I have this tradition when I travel, I always try to do a hot air balloon flight 🙂 ! I’ve done it 4 times by now: in Marrakesh (Morocco), Luxor (Egypt), Wadi Rum desert (Jordan), and Barcelona (Spain). It’s a magical feeling. It’s so quiet and still there that it really doesn’t feel like some huge heigh, so it wasn’t as scary as I expected. The balloon is so stable and flies so smoothly, that you can take some awesome pictures and just enjoy the view below. It even feels a bit weird 🙂 But also great… It’s very fun to see how the balloon is being filled with hot air and then find yourself in its basket 🙂
Here are the tours I’ve taken (I have to note that balloon tours are usually quite expensive 🙁 )
The most amazing ones, I have to say, were the flights in Egypt and Jordan. In the former, we flew next to the Nile, sneak picking into the life of field-workers and observing the Hatshepsut temple from above. I had just visited that temple the day before and it was really fun to see it from above. The flight included pick up and drop off at the hotel. It was so fun to see those tiny donkeys below us, green fields along the Nile and the desert further. The temples were also quite easy and fun to recognise 🙂
Wadi Rum desert in Jordan looks just gorgeous from above. It’s so beautiful and unique… Nothing can compare to it! We also had a nice snack at the end of the flight – while waiting for the cars to pick us up.
My Barcelona flight was a bit different. It wasn’t as great in terms of the view (maybe since I’ve taken it after the other ones…) But they actually allowed us to walk into the balloon itself which is something I’ve never done before. There was also a gift bag and champagne after the flight 🙂 But the best thing there was that I bought a balloon + a visit to Montserrat monastery, which was an awesome combo! It’s great when you don’t have much time, as was my case since the visit to Barcelona was work-related.
I barely remember the Moroccan balloon (it’s been a while), but we had a really nice local breakfast while waiting for the balloon to be set up and a fun (but very very short) camel ride after 🙂
To bottom-line it, I recommend this experience to everyone, even those with fear of heights (as myself) 🙂
