Hot Air Balloon Flights in Melbourne

Melbourne Hot Air Balloon Questions

Common Questions

• 01

  How much does a hot air balloon ride in Melbourne cost?

  Melbourne hot air balloon flights start from $515 per person for approximately 60 minutes in the air, with the whole experience running about four hours from the meeting point to drop-off.

• 02

  How high will the balloon go?

  Depending on weather conditions, balloons can fly up to 2,000 feet (600 metres) or more. At times, we also fly low to take in the scenery just above the treetops.

• 03

  Where do hot air balloons take off in Melbourne?

  There is no fixed launch pad. Balloons fly with the wind, so our pilots choose the take-off site each morning based on the forecast at altitude. We confirm a convenient meeting point with you beforehand and drive you to the launch site from there, which means the flight always runs in the best conditions available that day.

• 04

  Do you actually fly over the Melbourne CBD?

  Melbourne is one of very few cities in the world that permits hot air balloon flights over its centre, and city flights are what we are best known for. The exact track depends on the wind on the day, and nobody can promise a specific route in a balloon. Even so, the skyline is the reason most people choose the Melbourne flight over our regional ones.

• 05

  What time does a Melbourne balloon flight start?

  Early. Meeting times begin around 4:30am in summer and 6:30am in winter, about one and a half hours before sunrise. Sunrise is both the safest and the most spectacular time of day to fly, which is why every one of our flights goes up at dawn.

• 06

  Is hot air ballooning safe?

  Ballooning is peaceful, quiet and safe. There is no sensation of falling and no swaying, and passengers who are nervous about heights are consistently surprised that the fear never arrives. You will not feel height sick.

• 07

  Melbourne or the Yarra Valley: which flight is better?

  Both launch at sunrise, both last about an hour in the air, and both are flown by the same pilots to the same standard. What separates them is what you look down on, and how far you have to drive at four in the morning to see it.

  The short answer

  Choose Melbourne if you want the city: the CBD towers catching first light, the Yarra threading out toward the docks, and the rare privilege of drifting over the middle of a capital city. Choose the Yarra Valley if you want landscape: mist lying in the folds of the valley, vineyards in rows below you, and the ranges standing up behind. If it is your first flight and you are staying in the city, take Melbourne. If you are making a weekend of it, take the valley.

  The Two Flights, Side By Side

  	Melbourne	Yarra Valley
  From price	$515 per person	$480 per person
  Time in the air	Approx. 60 minutes	Approx. 60 minutes
  Total experience	Approx. 4 hours	Approx. 4 hours
  Drive from the CBD	None. You meet in the city	About an hour each way
  The view	Skyline, river, Port Phillip Bay	Vineyards, valley mist, the ranges
  Character	Urban, dramatic, unusual	Pastoral, soft, painterly
  Pairs well with	Breakfast at the Hotel Windsor	A day in the wine country
  Flies	Sunrise, year-round	Sunrise, year-round

  What You Actually See

  Melbourne: a city almost nobody gets to fly over

  This is the part most people do not realise until they are up there. Very few major cities in the world permit hot air balloons over their centre. Melbourne does, and it is the single reason the city flight is worth the earlier alarm and the extra thirty-five dollars.

  You lift off in the dark and rise into light before the ground has it. The towers come first, Eureka and Rialto catching the sun while the streets below are still lit orange by streetlights. Then the Yarra, threading west toward the docks. Albert Park Lake and the grand prix circuit sit off to one side, the MCG and the sporting precinct to the other, and beyond all of it Port Phillip Bay turns from grey to silver. On a clear morning the Dandenongs stand up in the east and the You Yangs in the west, which means you can see the whole shape of the city and the country it sits in at once.

  It is a spectacle rather than a landscape, and it is genuinely rare. You will not get this view anywhere else in Australia.

  The Yarra Valley: the flight that looks like the photographs

  If you have a picture in your head of what ballooning looks like, it is probably closer to the valley. The Yarra Valley is one of Victoria’s most beloved destinations at ground level, and it is a different place entirely from the air.

  The mist is the thing. On still mornings it pools along the valley floor and sits in the creek lines, so the hills come through it like islands and the balloon moves over the top of the whole soft mess of it. Below that, vineyards in their long ruled rows, farmhouses with their lights just coming on, and the ranges holding the far edge. The light is gentler than the city gives you, and the whole thing is quieter, both to look at and to be in.

  Autumn is the valley’s showing-off season, when the vines turn and the mornings are at their stillest. But it flies year-round, and a cold clear winter morning in the valley is arguably better than a warm one.

  What Is Identical, And Should Not Sway You

  A lot of the decision gets made on things that are the same either way. To save you weighing them:

  • The early start. Meeting times begin around 4:30am in summer and 6:30am in winter for both, roughly an hour and a half before sunrise.
  • Time in the air. Approximately 60 minutes for both, with the whole experience running about four hours.
  • The wind picks the launch site. Neither flight has a fixed take-off pad. Our pilots choose the site each morning from the wind at altitude, which is why we confirm a meeting point with you and drive you out from there.
  • How it feels. There is no swaying, no drop in your stomach, and no sensation of falling. Passengers nervous about heights are consistently surprised the fear never arrives. You will not feel height sick on either flight.
  • Safety and crew. Same pilots, same aircraft, same maintenance, same ground crew tracking you the whole way and meeting you wherever you come down.
  • Weather. Both fly year-round at sunrise, and both are subject to the same judgement call on the morning.

  The Four In The Morning Factor

  This is the practical difference people underestimate, and it decides the choice more often than the view does.

  A Melbourne flight meets in the city. If you are staying anywhere central you can walk or take a short taxi, which at 4:30am is worth a great deal. The Yarra Valley is about an hour from the CBD, so a valley flight from a city hotel means leaving somewhere around 3:30am, driving in the dark, and driving home again afterwards on very little sleep.

  That flips entirely if you stay out there. A night in the valley before the flight turns the hardest part of the morning into a fifteen-minute drive, and it turns the flight into the opening act of a proper weekend rather than a very long day. If you are considering the valley, consider staying in it.

  After You Land

  Both flights end the same way. The ground crew has tracked the balloon throughout and meets you wherever the wind has put you down, usually in a paddock or a park with the morning properly underway.

  In Melbourne, guests who choose the Balloon Flight with Breakfast package finish at the Hotel Windsor, the grand Victorian landmark on Spring Street, where breakfast is served in one of the city’s most beautiful dining rooms. It is a fitting way to come back down to earth, and it turns the flight into a whole morning rather than an hour.

  The valley has a second advantage the city cannot match: you are already there. Cellar doors, produce and long lunches are all within a short drive of where you land, so the flight can be the start of the day rather than the whole of it.

  Which One, For You

  Visiting Melbourne for a few days	Melbourne. You are already in the city, the meeting point is on your doorstep, and you get a view of the place you came to see that almost no visitor gets.
  A milestone birthday or anniversary	Melbourne, with the Windsor breakfast. The city flight plus a grand dining room is the more memorable morning, and the occasion justifies the extra.
  Planning a proposal	The Yarra Valley. Softer light, quieter surroundings, and better photographs. The valley is the more romantic of the two and it is not close.
  Making a weekend of it	The Yarra Valley. Stay the night before, fly at dawn, and spend the day in the wine country. The logistics that count against the valley disappear entirely once you sleep there.
  Serious about photography	Either, for opposite reasons. Melbourne for architecture, contrast and a skyline nobody else has shot from a basket. The valley for mist, texture and that soft first light.
  Watching the budget	The Yarra Valley at $480, but only if you are not paying for a night out there. Factor in accommodation and the city flight is often the cheaper morning.

  Can You Do Both?

  People do, and they are rarely disappointed the second time. They are different enough that the second flight does not feel like a repeat: one is a city seen from an angle almost nobody gets, the other is countryside at its softest hour. Most who fly twice do Melbourne first for the spectacle, then the valley later for the calm.

  Gift vouchers are valid for three years and can be used at any of our locations, so a voucher does not force the choice at the time of buying. Whoever receives it can decide which morning they want.