Alcoutim-Sanlucar Zipline

Cultural Venue

The Limite Zero zipline crosses the Guadiana river from Alcoutim in Portugal to Sanlucar de Guadiana in Spain, covering a distance of 720 metres at speeds of up to 70 kilometres per hour. The ride takes approximately one minute and drops riders 150 metres in altitude, landing them in a different country and, during winter months, a different time zone.

The experience begins at the launch platform on the hillside above Alcoutim, where riders are harnessed, briefed and weighed. The crossing follows the natural drop of the hillside, with the Guadiana river flowing some 50 metres below at the midpoint. On landing in Sanlucar, riders receive a passport stamp and can explore the small Spanish village before taking a ferry back across the river to Alcoutim.

Alcoutim itself is one of the Algarve's most remote and least visited towns, sitting on the Portuguese bank of the Guadiana in the far north-eastern corner of the region. The town has a castle, a small museum and a handful of restaurants, but its principal attraction is its quietness and the beauty of the river valley. The Guadiana here is wide and slow, flanked by wooded hills, and the landscape has a quality of timelessness that is hard to find on the coast.

The zipline was conceived as a tourism initiative to bring visitors to a part of the Algarve that the coastal resorts have bypassed entirely. It has succeeded in drawing day-trippers from the coast, though numbers remain modest by Algarve standards. The combination of the adrenaline ride, the border-crossing novelty and the beauty of the setting makes it one of the more unusual experiences available in southern Portugal.