Top Ten Switzerland Classic Adventures

You take a few swift steps down the mountain and immediately you feel your harness and 'chute dragging you backward and upward. Before you know it, you're airborne, with the ground shrinking beneath your feet and the wind rushing in your ears. The rugged flanks of Mount Pilatus (6,954 feet) fall away and merge with the general landscape as you head east to paraglide over the calm waters of Lake Lucerne.

Paragliding in the Alps is, in a word, huge. Though Switzerland boasts tons of places that are ideal for the sport, few can offer the breathtaking variety in the lakes-and-mountains landscape that you get with this jump. Lake Lucerne's wriggly coastline; the striking, stark Mount Pilatus; and other snowcapped giants to the south all combine to make this a stunning jump.