Hot Air Balloon Rides in Australia
Four rides listed here, all at dawn, from 226 EUR for Camden Valley outside Sydney to 371 EUR for the flight over central Melbourne.
Australia gets four balloon flights on this site, and they split neatly into city and country. Melbourne, at 371 EUR, is both the most expensive and the odd one out: it is among the very few cities anywhere that permits balloons over the central business district at dawn. The other three stay above farmland. The Yarra Valley runs 304 EUR, the Gold Coast hinterland 258 EUR, and Camden Valley outside Sydney 226 EUR, the cheapest seat of the four.
Where the four flights go
Victoria holds two of them. The Melbourne and Yarra Valley pair leave from opposite kinds of ground. One lifts off near the city and drifts across office towers and the street grid while the traffic is still thin. The other goes up in Victoria's wine country about an hour east, where cold air settles on the valley floor overnight and the vine rows surface out of the mist as the sun climbs. North of the state border, the Gold Coast flight works the Queensland hinterland, the belt of rolling farmland and rainforest ridge that sits immediately behind the surf beaches. Tamborine Mountain and the Numinbah Valley belong to that country, and the whole plateau is what is left of an old shield volcano. Closer in to Sydney, Camden Valley is a wine region roughly 70 minutes from the centre, on the Nepean River to the south-west, and Balloon Aloft flies it.
Dawn starts, year round
Australian ballooning runs year round in most regions, which spares you the seasonal scramble, though it does not spare you the weather; the best time to fly page explains why a calm morning beats a warm one. Every flight here goes at dawn, which fixes the meeting time somewhere most people would rather be asleep. You gather in the dark and drive to whichever paddock the pilot settled on overnight, then watch the envelope come up in the headlights. Crews usually put a rope in your hands and ask you to pull, which is as close as most passengers get to understanding how the thing is rigged. Once you are up, the pilot has height to play with and nothing else, and how pilots steer covers the business of hunting for a wind that goes the right way. Landings happen in stubble and open paddocks, so check the packing notes before you dress for it. What sits inside a ticket differs between operators, and the cost page breaks down the usual components.
Camden Valley Sunrise Hot Air Balloon Flight near Sydney
Camden Valley sits 70 minutes from the middle of Sydney, which is the whole argument for this flight. Getting above open country here does not take a weekend away or a long drive, only an early alarm. Balloon Aloft runs it, and take-off is at sunrise, when the air over the valley is still and the light comes in flat across the fields. Camden is wine country, so what passes underneath is a mix of vineyard and working farmland, with the valley opening out as the balloon climbs. Dams catch the first light before anything else does. Where the balloon drifts is the wind's decision rather than the pilot's, which is why no two mornings out of here are quite the same, and why the crew follows in a vehicle instead of waiting at the launch field. In-flight photography comes with it, according to Balloon Aloft. The balloon lands wherever the crew has picked, and the morning finishes at the Camden Valley Inn with a champagne toast and breakfast. It is still early enough by then that most of Sydney is only getting started.
Gold Coast Hot Air Balloon Flight with Vineyard Breakfast
The Gold Coast sells itself on surf, so a balloon is a contrary way to see the place. Pickup is from your accommodation, which is where the morning starts working in your favour: you are driven to the launch site instead of hunting for it in the dark. What happens there, before anything leaves the ground, is the inflation display. A balloon at full height stands taller than a ten storey building, and watching them come upright in the half light is a decent argument for the alarm on its own. After the landing come the pack-up games, which is a polite way of saying passengers help put the balloon away. Then the group moves on to O'Reilly's Grand Homestead and Boutique Vineyard, where there are alpacas on the property and buildings old enough to be worth walking round while breakfast is put together. Breakfast is fresh and arrives with a glass of champagne, taken among the historic buildings. The transfers run both ways, so getting back to the coast is handled as well. By the time you are dropped off, the beach is only starting to fill up.
Melbourne Hot Air Balloon Flight over the City at Sunrise
Melbourne is one of a very small number of cities anywhere that permits hot air balloons over its central business district, and this flight uses that permission at first light, when the air above the city is calmest and the streets are still close to empty. Where the balloon actually goes depends on the wind, as it always does, but on a morning that lines up you drift across the towers and the river with the whole grid laid out underneath. Preparation is part of the deal. Passengers help the pilot get the balloon ready, which means watching the envelope fill and stand up while the fans and burners run, a process louder and more physical than the calm of the flight that follows. Then comes about an hour in the air, quiet apart from the burner, before the crew picks a spot to land and brings you down. Breakfast afterwards is optional rather than included. By the time the balloon is packed away, a start in the dark and an hour on your feet in a basket tend to have made the case for it.
Yarra Valley Morning Hot Air Balloon Flight with Transfer
Cold air slides off the ridges into the Yarra Valley overnight and settles on the floor until the sun burns it away, which is why the balloon goes up at first light and why you often start the flight climbing out of mist. The vine rows come back in strips as it thins. Victoria's wine country sits about an hour east of Melbourne, and from a basket it reads as farmland with vineyards set into it, cut by the river and closed in by wooded hills. A transfer is part of the booking, which removes the main practical obstacle to a dawn flight: getting yourself to a launch field in the dark, in a region where the field changes with the wind. Once everyone is on site the pilot puts passengers to work. Helping rig the balloon means hauling the envelope out flat and holding the mouth open while the fans fill it. Then the burners go in and the whole thing stands up over your head. The flight runs about an hour above the wine country, quiet apart from the burner firing every so often and slow enough that you can watch the same paddock for minutes at a time. Breakfast afterwards is optional rather than included. Whether you want it depends on how you feel about a full meal at an hour you would normally still be asleep.