If you’ve never taken a hot air balloon ride then you need to do so and Napa Valley Balloons is probably as adequate a choice as any other provider. However, lower your expectations accordingly: do not expect the entire process to be ideal or you will be very disappointed. The flight itself is serene, relaxing, exhilarating and hardly scary. My wife, who is afraid of heights, barely noticed we were off the ground. As you can imagine, lots of photo opps, too.
But, the rest of the process was disappointing. First, if a flight through wine country is your primary goal then you should probably focus on October/November when the weather is ideal. Otherwise, like us, you will end up with an alternative flight location over some boring, flat farm country out in the Sacramento Valley rather than over rolling hills covered with beautiful grape vines. Second, we spent approximately an hour driving each way in bumpy vans just to get to that alternative location. That was more nauseating than any flight would have been! It’s also a lot of dead time for a flight lasting less than 1 hour. While I understand they are subject to the weather, perhaps they should emphasize the likelihood of alternative locations on their website and in their communications with customers. We took the flight strictly to see the wine country so were obviously displeased. Third, they also prominently promised an “assortment of pastries” pre-flight. Nope….just some standard croissants, which was a bit lame considering it was 5:30 a.m.
The flight itself was enjoyable but we flew less than 3 miles from the launch point before setting down. Not impressed. The baskets are well-organized to hold 16 people (4 each in 4 separate sections), but it was still very crowded if you wanted to move around and take pictures from all sides.
The post-flight breakfast at Domaine Chandon was generous, delicious and very well done. 3 Mimosas improved the attitude and smoothed the dinged expectations.
Again, you should take a balloon flight if you’ve never done so. Just set (lower) your expectations: enjoy the actual flight itself and pig-out at the post-flight breakfast. Otherwise, bring something to read for the rest of your time there.