Today’s thrill-seeker want manufactured thrills designed to satisfy the most extreme thrill junkies are the hottest ticket attractions.

So buckle up as we take you on a tour of the world’s top 10 man-made extreme tourist attractions:

 

Risk your life on the original man-made extreme.

Switzerland’s Cresta Run is a 1.2km ice run founded in 1887 by the British-owned St Moritz Tobogganing Club.

From top to bottom, the drop is 156m and the course winds its way through 10 corners, including the famous Shuttlecock bend where many bones have snapped. If you’re still keen, consider the only way down is headfirst on a skeleton toboggan at speeds of up to 130km/h.

 

If you think the traditional Kiwi bungy jump is a tame hobby, dare yourself to tackle the 3Thrillogy.

Designed by AJ Hackett Bungy, the 3Thrillogy promises even the fearless will break a sweat with a sequence of three bungy jumps including eight seconds of freefalling from the Nevis Highwire and a night bungy 400m above the Queenstown Skyline.

 

 

Dream of weighing one-sixth of what you do on Earth

 

For $4500 you can experience five minutes of astronaut-style weightlessness with Zero-Gravity Adventures at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. A Boeing 727 traces huge parabolic arcs in the sky and allows even the heaviest of humans to float like a fairy. The walls are padded so you can flip injury free as you fall toward Earth, the only crucial advice from fellow floaters though: make sure you relieve yourself before you fly.

 

Have you ever wanted to be part of an Elite Special Operations team and control your own urban block?

The Urban Training Centre in Seattle will train you to conduct an urban hostage rescue mission. For $3900 you will be issued with an M4 assault rifle, M9 missile and body armour. Then join other military minded men and women to infiltrate the area and complete your mission.

 

 

If your kids think rickety old Luna Park is a thrill, a trip to Vienna’s Prater Park will terrify.

 

Sit down and hang on as the 72m structure frantically spins and sends you flying, legs dangling, into mid-air. Strapped in by a seat belt only the operator can release, you will thank the stringent safety once you reach the top and without warning free fall back to the bottom – only to begin your vortex ascent again.

 

 

The most talked about man-made extreme is, of course, Virgin Galactic.

 

Richard Branson and American aerospace engineer Burt Rutan want to fly six passengers to the edge of the atmosphere (or 100km above the surface of our planet) in the world’s most extreme ride.
Tickets for this cosmonaut attraction are $241,000 and according to the company 150 people have already paid up.

 

Faster than a shuttle take-off, speedier than a Ferrari and with more lift than a plane, Rita Queen of Speed will blow your mind. Brace yourself as a massive G-force of 4.7 courses through your body and throws you from zero to 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds.
If that is not enough, get your heart beating really fast on the Oblivion. Sit tight as you plummet 61m into a deep, dark underground abyss.

 

This experience is close to home and tops the list if tropical jungle surfing gets your adventure juices flowing.

Hook on to a zipline flying fox cable 22 metres above the ground and soar through the treetop canopies of the pristine Daintree Rainforest at Cape Tribulation.

High platforms divide stretches of cable, the longest more than 75m long and more than 22m above the tree canopy. Award-winning Jungle Surfing Canopy Tours runs the ziplines.

Grand Canyon Skywalk

If the Eureka Tower Skydeck will get your heart fluttering, imagine standing on a piece of glass 1200m above the Grand Canyon. Opened last month, the Grand Canyon Skywalk is the ultimate vertigo tourist attraction.

The $48 million horseshoe-shaped glass walkway is four times higher than the Eiffel Tower and for $30 you can “walk on air” above the mighty Colorado River.

 

You may lose your stomach on this one. The world’s tallest freefall thrill ride, the Supreme Scream, drops you 77m at Buena Park, California. If one sickly drop isn’t enough, the Supreme Scream immediately hoists you up again for another 80km/h fall. The sudden upward rebound results in a force of up to 4 Gs, lifting you from your outward-facing seat. The largest structure in Orange County at 100m.