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The record
3.23 km2.0 mi
K3
South Africa
The record
The longest zip line in the world is K3, in South Africa — 3.23 km (2.0 mi), cable length.
Source: SA Forest Adventures (operator) + dated SA news, Sept 2024. Verified .
The most famous zip line on Earth is no longer the longest. Guinness World Records still lists Jebel Jais Flight in the United Arab Emirates at 2.83 km, and it is a genuinely astonishing ride — but a South African line opened in September 2024 that beats it by almost 400 metres, and Guinness has not certified it.
That gap is why this countdown measures rather than repeats. Every entry is ranked on one number: the length of a single uninterrupted cable, platform to platform, running from 3.23 km down to 1.68 km across eleven countries.
Course totals do not count, which is why France's La Colmiane enters at 1.88 km rather than the 2.66 km it advertises across two sections, and why Thailand's 3.6 km multi-line course is absent altogether. Parallel racing cables count once, not twice. And every line here is open today, a rule that costs the list Crimea's 2.02 km Sokol run, whose current operation nobody can verify.
The record book is out of date. Guinness still lists Jebel Jais Flight as the longest zip wire, because K3 has never been submitted for certification — a record book tracks applications, not reality.
One operator built two of the top five. Toro Verde of Puerto Rico is behind both El Monstruo and the record-setting Jebel Jais Flight, nearly 12,000 km apart.
South Africa holds the top spot and the speed crown.K3 is the longest line anywhere, while Zip 2000 at Sun City has clocked riders at 185 km/h.
The steepest line is nowhere near the longest.ZipFlyer Nepal falls more than 600 metres at an initial angle of about 56 degrees, which is what makes it extreme rather than its 1.85 km span.
The most-advertised figure here is not the one we rank.Tyrolienne de La Colmiane is sold as 2.66 km, but that covers two cables joined by a platform; only its 1.88 km upper section counts.
11. K3
SA Forest Adventures, Caledon, Western Cape, South Africa
At 3.23 km, K3 is the longest zip line on Earth, and it clears the previous record by almost 400 metres. It runs from a peak in the Riviersonderend mountains near Caledon, about an hour east of Cape Town on the N2, down across the valley to the farmland below — a single cable with roughly 500 metres of air beneath you at the highest point. Riders reach 120 to 150 km/h depending on weight and wind.
The line is a joint venture between two established South African operators, SA Forest Adventures and Mossel Bay Zipline, and it opened in September 2024. Getting to the launch platform is part of the day: a 4x4 grinds up the mountain trail for about an hour before you clip in. K3 has not been submitted to Guinness, which is why the official record book still names a shorter line — a reminder that a record book tracks applications, not reality.
At 2.83 km, Jebel Jais Flight is the longest zip line ever formally certified, and it held the outright world record from its opening in January 2018 until 2024. It launches from 1,680 metres up Jebel Jais, the highest mountain in the United Arab Emirates, and sends riders head-first in a superman harness out across a limestone canyon in Ras Al Khaimah.
Speeds run to roughly 120–150 km/h, and the flight ends at a suspended platform mid-mountain, from which a second, shorter line carries you the rest of the way down. Guinness measured the certified span to the centimetre: 2,831.88 metres. The mountain road up is a destination in its own right, and the viewing decks near the summit are worth the drive even if you never clip onto the cable.
33. ZipRider at Copper Canyon
Parque de Aventura Barrancas del Cobre, Divisadero, Chihuahua, Mexico
The ZipRider at Copper Canyon runs 2.55 km across the Barrancas del Cobre in Chihuahua, a canyon system both deeper and larger than the Grand Canyon. Riders sit in a harness chair rather than hanging beneath a trolley, and the cable drops about 450 metres as it crosses above three separate canyons — Del Cobre, Tararecua and Urique.
The manufacturer lists the span at 8,379 feet, which makes it one of the longest single-span cables ever built, with two lines side by side so pairs can fly together. It sits inside the Parque de Aventura Barrancas del Cobre near Divisadero, a stop on the Chepe railway, and an automatic braking system of roughly a hundred springs absorbs the arrival at the far platform.
Flying in the Sky stretches 2.23 km from the medieval hill village of Rocca Massima, in the Lepini Mountains southeast of Rome, down toward the plain around Latina. It is the fastest line on this list: riders average about 110 km/h and the peak recorded speed is 172 km/h, flown prone with the coastal plain opening up ahead.
The cable is 22 millimetres thick and carried on two pylons, with the launch platform at roughly 730 metres and a maximum of about 310 metres of air below. Rocca Massima sits high on a spur of the Lepini, and the climb up through the olive terraces is worth the trip on its own — the zip line simply gives you a much faster way back down.
55. El Monstruo
Toro Verde Nature Adventure Park, Orocovis, Puerto Rico
El Monstruo at Toro Verde in Orocovis flies 2.21 km across a valley in Puerto Rico's central mountains, making it the longest zip line in the Caribbean. Riders go head-first and prone, more than 380 metres above the ground, approaching 95 mph on the way across.
Its measurement comes with an asterisk worth knowing about. Guinness certified the line in 2016 at 7,234 feet, and that measured span is what we rank it on; Toro Verde's own marketing quotes 8,300 feet, or roughly 2.53 km. Where a certified measurement and a marketing figure disagree, this list takes the measured one. The same operator went on to build the record-setting line at Jebel Jais, so the family resemblance between the two is no coincidence.
66. The Sasquatch
Ziptrek Ecotours, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada
The Sasquatch spans 2.13 km directly over the Fitzsimmons Valley between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, and it is the longest zip line in Canada. It runs as a dual cable, so two riders cross side by side, travelling well over 100 km/h and passing some 183 metres above the valley floor at the highest point.
Ziptrek Ecotours runs it as a summer attraction, typically from mid-June to late September, which makes it the most seasonal entry on this list. The crossing takes in the ski runs of both mountains and the village below, and on a clear day the view up the valley toward Blackcomb Glacier is reason enough to choose this over the shorter lines in the same park.
77. Zip 2000
Sun City Resort, North West Province, South Africa
Zip 2000 at Sun City runs a full 2 km down from the Pilanesberg hills, and it is billed as the fastest zip slide on the planet: an average of about 120 km/h, with a top recorded speed of 185 km/h. Riders fly prone with arms outstretched in what the operator calls superman position, for roughly a minute of genuinely startling acceleration.
It has been running since 2004, which makes it the elder statesman of the mega-line era — it was the world's longest and fastest at launch, and every line above it here was built afterwards. Sun City sits about two hours from Johannesburg beside the Pilanesberg Game Reserve, so pairing a morning on the cable with an afternoon game drive is an entirely realistic plan.
Tirolina del Valle flies 1.98 km over the village of Fuentespalda in the Matarraña, a quiet corner of Teruel province that Spaniards sometimes call Spanish Tuscany. It is the longest single-cable zip line in Europe, and riders cross roughly 100 metres above the rooftops at 110 to 120 km/h, covering the whole span in about a minute and a half.
It runs as a double line, so two people can set off together, and the descent is a modest 150 metres — this is a long, floating traverse rather than a plunge. Fuentespalda is a stone village of a few hundred people, and the contrast between its medieval streets and the cable strung overhead is a large part of the appeal.
Mega Tirolesa Pedra Bela is the longest zip line in Brazil at 1.9 km, dropping from the top of the Pedra do Santuário — a granite outcrop crowned with a small chapel — into the valley below. Riders reach about 107 km/h and cross roughly 250 metres above the ground, with the flight lasting a little under a minute and a half.
Earning it takes some effort: a staircase of more than 300 steps climbs the rock before you reach the platform. Pedra Bela is a small town about 120 km north of São Paulo in the hills of the state interior, and the line runs through the year on weekends and public holidays, which makes it an easy weekend target from the city.
The Tyrolienne de La Colmiane is widely advertised as 2.66 km, which would place it far higher on this list — but that figure covers two sections joined by an intermediate platform, and only the upper one counts under a single-cable rule. That upper cable measures 1.88 km, running from the top of the Pic chairlift down across the resort at up to 130 km/h.
It sits at Valdeblore in the Alpes-Maritimes, about an hour from Nice, launching at 1,776 metres and landing at 1,489. Riders fly horizontally, solo or in pairs, above the lakes and pine slopes of the Mercantour foothills, and the second 784-metre section then carries you the rest of the way down to the station.
ZipFlyer Nepal drops 1.85 km from the Sarangkot ridge toward the Seti River outside Pokhara, and its real claim to fame is not length but pitch: the cable falls more than 600 metres at an initial angle of around 56 degrees, which makes it one of the steepest commercial lines anywhere. Riders regularly exceed 100 km/h, and the superman harness pushes that toward 140.
The view is the other half of the appeal. On a clear morning the Annapurna range and the fishtail summit of Machhapuchhre fill the horizon as you drop. It runs as a dual cable from a ridge better known for sunrise viewpoints and paragliding launches, about twenty minutes above Pokhara by road.
The Icy Strait Point ZipRider covers 1.68 km from the shoulder of Hoonah Mountain down to the shoreline at Icy Strait Point, on Chichagof Island in southeast Alaska. Six cables run side by side, so a whole group launches at once, and a drop of roughly 400 metres carries riders past 60 mph about 300 feet above old-growth temperate rainforest.
It is the longest zip line in the United States outside Puerto Rico — El Monstruo, seven places up this list, is the only American line that beats it — and one of very few reached mainly by ship: Icy Strait Point is a cruise port built around a restored salmon cannery in the Tlingit village of Hoonah.
A bus climbs some 1,550 feet to the launch tower, the ride down takes about 90 seconds, and it ends with a spring-brake landing beside the water.
FAQ: The World's Longest Zip Lines
What is the longest zip line in the world?
K3 in Caledon, South Africa, at 3.23 km on a single uninterrupted cable. It opened in September 2024 and beat the previous record holder, Jebel Jais Flight in the United Arab Emirates, by almost 400 metres. Guinness has not certified K3, so the official record book still names the shorter line.
Why does Guinness not list the longest zip line?
Guinness records are awarded on application rather than by survey. Jebel Jais Flight was certified at 2,831.88 metres in January 2018, and nobody has since submitted a longer line for measurement. That makes the certified record accurate and out of date at the same time, which is why this list ranks on measured cable length instead.
What counts as a single zip line?
One uninterrupted cable running from platform to platform. Courses that chain several cables together are excluded, which keeps Thailand's 3.6 km multi-line route off the list entirely, and means La Colmiane in France enters on its 1.88 km upper section rather than its advertised 2.66 km total. Parallel racing cables count once, never doubled. We apply the same measured-not-marketed rule across our world record countdowns.
How fast do the world's longest zip lines go?
Most of the big lines run between 100 and 150 km/h. Flying in the Sky in Italy has recorded 172 km/h and Zip 2000 at Sun City 185 km/h, both quicker than the longest lines, because speed depends on gradient, cable tension and rider weight rather than on how far the cable actually runs.
Where are the longest zip lines in Europe and the United States?
Europe's longest single cable is Tirolina del Valle at Fuentespalda in Spain, running 1.98 km above a village in Teruel province. In the United States, the Icy Strait Point ZipRider in Alaska covers 1.68 km, although El Monstruo in Puerto Rico is longer still at 2.21 km.
