Hot air balloon ride

browneyedbazzi

I'm looking for somewhere to go for a hot air balloon ride for a friend's 30th birthday. Looks like there'll be 5 or 6 people who want to go along.

Does anyone have any experience of booking this sort of thing? A lot of places require you to buy vouchers for rides before they'll show you dates/locations available and that doesn't sit well with me.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Lugh_Chronain

Have you tried Virgin or Go Ballooning? Each have their benefits and different launch sites throughout the UK.

You could also try Richard Nash which is in the Norwich area.

Can't advise otherwise.

v_norman_v

Groupon have done a deal in the past for a hot air balloon ride at a highly discounted price, so you could maybe check their site while you look for somewhere else in hope that they will have a deal on http://www.groupon.co.uk/

RHemmings

v_norman_v wrote: »

Groupon have done a deal in the past for a hot air balloon ride at a highly discounted price, so you could maybe check their site while you look for somewhere else in hope that they will have a deal on http://www.groupon.co.uk/

Is this the same Groupon that has been featured on Watchdog recently?

browneyedbazzi

Thank you all...I don't trust groupon after all I've seen and heard recently, I might give them a go for smaller things but for something big and important I'll steer clear!

Sadly Virgin and Go Balloooning don't allow you access to schedules etc until after you have bought a voucher. I expect with companies of their size I'd be able to find a suitable time/place but I really disagree with their policies of keeping consumers in the dark until after they've parted with cash.

I've been searching around and the best I can see is Balloons Over Britain. They list all their locations and planned flights on their website...special offer at the moment is £115 per ticket so not cheap, but better than ending up with £200 worth of useless vouchers!

lisyloo

don't allow you access to schedules

Hi - I'm a balloon pilot (not commercial so no vested interest) so perhaps I can explain a few things to you.

Ballooning is a very weather dependent sport.
You should expect a degree of cancellations (even many).
Flights do not take place in the day time. This is because of "thermals".
You know those white fluffy clouds you see in the summer?
Well each one is at the top of a column of rising air (you get the cloud where it reaches a temperature where the water vapour condenses).
Thermals are very disruptive to balloons so they have to be avoided.
Therefore flights take place first thing or last thing and that can be any day of the week.
The commercial operators will fly any day they have enough people and the weather is good.
They might not always have the minimum numbers on weekday mornings.

As for location.
They will have a certain number of launchsites.
But for any given day certain launchsites might be unsuitable.
For example Ashton court in Bristol is a very popular site.
But certain wind directions would take you either over the Bristol Channel out to sea, or directly over Bristol Ariport and they could decline entry to their airspace.
For this reason operators will have multiple launchsites.
They shoudl be able to tell you where they are.
But on any give day they will not be able to guarantee you a particualr place.
For example if Bristol airport declined permission for the flight then there is nothing the operator can do except go elsewhere.
They would of course provide transport there and back, although the whole thing could take a little longer.

I agree they should be being open, but I'm just explaining some of the genuine practical considerations.
hope that helps.

browneyedbazzi

Thanks Lisyloo.

I'm a bit scared of the whole thing so I have done some reading and understand about weather issues that can cause last minute cancellations or changes to launch sites. I'd also read about flights only going in the early morning or late afternoon because of thermals.

I do want to book for my friend's actual birthday but understand that if weather conditions are not right they will have to cancel (i'll try to think of an alternative plan for if that happens). Being scared anyway I definitely wouldn't want to go if the conditions were iffy! I wouldn't hold it against anyone for cancellations or change of launch sites because of practical considerations. I just don't like the places that want you to buy their vouchers without any advanced information about their launch sites or scheduled dates.

I've heard too many stories (not just balloon related) about people buying experience vouchers only to find that there isn't an accessible location for them or places are booked months in advance so they can't get dates they want etc...or worse when the company selling the vouchers goes bump!

Thanks again for your info, you must be brave to fly balloons! x