Go Ape

First time doing anything like this; very positive experience!

Such an awesome experience! You get a quick lesson on safety and then the instructors set you free. You have the option to take the easy road or hard road depending on your level of comfort. Definitely wear comfortable clothes and shoes that you don’t mind getting dirty. The zip line at the end might leave you sitting in the dirt!

My granddaughter wanted to celebrate her birthday with her friends. I said okay as long as we got enough parent volunteers to go along (we would pay for them).
We had a great time and the other parents were really helpful. Kids were at varying levels; adults were varying ages and conditions. I loved watching one 11 year old go from terror to fun as she succeeded on the first couple of stations. She and I sat out the station where it goes over the road. I had had difficulty with the beginning Tarzan Swing with the ability to pull myself up to get onto the platform, so the ability to pull up for Station 4 seemed too hard.
We had excellent safety training. Our guide stayed with us extra long (ages from 11 to 66 were on the adventure) to make sure the adults understood their responsibility to double check each and every buckle of our charges.
At two of the stations, we allowed all adult groups to go ahead of us.
If you come with a large group, it’s easy to split off into smaller groups, especially if you don’t have responsibility for any minors.
I thought it was funny to watch us adults prepare by stretching, bending, etc. And then the kids prepared by screaming and jumping.

I brought my son and his friends here for a unique birthday gift. Was it ever. The kids had a blast, loved every minute, and still haven’t stopped talking about it.
The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable, and the course is challenging and definitely one of the more unique things you can do.
You can read on their site all about what’s there, so I’ll just focus on what you won’t read.
Okay, starting with the downsides, of which there are just two. First, they waited for some latecomers before bringing our group out to the course. Normally that shouldn’t matter, but it caused a backup in the groups waiting to get on the course, and consequently our «guide» to rush his intro and safety brief. He still covered what he had to, I’m sure, but myself and some of the other newcomers I spoke to all thought he should’ve taken more time. This is where you learn about how to use the gear that may save your life, so it’s pretty important. I think they should just make latecomers start with a later group.
Second, when we called we were told that you don’t have to be in great shape to do the course. Well, that’s true, but it gives the wrong impression that if you are out of shape you can do the course. No way. There are some pretty strenuous things you have to do, requiring some solid upper body strength and flexibility. Once you are up there, there’s not always a quick or easy way out (back down to the ground). You don’t have to be a fitness buff, but if you can’t do a few pushups, or more importantly pull ups, you have some work ahead of you.
The good things are the friendly staff, and the fact the course is really challenging and well laid out. A little secret for you: I am scared s***less of heights, and I did it. I was able to do it because they have a solid safety system in place which, if you follow it, makes it unlikely you can fall too far or be seriously hurt. If you go, learn that sequence and follow it, every time.
My own tips:
— Bring gloves. If it’s warm, even just baseball-​style gloves will work. You don’t want them too bulky or you can’t operate the equipment.
— Wear shoes with a good, non-​slip sole. You will likely be better off with boots or something that has a heel than sneakers, but plenty of people wear sneakers and do just fine.
— If you want pictures, have someone on the ground take them or wear one of those portable cameras you just wear and it takes pictures as you go. You don’t want to be messing with a camera 30 feet in the air.
— If you are afraid of heights, really, really weigh if you want to go. Get out there and take a look before you go. If you do go, don’t look down: keep your eyes on what’s ahead of you, not what’s below you. I looked at the video from my son’s POV camera looking down, and I get sweaty palms just looking at it. I can’t believe I was up there.
— If you are bringing kids under 16, you must have one adult for every two kids. The adult has to be on the course; they can’t just follow along from the ground. And, you can’t be more than one «obstacle» away from either of them. This means a group with kids necessarily moves more slowly. Consider waiting until others have gone before you start the course, so the faster people not making devil eyes at you for taking too long later. If you have two kids with you, put the slower of the two in front, you in the middle, and the fastest one behind.

So. Much. Fun!!! Definitely a harder workout then I thought. Gloves were six bucks, definitely worth it. Only thing I was annoyed with was their pamphlets said no cell phones on the course for safety, so we left ours behind, but pictures and selfies were welcomed by the staff! I was very disappointed that I didn’t get any pictures because I was following the guidelines. Lesson learned for next time though!

Much better than I was expecting!
Went yesterday with my family. It was definitely an adventure. I’m still exhausted this morning. It was a lot of fun and my kids loved it too. I’m afraid of heights, so this was a good challenge for me. But you are safely buckled everywhere. I was expecting it to be about ¹⁄₃ of what it was. We thought we’d be done in about an hour. But it took our group of 6 3.5 hours to complete the course. We will certainly go back again.
Advice: Wear close-​toed shoes, and clothing you do not mind getting dirty in. No need to bring a drink with you. They have water at each obstacle.

Came here on a Sunday afternoon with a group of 10. This was super fun! I’ve always been a fan of ziplining and this one definitely met expectations.
Some highlights/​tips:
— The obstacles were nice and varied, and some were actually pretty scary (in a good way)
— They provide water and hand sanitizer at each station-​so no need to bring water bottles
— Dress warmly… we thought we’d get warm/​sweaty as we got more active, but it’s a lot colder up in the trees! Plus it was super windy that day
— One thing that was surprising is that there’s no employee supervision after training and the first ‘test’ course. At first I was a bit worried about that, but as long as you’re not stupid and make sure you’re always attached to the tree you should be fine
Definitely recommend going if you haven’t been! At $ 60 a person though (for ~2.5 hours of fun) it’s more of a try-​once kind of thing for me.

My mom got me a gift certificate for GoApe! during the winter as something to look forward to when the warm weather returned. I found the site to be very user-​friendly. As for the ziplining experience itself, all I can say is WOW! My boyfriend and I both had more fun than we could have imagined. The staff were all extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Although their practice is very hands-​off, we always felt safe. We look forward to visiting again some time in the future!

Great place to bring both family, friends, and even dates. I brought a date here and it was an awesome experience for the both of us. It was cold, definitely felt safe throughout the course and want to go back. Definitely help me get over my fear of heights.

Really nice experience for a first-​timer, good difficulty level and perfect length of course Felt like a pretty good deal. Situated in a nice forest in a quiet regional park and there’s a nearby lake with kayaking and archery area available for after-​ziplining…

This place is amazing! I thought the ziplining would be the highlight, when it turned out to be all of the obstacles you go through first. It was so much fun and I cannot wait to go back!

Perfect group event! I had so much fun this past Saturday! Worth the money and it was fun to do a team building exercise with my friends. The employees at Go Ape were extremely nice and very helpful! After we finished the course we were more that happy we decided to go on this adventure!

ADRENALINE RUSH! not very big on heights, but what the heck :)
Team outing, party bus, and everything was paid for. heck yes!
the location was pretty easy to find, they are located within a state park, lots of parking and the welcome area is a cute little cabin located in a hill — right next to it, is the last zipline of the obstacle course. So, it kinda pumps you up and gets you excited.
Once you get to the cabin, you sign the waiver and they take you to the tutorial area. Not complicated at all — as long as you know the colors, red, blue and green you’re good to go. The obstacles are not TOO technical but definitely challenging. The best one is the actual tarzan swing at obstacle 6!!! I thought i about swallowed my stomach when i jumped off that ledge. But it was so insanely FUN!!!
I did like that the staff was monitoring the stations frequently. Don’t be intimidated at the fact that you’re harnessing and buckling yourself to these courses… it’s not complicated at all. It is quite simple :) And the staff definitely walks each person through the process before heading off to the obstacles.
I definitely recommend GO APE! Super fun, and an awesome experience. :)

I was super nervous before going but the instructors do a great job with the safety tutorial. They make you practice everything first. I ended up having a blast. Not to mention a pretty good workout too.

I went in April of 2013 and had an amazing time. I didn’t realize just how great this course was until I went on another course this past week that couldn’t hold a candle to Go Ape.
Go Ape has a great in-​depth safety tutorial. They absolutely make sure you know what you’re doing before you go up in the trees. The staff is great! The course itself is really fun– just enough challenge to keep it interesting, but not so much that you’re too exhausted to have fun. The zip lines were a lot of fun as well!
I liked that there was a fork in the road in the courses where you could choose to do the more difficult obstacles or the easier ones– this made it fun for everyone!
My favorite part about the experience was that the safety cord you are connected to is above your head– so if you accidentally step off the course mid-​air– you just hang there perfectly suspended and can easily get back on. The other course I went to was at chest level and if you dropped you would end up hanging well below the obstacle.
Everything about Go Ape is designed for a fun and safe time! Definitely recommend it!

This is such a late review but I came in ⁰³⁄₂₀₁₃. I got a living social coupon to go ape but never knew it existed before! I had gone zip wiring before as a child but not as an adult. This place was amazing. the instructors were great and after their overview in the beginning, my best friend and i were set to go at our own pace! that’s the main thing i loved about it. there was no rush and we truly enjoyed ourselves. There are 6 courses and each one was so much fun. I would love to come back!
Reminder: wear gloves! i did not and it ended up hurting my hands a little but next time i will remember to wear gloves. also we actually didn’t end up taking any pictures because we were afraid our phones were going to fall out of our pocket. next time we know to wear something with a zip pocket so we can bring our phones or cameras to take pictures.

I truly cannot say enough good things about my Go Ape experience. What an absolutely thrilling adventure! The team places an extreme emphasis on safety and they do a wonderful job ensuring you won’t hurt yourself. (Which is great, because you are SUPER high up in the trees.) At certain places on the course, participants have the option to go one of two different routes — generally one that is easy/​moderate in difficulty, and one that is super difficult. I appreciate that, because you have a choice and can tailor your approach.
Both the boyfriend and I agreed that we will do this at least once a year. And we might just take a mini-​roadtrip out to the new Delaware location, because apparently you get to zip line ac cross a lake… Just sayin…

Is there a Unilocal version of the Instagram tag «#latergram»? Because this is that – a review about 9 months later, whoops! I went in September 2012 for my first and only visit to Go Ape for my boyfriend’s birthday. We had a truly amazing experience!
First, they were great about safety. We were a little nervous going in, but they quickly eased those concerns. It definitely is the highest priority for them, and they take it very seriously.
The experience in the ropes itself was fantastic. We honestly wanted to try it mostly for the ziplining part – which yes, totally was the best part. But the ropes courses themselves were really fun and challenging (do the hard course if you are able!), and there were a few obstacles on the course that rivaled the fun/​adrenaline rush of ziplining (Spiderman net!).
They were also great about organizing everyone. We were a group of two set up with a much bigger birthday group with a bunch of women. The staff made sure to have us go first so they didn’t hold us up and to keep the bigger group together.
The only thing we would do differently is have realized that there was a nearby park and brought a picnic lunch/​dinner for afterwards! I think they built a sixth «course» recently – so we will have to go back!

Had a great time at Go Ape! The staff were very helpful and informative (always stay strapped, lol). Scary heights (at least for me) but overall fun experience. Tarzan is a must if you love adrenalin.

Over the summer, my friend and I headed up to Rockville, MD to, well, Go Ape! It was part rope course, part zipline, and a TON of fun. I’m not awesome with heights, nor with forcing myself to jump off of high ledges (though, who is?) but I had a total blast! I was a little concerned about the weather making things too hot, but since the entire course takes place in the shaded woods, it was actually not bad. I still got super sweaty (what else is new?), but definitely didn’t overheat.
They have start times every half-​hour, so we signed up for the 12:00 group. Once you get there, they have you fill out a liability form (duh), and then they take your entire timeslot through a little safety session. They saddled us up with sweet and totally flattering (HA!) harnesses, told us the most important rules (always stay attached!), and had us perform a demonstration on a little 4-​feet-​off-​the-​ground practice area.
If we passed the test, we were sent off to do our thing! There were probably four or five different stations, all of which began with you climbing up a rope ladder into a tree. This was actually the most physically demanding part of the course, in my opinion, since I’m not very coordinated. Still, once you made it to the top of the platform, everything else was mostly just a matter of balance and fear-​conquering.
Once you were actually up and going through the course, there was a whole variety of obstacles and ways to cross: tightrope lines, swinging platforms, a swinging tunnel, etc. Some were fairly challenging, and some were pretty easy. I’m not the most balanced person in the world, but I found it all very do-​able. At some points you were also given the option to take an easier or harder path forward, so everyone was able to get through each course at the level they were comfortable.
One thing that I really liked about Go Ape is that even though you start at the same time as 8 — 10 other people, you don’t all have to stick together. You and whoever you came with can go at your own rate (the instructors don’t lead you through the course). Since it was just my friend and me, and we’re both relatively (emphasis on the relatively) fit people, we went through each course pretty quickly, and thus got stuck waiting behind other people fairly frequently. Our instructor told us to treat it like mini-​golf, where if there are people behind you that are moving more quickly, you let them go ahead of you. So even though we tried to go the longer/​harder ways almost every time, at one point we got stuck behind a really big group, so we cut ahead via the «easy» route to save time and jump ahead.
The last thing you did at each station was zipline down to the next area! The ziplining was definitely my favorite part, although I didn’t accomplish it particularly gracefully because I was always landing sideways or backwards. At one point, both of my shoes flew off when I was trying to stop myself, hahaha. Only me, right?
The only time I really started to freak out and contemplated not doing an obstacle was near the very end. They had a couple of «Tarzan Swings», where basically you are literally just strapping yourself onto a rope and jumping off a ledge. The first one was kind of like a practice one, so it was okay, but the one near the end was REALLY high up. My friend had to do a little bit of coaxing to get me to do it, but — be proud of me! — in the end I took the literal leap of faith. Well, I guess it was really more like a crouch-​down-​and-​step of faith. But still.
So yes! Go Ape was super fun, a great «secret» workout (since you’re not thinking about all the muscles you’re using until they remind you the next day, haha), and I definitely recommend it. They have a few different locations — the one here in Rockville, one in Williamsburg, and one out in Indianapolis — and I’m sure there are other companies out there that offer something similar. I think the total price ended up somewhere between $ 55 and $ 60 with tax and whatnot, which was fair in my opinion because the staff was great, the equipment was clean and seemed fairly new, and they had water stations at the start of every course.
Three cheers for adventure!

Who’d thought that the Brits (yep, Go Ape is a British franchise!) would put together such an awesome high ropes course!
I’ve been ziplining 4 – 5 times and Go Ape is one of my favorites. It’s a legit high ropes course where you go from site to site via zipline and in between, there are all kinds of obstacles including some challenging walkways and a TARZAN SWING INTO A NET :) They’ve added a new section where you traverse over the road, and then zipline back over it!
I like that they have water jugs at each stockade so folks can stay hydrated. And there’s also a picnic/​BBQ area and a firepit (bring your own firewood).
The only thing I didn’t like (that most people prob won’t care about) is they don’t allow inversions. It’s a safety thing which I can sort of understand; but meh, it’s much more fun inverting.

Wow wow wow… you’ve been living in the area and you weren’t aware of Go Ape’s existence? You’re missing out!
It’s a unique experience… they call it «tree adventure.» It’s a series of obstacle courses comprising of tarzan swings, zip lines, ladders, and ropes — with increasing difficulty. Adrian was our wonderful instructor. We were thoroughly trained, as we were strapped into our harnesses and practiced attaching ourselves with the carabiners. It was drilled into us how we MUST always be attached to cables. I very much appreciated that because it became an innate habit for me to do it. Safety first!
The order that we started in was based on the number of people in your party and whether there are children in your group because smaller groups would be faster to finish. Afraid I would hold up the line, initially I wanted to be in the back, but we were sent to the front of the line! Eeks! I thought. Having never done anything remotely similar to Go Ape, I wasn’t sure exactly how afraid of the heights I’d be. Surprisingly, I did really well through the 5 courses. Overcoming my fear of the zip lines without much hesitation (ie holding up the line). The people behind us assured us that there’s no rush and rather that everyone participates safely.
Man, the zip lines go SOOO fast! Adrian gave us the tip that we can prevent spinning around by making sure our carabiner wasn’t twisted up on the pulley when we attach the carabiners. It’s so much harder to control your stop going backwards.
There are water stations and benches at the first obstacle of each course. Go weekdays and during the school year (unless you have kids, of course) to avoid long lines and waits. I heard the weekends and summer can turn into total madness. Also, wearing gloves help prevent rope burn! You can make online reservations.