Have you ever been on an Hot Air Balloon? In, Dubai? To be honest, it never interested me – not here in this region. My first thought was – what are going to see? Wouldn’t it just be – desert, and more desert?
But really – it’s not just desert. The entire experience, from pick-up to getting to site, watching the balloon getting blown at dusk, to lifting up to the air. Floating pass all that greenery (surprise, surprise) to drifting through the desert. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Here’s how our experience with Hero Balloon Flights went.
The pick-up
With the Signature Experience – Hero Balloon Flights will arrange to pick you up in the early morning, in a Land Rover Defender. Gotta mention the car-type here because it is so luxurious. Mental note to upgrade to this car at some point in life, ha ha.
Don’t worry – the team will inform you the evening prior, of the actual pick-up time. For us, it was 4:25am, and Jordan – our guide, was bang on time. Big smiles, all welcoming, in the early hours of the morning to start off our journey 🙂
Thinking back – I hardly slept that night. I was so worried I was going to wake up the next morning at 7am and miss the whole thing. I was like a little kid, super excited. I remember being up just before 3am and thinking, okay – not going back to sleep now, haha! Let’s get ready for this trip!
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Getting to the take-off site
We arrived to take-off site at around 5:30 am. It was pretty much pitch-black at that time, and for late October – it was actually quite chilly. Depending on the time of the year – I definitely recommend you bring in a cardigan, and I say cardigan or jacket so you can take it off when the sun comes up later on.
Arabic coffee and dates to start, then we were given the health and safety briefing. Pay attention here, as you don’t want to miss anything! Then – began their drone show, which was – how shall I describe it? A nice introduction to the whole experience. We’ve seen our fair share of drone shows from JBR so this one is not going to knock your socks off, but hey – hold your horses, this is not the main thing you’re here for. Be prepared for the main event.
The Preparation
As we were escorted to our balloon – watching the team inflating the balloon was surreal.
The sky was just slowly turning into a slight shade of purple and pink; these massive balloons were laying on the desert ground like a sleeping dinosaur. For the very first time, you get a feel of how big the balloon is (and how small you are) as you watch the team fire it up.
You observe from a safe distance, and in amazement of how intense the fire is, and how much energy is going into these giant balloons. They get bigger and bigger and bigger, and you wait eagerly in anticipation. It’s all very exciting.
The Journey
When the the balloon was ready and upright a few minutes later after 6am, we were asked to climb in the basket. Just putting that in words sounds amusing isn’t it? ‘Climb in the basket’. Like we were little pets.
Tip for the ladies : Come in pants, or least have some pants underneath your dress that are ‘basket-climbing-friendly’.
We lifted off the ground, and slowly ascended into the sky. Hendrick was our guide and falconer on-board, and Captain Yoshi – our hot-air-balloon pilot. Over the next hour and a half, Hendrick was an absolute gem of a guide. He went into detail of the areas we were passing by. He was patient to answer all our questions, which I can only imagine can be repetitive from the many flights that he had been on.
The sun started to peek out from beyond the mountains at around 6:25am and we watched the sky slowly light up from up above.
This was also the time when we had the ‘on-flight’ falcon show, and watched Hendrick let the falcon off. He circled the balloon numerous times before returning on-board for breakfast.
As the journey carried on, we drifted pass a lot of farmlands, as well as an equestrian centre.
There were goats and horses, date palm plantations, and so much more. At the beginning of the journey we were very high up, but later on – and I would say for most of the journey we drifted very very close to the ground – which was probably the part that I enjoyed the most.
Our favourite scene would be that moment when we were passing by the Margham desert area and a caravan of camels were making their way through the sand. We joked around to ask if this was all planned by the team. It was like a scene taken out of a movie. All that was missing was the background music.
Have a peek of our video below which shows a better overview of our experience :
The Landing
Our flight was slightly longer than the usual, and we proceeded to land around 7:30am or so. It got really exciting as the balloon started to descend and we were directed by Captain Yoshi to get into our ‘landing’ position. We watched the first balloon land, and typically the basket would fall (like the one we watched) – as it gets pulled by the balloon that was falling onto the ground. Fortunately (or unfortunately – depending on what you were hoping for), ours landed completely upright. I was a little disappointed – I wanted it to topple. I thought it will be fun. Again, inner child speaking here. Next time, next time.
Our Guide were ready on land to pick us up, and escort us to our breakfast location (next article, to come)
Our Thoughts
Was the balloon flight experience as I had expected?
Honestly – it was beyond what I had in mind.
I think I pictured that we will be so high up for most of the flight – which of course would be nice but I absolutely loved the rest of the journey where we were drifting right above the ground. I felt like bird, gently gliding pass all these farm and desertlands. Another part that I love was how quiet it was, to be on a hot air balloon. It was noisy for all those brief moments when Captain Yoshi had to fire the balloon up to keep is afloat – but for every bit in between as we were passing by, it was a world where it was just us, in a basket, watching this part of Dubai that we have never seen in our 12 years of living here, passing beneath us. Ah, it was beautiful.
- Hero Balloon Flights
- Operating from 1st October to 31st May, Daily
- More details on heroballoonflights.com
Disclaimer : We were guests of Hero Experiences to review the experience with the family.
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