Gold Coast Hot Air Balloon Experience

This is an ideal Gold Coast Hot Air Balloon Experience guide, including all the necessary details. I was on a media trip by Gold Coast Tourism to travel around a few places and write about them on my blog. So yea, you can trust the suggestions given below.

Gold Coast Hot Air Balloon was certainly one of the top experiences I was looking forward to since an invitation from Queensland Tourism landed in my inbox. The deal was, they will take us around a few places and we will write about our experience: good or bad whatever.

If you want more tips on what to see and do in the city, this 5-day Gold Coast Itinerary will help you get the most out of your holiday. But if you want to know about my experience of Gold Coast Hot Air Balloon in detail, keep reading…

Gold Coast Hot Air Balloon

Initially, it felt okay as the hot air balloon started ascending. But as we kept going higher and higher my knees started going weak.

“How high are we going today?” I asked the pilot, with a doubtful voice, expecting him to sense the nervousness in me. But ignoring my questions, he gave a playful smirk. “over 3500 feet,” the pilot replied after a few minutes.

After more than a km above the ground, as my eyes finally adjusted and my head came to its place, I realised that my last experience of a hot air balloon in Goa was, in fact, a low-altitude ride.

It may just be as beautiful and surreal as an experience, but my Goa flight certainly wasn’t as high as the Gold Coast hot air balloon ride.

It was 4 in the morning when our driver from ‘Hot Air’ picked us up from our hotel for our Gold Coast hot air balloon experience. The weather was clear and cold, but a good experience was all I was looking forward to.

It took us almost one and a half hours and a few pickups on the way before we finally reached our Gold Coast hot air balloon location, in Hinterland.

There were two balloons that were taking off simultaneously with each one having about 18 guests and a pilot.

Our pilot, with his playful Italian accent, assured of a memorable flight. “You may just be feeling a little cold now, but once you’ll be up there you will be thanking for it. All the mist that’s adding to the cold will add to the views up there”.

And alas, he was true. As we took off and rose about 2000ft above the group, the sweeping views of the majestic Gold Coast Hinterland, with regular intervals of temporary mist, made it up to us.

We were told that the winter months of May and June are the best for Gold Coast Hot Air Balloon ride. And we were told truth.

It was a kind of experience that was hard to convey in words: from the gradual take-off to the panoramic views of tranquillity, every bit of it was precious.

And the hot air balloon pictures we took on the way, well that made the entire experience a bit more priceless!

After a little more than an hour’s ride, a hot air balloon started descending. As the ground approached, our pilot asked us to grab something as there could be a bump.

I have heard of people having crazy bumpy landings during their flights (in some cases, the bucket also gets flipped) but my hot air balloon experiences have been smooth.

There can be a little jolt once you hit the ground, but if the conditions are good and your pilot is experienced, the landing is never a rough one. We braced ourselves for a brief jump and in a couple of seconds, our hot air balloon came to a stop.

As we stopped, an off-roading trailer approached us to take us back to our parked van.

Once we were out of the basket, we helped the crew and pilot pack up the balloon as volunteers.

It was a lot of work indeed pushing the air out and folding the nylon in, but in less than 10 minutes we were packed and taken for breakfast at a nearby winery. At the winery, a glass of champagne and a hot buffet lunch was waiting for us.

By the time we reached the winery, the sun had come much above the horizon. It was indeed a perfect end to a perfect morning in the air!

You may also be interested in reading about my Scoot Airlines experience.

Have you had a Gold Coast hot air balloon experience? How was it? Let’s share in the comments below.

Disclaimer: I was invited by Queensland Tourism for a 5-day trip to Gold Coast. Though the trip was hosted by them, all recommendations and suggestions are solely my own. I only recommend what I personally try and find worth appreciating.