The Tour Specialists Blog

Come Fly with Me

Considering a Hot Air Balloon scenic flight? Well there’s some fantastic complimentary tours that you could do on the same day as your hot air balloon flights available that allows you to take advantage of your time spent on the mountains in the Atherton Tablelands if you were to self drive to the meeting point at Mareeba. Once your balloon flight is over you could make your way to the popular destination of Kuranda Village to go to the markets, enjoy some shopping, visiting the wildlife parks and tasting some of the locally crafted baked goods on the mountain.

Sunrise Hot Air Balloon

Due to the perks of my job as a Tour Specialist reservations consultant I recently had the opportunity to experience this great local tour of a Hot Air Balloon flight and a Kuranda experience first hand.

The Hot Air Ballooning takes place just over 60km from Cairns City and 35km from Kuranda Village. Being closer to Kuranda means this package is ideal for anyone keen on visiting Kuranda during their stay.

With this package I got to enjoy the green patchwork of farming and pastoral lands on the Atherton Tablelands from the air, the dry grassy savannah on my way to Kuranda and the lush thick rainforest of the mountains. It is amazing to see the diversity of the environments of Tropical Far North Queensland even though they're all within about an hours drive of each other.

Oh The Serenity

 It is very serene and peaceful while up in the Hot Air Balloon. Although there are times when the pilot releases air in short spurts. This can be loud at times until you are at the maximum height. From there our basket just floated along peacefully for us to breathe in the crisp fresh air and enjoy the scenery of the farming fields and paddocks below. As we were enjoying the views the sun was rising adjacent to us in the East. It was a glorious sight and definitely worth the early morning rise!

Hot Air Ballooning Over The Atherton Tablelands

The packing up of the balloon was an eye-opener as I had never considered how the pack up processed worked. It was a team effort including all of us that went for the ride. It is amazing the size that the balloon is reduced to once it is all rolled up and packed away.

I personally had limited knowledge as to how Hot Air Ballooning works until I started working at the tour desk. I only pictured in my mind the balloon, the basket, and the scenery below. I had never thought about the functionality of it all including how you enter the basket and get out of it, or how it lands.

Where To Land The Hot Air Balloon

What I found interesting is that there is no guarantee as to where you will land as it is determined by the weather conditions at the time. Remember there is no steering wheel, gears or breaks! It is controlled totally by the pilot and the wind direction. The pilot can only ascend or descend not turn right or left. The direction the balloon travels is determined by the wind. These are all very important when considering a hot air balloon ride.

My advice to anyone a little less agile than the average person considering this early morning tour: Be aware that there is no opening and closing gate to enter the basket. It is a matter of climbing over and in to the basket via open foot holes in the side of the basket which are used as steps. When the balloon is about to land you are required to brace yourself for a landing position by lowering yourself in to a semi-squatting position until the basket touches the ground. To exit the basket you do so after it has been turned on its side as this makes it easier to climb out. As graceful as the balloon is in the air, it is not quite as graceful getting in out of the basket but it certainly was fun and adventurous when landing.

Travelling back from Mareeba to Kuranda Village I travelled through the Savannah land. A dry, grassy open forest landscape characterised by termite mounds rising from the famous Australian red dirt. It’s remarkable that the 20 minute drive takes you in to such a contrasting environment of dense, leafy rainforest.

Kuranda Village itself is small and quaint filled with markets and stalls as well as wildlife parks. My time in the village was spent having breakfast at Frogs Restaurant located within the Heritage Markets before venturing off for food tasting at Kuranda Fudge Bar & Tea Room, Honey at the World Famous House and the Kuranda Candy Kitchen where I could see them making the traditional patterned hard candy

You Cannot Miss Kuranda Village

I had to sample all those sweet ‘Naughty but Nice’ things that are locally produced in Kuranda before departing. After browsing through the arts and craft markets I had a quick peruse of Terra Nova Gallery which was filled with all sorts of intriguing pieces of art including wall paintings, quirky figurines and trinkets before heading back to Cairns.

Click here to book your Cairns hot air balloon scenic flight tour today!

Oh I forgot to tell you, Cairns is the cheapest place in Australia to experience a hot air balloon flight. Why is that you ask? It's because there are more take offs and landings in Cairns due to the amiable weather which keeps the operational costs down due to the volume of visitors and profits up!.  

Author: Jennifer  – Tour Specialists Consultant