As you know I love to go zip-lining. Over the past few years I have enjoyed zipping with my friends, and I plan to take my boys soon (they are finally big enough, yay!). When you go zip-lining you can’t help but compare all of the places you have been, so of course I have to tell you that ZipQuest in Fayetteville, NC wins the award for my best zip-line experience in NC. If you don’t want to take my word for it you can also check out their award for being one of the 10 best ziplines in the US (courtesy of USA today), and they received that after being open for only 7 weeks! Not bad, not bad at all!
I decided to book our tour for my boyfriend’s birthday last year, and to make it a little more fun I invited a few of his friends to join us. Mike and I were the only two who had ever been ziplining, and one of his friends is afraid of heights (which I didn’t know until we got up in the trees). I can speak for all of us when I say that we had a blast! Tour guides can make or break a ziplining tour and ours were ROCK STARS!
Like all of the other places I have been ZipQuest starts off with a basic lesson in ziplining, and they go over all the safety rules. Unlike other places I have been, their first “test zip” is on the ground. I think this is a great idea, especially for children. If you have never gone ziplining before starting out in the trees (even at height of 15 feet) can be really scary. By starting on the ground the element of fear is gone, and you can accurately learn how to safely zipline. Again, as a parent I love this because I can see my eight year old getting on his first zipline and backing down because he would be afraid to step off the platform. This is a real confidence booster for newbies.
If I had to highlight any part of ZipQuest to be my favorite feature, it would be the platforms. I have been on all kinds of platforms, the worst being the shaky metal scaffolding from my first zip experience. ZipQuest has the best platforms I have ever seen! From the spiral staircases that take you higher in the trees, to the heavily reinforced wooden platforms you stand on, they are both sturdy and spacious. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but get 6-8 people on a platform, and tell me you don’t think about being on it when it collapses!
Aside from how awesome the platforms and ziplines are the experience is like none other. I have never been on a tour where the guides take pictures, and as a blogger and picture hoarder this was probably my second favorite part of our tour. The guides use camera phones to take pictures of everyone and even pause to do some really fun group shots, like this one:
Seriously, how cool is that? I’m not sure what I enjoyed more, knowing I was getting some awesome pictures or pretending to fall off the platform! It was so much fun to watch the people who were afraid of heights throw caution to the wind, and just go for it.
Overall, we were there for about three hours, and we enjoyed every minute of it. I would highly recommend ZipQuest to couples, families, basically anyone looking to have a good time! You won’t regret it.
Oh, and before I forget… You MUST check out the Swing Shot! I was the only person in my group who was brave enough (yeah, I just called you out!) to try it, and it was freaking awesome! While I usually try to act like I’m not afraid of anything, I think these pictures show how freaked out I really was:
You can watch the video below to see me screaming like the girl I am!
Don’t forget to like ZipQuest on Facebook and Follow ZipQuest on Twitter.
