I was hesitant to share this article and experience since it really isn’t accessible to everyone. A flight in a hot air balloon is anywhere from $250-$300 a person (depending on what time of week and what day). So this is super-expensive. However, this is one of the coolest things I have ever experienced and Mandy at Monticello Country Ballooning is a local Charlottesville gem.
So, if like us, you’ve saved for over three years to take this excursion, it is worth it and I highly recommend it.
Most of these photos of our flight are provided courtesy of Monticello Country Ballooning.
Let’s talk about how I ended up in a balloon over Barracks Road one very cold day in November at sunrise:
Since some point in my ’20s, I had decided all I wanted when I turned 40 was to go up in a hot air balloon. I am not big on parties or extravagant social affairs. But adventure, experience and travel is my jam. And I knew that a hot air balloon ride was a luxury experience in a lot of ways, so I thought a big birthday was a natural fit to splurge on this. (I also had a feeling then that as I got older I would become more cautious and more risk-adverse, yet never wanted to stop living life to its fullest… because 40 felt SO OLD back then. Sweet.)
Then, time passed, kids entered our lives, we moved around a few times, changed jobs, ended up in Charlottesville. And I was 42.
We had tried to go up in a hot air balloon when I turned 40…and about 5 times after that. Yet ballooning is expensive, not easy to schedule, and incredibly sensitive to weather. (All can seem fine down on the ground, but up high, there may be wind patterns that ground the balloons.)
So when we got a call from Mandy at Monticello Country Ballooning that she had a last minute cancellation and wanted to know if we wanted to bump our later date up and go, we said yes immediately. We knew by then how likely the odds were that what we did have booked for a few weeks later would be grounded.
Life advice: take the balloon that flies, even if you don’t feel ready yet.
We did not take our kids on this. Because it is expensive. And after they’ve worked for 25-years in everything from low-paying minimum wage restaurant jobs to demanding corporate billable hours jobs, they can decide if they want to spend their 40th birthday in a hot air balloon.
Regardless of what they decide with their lives, I knew that this was what I wanted. Thus, after a long time holding steadfast to this bucket list item, we went up.
I won’t wax poetic (for too long) on how amazing this experience is. I linked below to an article in Albemarle Magazine where the writer does a fantastic job sharing why this experience is so special.
But floating in a basket over the world, looking out onto horizons where you are swept by the wind, is the deepest sense of peace I think a person can feel. It is wildly different from being in an airplane and is much less about travel than about the art and act of flying.
I believe we lucked into Mandy and Monticello Country Ballooning completely by accident, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Mandy is a local mom herself and just a joy to be around. She is funny, honest, clearly skilled at what she does, and also passionate about it. I asked her a lot of questions as to how she came to be a balloon pilot, and one of the few woman-owned ballooning businesses, and she patiently answered them all. I loved getting to know her and hearing how hot air ballooning changes people’s lives.
Given that you are in a small basket with your balloon pilot for a couple of hours, it is a really good idea to actually like them. And I can’t recommend Mandy and her team enough.
When it comes to scheduling, the sunset flight sounds incredibly romantic – and for most of us much more fun than a crack of dawn situation. But the evening flights have a much greater cancellation rate than the morning flights. We learned that through experience many times, and eventually decided to just do it, and booked a flight first thing in the morning.
It was really cold when our balloon took off from the Boar’s Head’s front lawn. So we bundled up. But surprisingly, even though we were 2,500 feet up in the sky at one point, it gets hot inside the basket! The heat from the flame is intense. So dress in layers and don’t hesitate to book a cold season flight. You’ll be toasty enough.
I, of course, felt nervous when first started to rise. (Although I bet my 20-year-old self would have been nervous, too, so she can stop smirking.) But given how peaceful everything is, how there isn’t any disturbance or turbulence, eventually I actually forgot that we were floating precariously in a basket and was utterly enraptured, spending time in the stillness just taking it all in.
Charlottesville is always beautiful, but even more so when you can see it from above, and when are your floating slowly enough to appreciate it. You see details you’ve never seen before, snap pictures of places you know from above, and learn how the Rivanna River threads through it all. You hear conversations of the people below wafting up, you see messages on the roofs of houses specifically for the ballooning community, and you notice people stop their cars, get out, and take a photo of the balloons against the rising ball of orange.
We had the privilege of being up right before the trees dropped their leaves, but while hues of yellow and orange still streaked the mountains. Nothing has thrown me into a love affair with an area more than this. Trees that looked like broccoli, trees that my family has hiked in and through, poked up at me in a surreal way that it was hard to believe it was all our home.
There are a few ballooning companies in the area, and they are friendly with each other, communicating routes, landing areas, wind conditions, and take offs. Mandy even knows air traffic control at the Charlottesville airport. The ballooning community is generally very open and accepting, we’ve found through our years of trying to schedule rides. They do it because they love it. They do it because they went up once and couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
Be sure to schedule a lot of time around your flight. You never know where your balloon will land (although, of course, they drive you back to your car) and afterwards there is the traditional champagne toast.
If you are lucky enough to save up for this once-in-a-lifetime experience, I highly recommend flying in a balloon over Charlottesville, a beautiful little city nestled in the broccoli trees of the Blue Ridge.
More on Monticello Country Ballooning:
- Official website
- Article in Albemarle Magazine
Raising Charlottesville is a website dedicated to highlighting fun & local activities for families living in the Charlottesville, VA area.