#Hot air ballooning in phoenix driver
#Hot air ballooning in phoenix plus

I definitely had to talk myself into opening my eyes to take in the views. I’m pretty sure I blacked out and didn’t open my eyes until about 5 minutes into the ride. When we began to lift off of the ground, I turned inward to face the other folks in the basket, latched onto the basket, and closed my eyes. When I got in, I was terrified, but I knew there was no turning back. There were 14-16 people in our basket (I can’t remember exactly).

#Hot air ballooning in phoenix plus

It’s partitioned into 8 sections plus one large section in the middle for the captain. The basket was much larger than I expected. Once the balloons were inflated (there were several different balloons going up that morning), we were waved over to our basket. That helped to take my mind off the fact that I was about to soar thousands of feet into the air in a basket … The Hot Air Balloon Ride We hurriedly snapped photos as they were inflating. We arrived in time to see the balloons being blown up, and it was an amazing site to see! Seeing how massive and colorful the balloons are was really breathtaking. I had a big coat on that’s not pictured in the photos and wore it the entire morning including on the ride. It was pretty chilly (and wet) the morning of our ride.

#Hot air ballooning in phoenix driver

Our driver made a pitstop for a bathroom break on our way to the takeoff spot, but other than that, there’s no bathroom availability for about 2-3 hours. One recommendation – Don’t drink coffee or a lot of water prior to the ride. We picked up a few more folks along the way and made our way out to the takeoff spot. I was staying at The Phoenician and a shuttle from Hot Air Expeditions picked me up (along with a few others in our group) around 5:00AM. We had a super early wake-up call as it’s quite the process to actually get out to where the balloons take off from, and the rides are scheduled so that you catch the sunrise. Hot Air Balloon Ride with Hot Air Expeditions I decided to go ahead with the ride as I didn’t want to miss out on the experience. I even messaged Natalie and Meg who I knew had both done similar hot air balloon rides in the past. I also knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.Ī few days before the ride was scheduled, I looked up every review and article I could on hot air balloon rides in Arizona.

I’m not good with heights and I get quite claustrophobic at times. I knew the hot air balloon excursion was part of our trip, and I was super hesitant about it. With that said, I had an itinerary of our trip weeks in advance. I traveled to Arizona as part of a media trip with Visit Mesa and Visit Phoenix. The trip culminated with an early wake-up call on Sunday morning for the most exciting day of the whole trip! The highlight of my trip to Arizona a couple of months ago was my hot air balloon ride with Hot Air Expeditions in Phoenix! I spent Thursday through Sunday exploring Mesa and Phoenix.