the destinations where it genuinely operates.
Adrenaline & water
Swimming
Plunge pools, natural infinity pools and the occasional lip pool you can legally sit in.
37 destinationsZip lines
Cable-crossing a gorge at the height the spray reaches, usually with the falls in y…
10 destinationsWhite-water rafting
Below a great waterfall there is usually a great gorge, and in that gorge some of t…
8 destinationsKayaking
Flatwater above the lip or big water below it — kayaking gets you closer to a water…
8 destinationsHelicopter flights
Some falls are simply too wide to see from the ground. Twelve minutes in the air so…
6 destinationsCanyoning
Abseiling, sliding and jumping down the watercourse itself — the only way to see th…
5 destinationsScenic flights
Microlights, floatplanes and fixed-wing sightseeing runs over falls you cannot othe…
4 destinationsAbseiling
Going over the lip on a rope, face-first or otherwise, with the water beside you.
4 destinationsIce climbing
In deep winter some of these falls freeze solid and become vertical ice routes.
3 destinationsVia ferrata
Fixed cable-and-rung routes that take non-climbers up the rock beside the water.
3 destinationsBungee jumping
Waterfall gorges make the world's most photogenic bungee sites — a bridge, a river,…
2 destinationsJet boat
Purpose-built shallow-draught boats that run right up into the base spray and spin …
2 destinationsCaving
Underground rivers, subterranean falls, and passages that go in behind the water.
2 destinationsParagliding
Tandem flights launching from the ridges above the valley.
1 destinationHot-air ballooning
Dawn flights over the plateau and the plume.
1 destinationSlower ways to see them
Photography
Light angles, moonbows, spray management and the hours that actually work.
161 destinationsHiking
From ten-minute boardwalks to multi-day approaches through cloud forest.
159 destinationsBoat cruises
The classic approach: come at the falls from the water, usually at sunset, usually …
25 destinationsCamping
Falls where you can legally sleep within earshot of the water.
23 destinationsWildlife & safari
Falls that sit inside serious wildlife country, where the water is only half the re…
14 destinationsCycling
Valley routes and rim roads that link several falls in a day.
1 destination