A zipline over the Guadiana River
At the southern end of the Spain–Portugal border, a commercial zipline links Sanlúcar de Guadiana in Spain with Alcoutim in Portugal. The cable runs across the Guadiana River, so riders travel from one country’s bank to the other while suspended above the water. It is a border crossing by geography, not by road or rail.
How the crossing works
A zipline is a tensioned cable sloping between two fixed points. A rider is attached to a pulley and harness; gravity carries the pulley downhill along the cable, while braking equipment slows the rider near the landing point. Here, the river provides the open span between the launch and arrival areas, making the international boundary part of the ride’s route rather than a line encountered on a bridge.
The ride is an unusual way to cross, but it does not make the border disappear: travelers still need to follow the applicable entry requirements. What makes the trip memorable is the scale of the change in perspective—you leave one country’s hillside and arrive on the other side of the river, with the border crossed in a few minutes in midair.
