“What can we expect when we take a flight with Adventure Balloon’s?” many of our customers ask when they call our office; and it’s not hard to find the answer with us! Our website has all the information you could need from our company history, details on our balloons, customer comments, flight videos and photographs, an explanation as to what weather conditions we need, the history of balloons and how a hot air balloon works, an FAQ and even a News facility. In fact not only will our website allow you to find all the information you need and want to know about us and ballooning, but it will also allow you to check date availability against the location you have chosen, and then book the flight‼ That’s not to say however that you cannot phone us for information and bookings, as of course we’re always happy to take your calls – 01252 844222.

So what can you expect from you flight? Let me tell you…

Well, after joining in fully with the real sense of ballooning by helping to inflate the balloon, you will of course embark upon a truly magical adventure! In fact, there really is no other experience quite like it! You’ll find there’s no sensation of movement, no sensation of rising at all, you’ll just look down and see the world dropping away, it’s quite surreal! You’ll look up and see the inside of the balloons envelope, the burners and feel the heat on your face, then look across in any direction and enjoy panoramic 360 degree views of the world around you! The fields will appear like a patchwork quilt and buildings and famous monuments will look like toys on the ground below. You’ll be flying with the birds, no movement of air, as you’ll be moving with the wind.

During your hours flight you could see heights of up to 3’000 feet! The exact height will depend on the wind however as the balloon rises and falls to find the appropriate wind path. During morning flights you’ll be lucky enough to see the world untouched by human hands, wildlife enjoying the world all to themselves. With the use of rotation vents, the pilot can rotate the balloon to provide you with a complete (and quite literal) birds-eye view, which in turns enables you to take the best possible photographs! Having said this however, the pilot will take an in flight photograph of you in the balloon which you can purchase after the flight.

After your flight and when you’re likely to be quiet speechless (and even feeling a little euphoric some have described), you can enjoy the experience to its max by seeing it through to its real end and helping your pilot to pack the balloon away. The pilot will then present you with a flight certificate which of course is followed by the mandatory (and celebratory!) glass of champagne (or orange juice if you prefer) to toast your very own magical mystery balloon tour.

It really is all that you’ve dreamed of and more and at the cost of just £89 per person, it’s a treat you might just be able to justify! Enjoy and Bon Voyage!

The rest of March and into April are set to be very pleasant indeed for the time of year, with no weather warnings and low rainfall set for the month ahead (which isn’t great given the current drought in large parts of England and the impending hose pipe ban) making for perfect flying conditions! In fact temperatures have been several degrees above the average for the time of year, which the climate being more like June than March. Weather findings have suggested that the all time March temperature record in Scotland has been broken with a heat of 22.8°C beating the 22.2°C recorded on 13th March 1957!

All this considered could this be the perfect time for you to embark upon your hot air balloon dream? At Adventure Balloons we believe in making the most of the now; for all we know, we could be set for a fifth year running of summer ending by June; what we’re seeing now could in fact be the beginning of our summer as we’ve come to know these past few years! Let embrace it, accept it and enjoy it!

Spring hot air balloon offers –

You may be happy to hear that we are holding our special offers for a little longer this year with prices for our balloon flight vouchers on line from as little as £89 per person! This could be the perfect birthday surprise, romantic anniversary escapade, an unbeatable congratulations reward, or even an incentive or moral booster for your staff or clientele. We even have specialist HAPPY BIRTHDAY balloons so that you can draw that little bit more attention to your loved one!

It couldn’t be easier to book; simply visit us online to check date availability and to order through our fast bookings feature, or call us on 01252 844222 to speak to a member of our friendly team. You can choose from the following flight locations;

Oxford, Reading, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford, Tring, London, Basingstoke, Hartley Wintney, Guildford, Farnham, Godalming, West Meon, Micheldever, Alton, Winchester, Kent, Sussex and Essex.

Don’t ponder it with a mind filled with questions; get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!

Book with Adventure Balloons now to get your chance to fly over our beloved capital in 2013! With this year’s London flights terminated, we are gathering quite a list of passengers waiting for their chance to fly with us in London in 2013. If you want to be one of those lucky flyers, then get in their quick before we’re booked up over the big smoke!

Thanks to this year’s London events the Department of Transport has made it clear that security arrangements will preclude flights at Adventure Balloons launch sites and will ban the use of London’s airspace for security reasons due to the Queens Diamond Jubilee Celebrations and the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. With our growing list of customers thanks to high recommendation rates and general good word of mouth it is becoming evident that we’ll see a full ballooning season for London flights next year, so if this is something which has been on your mind to organise for next year, don’t delay as you may be very disappointed.

Do bear in mind that due to London’s constant building development, there is now just one take-off site remaining where it is possible for us to launch our hot air balloon rides and where special Air Traffic permission enables our dawn flights during the summer months. London ballooning requires very strict weather criteria and so they are often subject to cancellation and re-scheduling at short notice.

Having said this there are about two to three hundred passengers a year who are patient and lucky enough to take these balloon flights over Central London with Adventure Balloons. We ensure that their experiences are unique, exclusive and well worth the wait!

If you’d like this to be you, just get in touch with us on 01252 844222, or alternatively you can easily check date availability and book online for fast e-mail vouchers.

If you’re thinking of embarking upon the adventure of hot air ballooning then you will first need to look into the ‘ins and outs’ of what to expect. The art of ballooning is fully dependent upon the weather and as you well know, the weather here in Great Britain has a mind of its own. This is why any good hot air balloon flights company will have specialists who are dedicated to determining the forecast prior to each flight. At Adventure Balloons we highly recommend that our customers call us on the morning of their flight so that we can confirm to them whether the flight will go ahead or not.

Unlike many other balloon flight operators, Adventure Balloons has a unique date check availability page which allows prospective customers and voucher holders to check out our flights schedule in the location(s) of their choice. This way you will gain an insight into how many of our bookings we actually fulfil. Many companies advertise a whole range of different flight locations; however in many cases you will find that they rarely launch flights from most of those sites. With us, you choose your location then browse through each available flight date available from that spot!

Due to the fact that ballooning is weather depending, you’ll find that not all passengers fly on their first attempt, it can often take a few tries, it simply boils down to luck. Rest assured however, the experience is always worth the wait! Light winds, good visibility and no rain are required for a balloon flight to go ahead. When surface winds are calm, hot air balloon ride pilots can control the altitude of the balloon very finely by heating or venting the air inside. This is why flights will take place during sunset or sunrise as the weather is at its calmest then.

If you’d like to understand more about how we ‘balloon’ take a look at our FAQ page or alternatively our ABOUT page where you’re likely to find all the information you need. Alternatively however you may wish to speak to a member of our team. Please feel free to call us on 01252 844222 where you will always find we are happy to help.

At Adventure Balloons our 2012 season kicked off with a rather chilly start which just added to the excitement of the day. The temperatures peaked at a “brrrrrrrrreathtaking” minus 8 degrees, we thought it was mighty brave of Kunal Barai to brave it with his partner so early on a Saturday morning! The pair travelled from London to Winchfield by train with anticipation and excitement of their adventurous day ahead!

However what was unquestionably a rather freezing day was soon warmed by a question from Kunal himself. With the hot air balloon ascended to 2,000 feet over the picturesque village of Hook in Hampshire, it couldn’t have been a more perfect backdrop for Kunal – on bended knee – to pop the question to Tina!

Hot air ballooning is without a doubt the most romantic way to take to the skies, so why not take this perfect opportunity to ask your loved one to spend the rest of their lives with you? It’s certainly one way to knock their socks off, so to speak! Kunal was obviously one of the more romantically minded men of the world and thanks to his thought and deliberation of the best way to propose, he was of course successful! As Tina said yes he slipped a ring on her finger which he had purchased from Tiffany’s earlier in the week. Perfect.

“It was a great way to start our ballooning season and the weather was superb. It was one of those rare crisp winters days with lovely visibility, some snow on the ground and the balloon landed on a field belonging to a lovely farmer” said Chief Pilot Kim Hull. “We wish Tina and Kunal a great future after their flying start!”

For more details of other proposals on our hot air balloon rides click here.

We’ve compiled a list of your most frequently asked questions so that you can easily find the answers to all your queries and hesitations. However please don’t let this stop you! If you find you have any questions at all that you’d like answering and would like to speak to a member of our team you can call Adventure Balloons on 01252 844222 or our sister company Balloon Rides Ltd on 01757 288888.

Many of our customers ask us when we fly, the answer is in fact subject to suitable hot air balloon flying conditions. Normally we fly early morning and early evening when the wind is generally calmer and our flying season is from April to October. The times we fly are fully dependent on sunrise and sunset and so vary throughout the seasons. Based on a typical may, we would meet you at 6am for morning flights and 6pm for evening flights.

Next our customers ask us where we fly. Adventure Balloons cover locations in Berkshire, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, London, Oxford, Surrey, Sussex and York. Balloon Rides fly in York from York Racecourse or from the banks of the River Ouse at Naburn Lock. They also fly in Lincolnshire where they have sites near Grantham, Rutland Water and Stamford.

Customers ask us how to book. This is simple, you first decide which location you’d like to balloon in and then either call the relevant balloon company on the numbers given above, or alternatively you can check Balloon Rides date availability online, or use their online booking feature. Adventure Balloons also give you both the option to check dates and to book online. Whichever way is easier for you!

Another popular question asked is what weather conditions are expected for a successful flight. In answer to this we require light winds, no rain and good visibility. We strongly advise you to call us at the time specified in your map pack to confirm if the weather permits us to fly, and if so the meeting time and place. In the event that we should have to cancel your flight at short notice, it will simply be for reasons such as bad weather, and we ask you to reschedule your flight as soon as possible at a time to suit you.

If this hasn’t answered your questions please do not hesitate to get in touch with us on the above numbers or you can easily access our information and more FAQ’s on our websites www.adventureballoons.co.uk and www.balloonridesltd.co.uk.

At Adventure Balloons we first took to the skies in April 1985, at this time passenger Ballooning was a relatively new thing and so there weren’t many of us around! However as demand grew, so did we and it seems our reputation exceeded us! It wasn’t long before our name stood for quality ballooning, excellent customer service and a drive to please. And how true this is, we love ballooning today as much as we ever have and it’d be fair to say that we gain a lot of our appreciation of what we do from giving our customers a good time!

Now, as the largest company in the country offering UK balloon flights, we operate seven hot air balloons with capacities which range from four to sixteen people and even boast our very own HAPPY BIRTHDAY balloons!

So what do our customers say about us? You can take a look for yourself by viewing our ‘customer comment’ section on the site. We’ve taken a few of the best ones below to give you an idea.

It is easy to forget that you are suspended from a large piece of nylon held up with a few canisters of gas. Travelling across the town you can almost imagine you are in a cinema watching a film.” – Reading Chronicle

“Having promised myself a flight in a balloon by the time I reached 40, I was thrilled with the realisation of this dream. It was such a peaceful, surreal experience, made all the more fulfilling by all the people involved, the friends helping to inflate the balloon. – PK – Herts

“Hot air ballooning has to be one of the most romantic ways to fly. Few can resist the attractions, and whether you choose a morning or evening flight, the experience will be remembered for years to come!” - Surrey Advertiser

And one last thing; you have one week to go until the big day! Valentine’s Day falls on Tuesday 14^th February this year giving you just 6 full days to organise that special gift. Are you thinking a box of chocolates just won’t cut it this year? Well imagine the look on their face if you presented them with hot air ballooning vouchers! Although you’ve only a week left, you can leave this one right to the very last minute if you have a printer. You can simply book online and we’ll email you your printable vouchers immediately, or if you’d rather we gift boxed your surprise vouchers (along with a few little extras), get in touch now! You’ve just enough time to order your vouchers and your £15 gift box in time for 14^th!

It’s just 2 weeks until Valentine’s Day and your time is quickly running out, so let’s make things nice an easy for you. There is still time to book your loved one a paradise hot air balloon ride for February 14^th, but you’ll need to organise this fast. Adventure Balloons take great pleasure in offering romantic balloon rides. We are well aware that it is an experience that is likely to stay with you forever and will certainly make a real impact. We know you want to impress, otherwise you wouldn’t be making a statement with a balloon ride present; that’s why we pull out all the stops to tailor each individual ride to each of our customer’s specific desires. Let us know what you expect from your day with us, whether you’d like to fly in a group or if you’d like it to be a more intimate affair.

We can offer your flights in locations Oxford, Reading, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford, Tring, London, Basingstoke, Hartley Wintney, Guildford, Farnham, Godalming, West Meon, Micheldever, Alton, Winchester, Kent, Sussex and Essex. There’s no waiting on the postman with us, you can simply book online and we will email you your vouchers to be with you almost instantly! However if you’d prefer us to post them we will.

If you determined to fly on a specific day, call our offices on 01252 844222 to check the date availability and book, or alternatively view our ‘Dates’ page where you can see this information online. Do bear in mind however that due to ballooning being a weather dependant ‘sport’, if the conditions aren’t right on the day, we will have to re-schedule. We advise that you call on the day of your flight to check that the flight will be going ahead.

Next you simply need to choose from our various different voucher options which include the following:

Weekday Morning Champagne Balloon Flight – Just £89 per person! – Valid for flights from Berkshire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Oxford, Surrey and Yorkshire. The voucher entitles you to a weekday morning flight during April – October and includes full colour gift voucher valid for 12 calendar months, flight in a hot air balloon, passenger insurance, traditional Champagne toast and presentation of flight certificate with return to the take off site by licensed minibus.

Weekday Champagne Balloon Flight – Just £109 per person! – Valid for flights from Berkshire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Oxford, Surrey and York. The voucher entitles you to a weekday flight during April – October at any of our time slots and includes full colour gift voucher valid for 12 calendar months, flight in a hot air balloon, passenger insurance, traditional Champagne toast and presentation of flight certificate with return to the take off site by licensed minibus.

Standard Champagne Balloon Flight – Just £129 per person! – Valid for flights from Berkshire, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Oxford, Surrey, Sussex and York. The voucher entitles you to a weekday or weekend flight during April – October at any of our time slots and includes full colour gift voucher valid for 12 calendar months, flight in a hot air balloon, passenger insurance, traditional Champagne toast and presentation of flight certificate with return to the take off site by licensed minibus.

Nationwide Champagne Balloon Flight – Just £139 per person! – Valid for flights from the widest selection of launch sites across the UK (excludes London). Includes full colour gift voucher valid for 12 calendar months, flight in a hot air balloon, passenger insurance, traditional Champagne toast and presentation of flight certificate with return transport to the take off site.

So you’ve decided on Adventure Balloons as the operator to take you up on your first hot air balloon ride, but now you simply cannot decide which of the fabulous locations to opt for! Tricky one; all our locations are wonderful for their own reasons, we cover the fascinating Oxfordshire, York & Lincolnshire, fabulous Hertfordshire, you’ll see plenty in Berkshire, and plenty more in Essex Kent and Sussex, one of our favourites is North Hampshire and Surrey is simply beautiful. London is of course out of the question with this year’s London Olympics and Paralympics and also with the Queens Diamond Jubilee Celebrations. The Department of Transport have made it clear that for security reasons our flights will preclude for 2012. You can however book for 2013 is you’d like to see London from 3’000 foot in the air!

One of our favourite balloon flight paths is our South Hampshire location taking off from launch sites in Alton, Micheldever, Popham, West Meon and Winchester.

Depending on which site we take off from (which is determined by the wind direction and weather on the day of the flight), you may see the impressive Winchester Cathedral, the breathtaking rolling Hampshire countryside, the tranquil River Test and various small villages such as Laverstoke, Whitchurch, and the Candovers during the balloon ride. However, this too depends on which direction the wind is blowing. You may also see large estates such as Leckford on the River Test where Waitrose produce a lot of their food, the Mid Hants Steam Railway that runs from Alton to Alresford, and if you’re exceptionally lucky, you may even see a glider circling around Lasham airfield, or microlights flying from Popham airfield!

When flying from our South Hampshire launch sites we have to keep clear of Southampton Airport at Eastleigh, and also keep our passengers out of the Solent! So you can see why in order to provide you with a safe and enjoyable flight, the site chosen will depend entirely on the wind direction and speed on the day.

Why not visit the site where you can easily book now in any of our flight locations, you can even click here to see videos of our flights over Hampshire! However if you’re after a more personal touch, then call one of our team on 01252 844222!

Are you thinking about booking a hot air balloon flight over our beloved capital city? Well I’m not surprised; with so much to offer in the way of architecture, historical buildings and cutting edge developments, London is sure to offer many surprises from 3’000 feet in the air! Well here at Adventure Balloons we’re proud to include London on our list of balloon flight locations.

However latest discussions with the Department of Transport have made it clear that security arrangements both at our launch sites and in London’s airspace required for the Queens Diamond Jubilee Celebrations and the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics will preclude our Central London Hot Air Balloon Rides for all of the 2012 season. Worry not however, you can purchase vouchers for London balloon flights in 2013 from November 2012! What better plan for an extra special Christmas gift! Forward planning is always a good idea for grand gestures such as this, and with plenty of notice you’ll certainly raise the funds in time!

Vouchers start from as little as £89 per person and if a 2013 London hot air balloon flight is what you’re looking for and you need to budget for it now, then why not call our offices to find out exactly how much it would cost on the date/time of your choice? Make sure you give us details of how many people will be flying, whether you’re looking for a sunrise booking or a sunset, and whether you’re after a weekday or weekend flight. With just a little put by each month, you could have Christmas 2012 completely sorted!

However if you just can’t contain your excitement and you’d like to book a flight for this year, then why not consider our other locations; Oxford, Reading, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford, Tring, London, Basingstoke, Hartley Wintney, Guildford, Farnham, Godalming, West Meon, Micheldever, Alton, Winchester, Kent, Sussex and Essex.

What’s more, you can even book one of our exclusive ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’ balloons (available in 2-4 persons or 16 persons for larger party flights) which are available on most of our balloon flights in Berkshire, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Oxford, Surrey and York in 2012.

For more information simply visit the site or call us on 01252 844222.