Skydive Delmarva, Laurel

You climb aboard a Super Otter aircraft and start your ascent into the sky. When you're high enough that the land is a blurry haze of colors below—13,500 feet up—the door opens and you and the skydiving expert you're strapped to launch yourselves into the air. You hurtle towards terra firma for a thrilling 60–70 seconds before a ram-air parachute opens and you being to gently float downward. This pulse-pounding experience ends when you softly touch down on the ground, a landing that feels like "hopping off a step stool," according to the experts.

Skydive Delmarva gives adventurers these once-in-a-lifetime experiences during tandem skydives from its location in Laurel. Its experienced instructors also teach people how to skydive on their own using their own parachutes.