{"id":840191,"date":"2020-07-22T06:30:28","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T13:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/vegas-with-an-edge\/?p=2874"},"modified":"2020-07-22T06:30:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T13:30:28","slug":"since-you-asked-hot-air-balloons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/since-you-asked-hot-air-balloons\/","title":{"rendered":"Since You Asked \u2014 Hot-Air Balloons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Several\ndifferent schools of thought come to mind on how to spend your precious time in\nLas Vegas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One camp\nsays, \u201cI\u2019m on vacation. There\u2019s no way in hell I\u2019d ever set an alarm to get up\nearly in Vegas.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Another\ncamp thinks, \u201cI\u2019m on vacation. I want to do something new and different and\nexciting!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to do something you\u2019ve never done before, Las Vegas is a great place to take a hot-air balloon ride. Seeing the early-morning sun over the mountains, while most of the Valley is still asleep, is breathtaking. And very few major cities have so many different types of landscape, as well as the flat wide-open area necessary for takeoff and landing so close to the city center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A number\nof Las Vegas companies do hot-air balloon tours and they vary in price and\nfeatures, so I\u2019ll just give you a basic overview and things to think about when\nchoosing one for a ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will<\/em>\nhave to wake up very early in the morning. Most tours take off in or near\nSummerlin on the western edge of the city, about a 20-minute ride from the\nStrip in early-morning non-traffic. Some tours pick you up from your hotel, while\nwith others, you meet at the takeoff spot, requiring a rental car or an\nUber\/Lyft ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watching the employees unfold the balloon and set it up is a treat in itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some tours provide a small breakfast during this time. Most have an option for a romantic champagne toast once you\u2019re airborne. You\u2019ll also have the option for a private flight, but in my opinion, unless it\u2019s a special occasion like an anniversary, it\u2019s not worth the extra cost. When I flew, there were only a couple of other people on the tour with me and it didn\u2019t feel cramped or crowded at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I was surprised to learn that the flight path is largely unplanned. Firing the gas and adjusting the flame control the height, but your destination is largely determined by conditions, primarily the wind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Most flights last around an hour and a team on the ground remains in contact by walkie-talkie; they meet you at whatever other flat area the pilot decides to touch down in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They pack up the balloon and drive you back to the starting point (if you drove your own car) or your hotel (if they picked you up).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Door to door from your hotel, the entire experience takes about 4 hours. And if you don\u2019t want to get up early, just stay up all night. It\u2019s Vegas, after all! I didn\u2019t quite make it through the night before. I\u2019m sure it would have flummoxed a front-desk clerk in any other city when I went to bed at 5:15 a.m. and requested a wakeup call for 6. I was back in the room by about 10:30 with a full day in Vegas waiting for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Obviously,\nflying is weather-dependent and can be canceled at the last minute in the event\nof rain or high winds (neither of which are uncommon in Vegas). I’d recommend\nplanning your flight for early in your Vegas trip, so that you have days\navailable for re-scheduling if that becomes necessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several different schools of thought come to mind on how to spend your precious time in Las Vegas. One camp says, \u201cI\u2019m on vacation. There\u2019s no way in hell I\u2019d ever set an alarm to get up early in Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10317,"featured_media":2412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1083,1084],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}