Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow
Looking for an incredible Melbourne experience that would be difficult to top? Chris the Balloon Man is your guy.
Half the fun of the balloon experience is you don't know where you'll be taking off from, or landing. The pick up point is the Grand Hyatt in the city around an hour before sunrise where a bus takes you to the launch spot, the day we flew we took off from Newport.
There's plenty to do before you take off with the opportunity to be hands-on if you like, it's also fine to stand back and watch it all happen. We took off just as the sun was rising and drifted gently over the port and over the city, what a view! It's incredibly quiet and peaceful up there. After about an hour seeing Melbourne from a whole new point of view we landed gently in a park (ok may it was a golf course, but well clear of the fairway!) in Rosanna. We all pitched in to help pack up the balloon and the crew picked us and the balloon up and drove us back to the hotel. All up it was about three and a half hours.
There is the option to have breakfast at the Grand Hyatt post flight, we couldn't as we had to get home to the babysitters but I would recommend it - not for the food but for the company. The pilot Chris was such an interesting and friendly guy, I imagine the breakfast would have been just as entertaining and enjoyable as the flight.
They do gift vouchers for a special someone. I think it would also make a pretty amazing corporate gift / team event for work. You can fit a max of 10 people in the basket. read more