Serengeti National Park
Hot-Air Balloon Flights
Lift off before the animals do — an hour of silence over the plains, champagne on landing.
REGIONSerengeti & Tarangire
TYPEAdventure
BEST TIMEYear-round; clearest light June–October
TYPICAL VISITHalf day (pre-dawn start)
THE FIELD NOTE
A balloon does something no vehicle can: it moves with the wind, silently, at whatever altitude the pilot chooses — hedge-height over a pride of lion one minute, 300 metres over the bending river the next. Flights launch before dawn from sites that follow the herds through the year. Landings are a ritual of their own: a full champagne breakfast served on the plains under the collapsed envelope. We book it as an optional extra on any Serengeti itinerary — capacity, not price, is the constraint, so we reserve the basket months ahead.
WHAT MAKES IT WORTH THE DETOUR
- —Silent, engineless flight — you hear the hippos grumble from the air
- —Pilots who read the herds' dawn movement like a tide chart
- —Champagne breakfast waiting at the landing site
- —The Migration's columns seen as geography, not traffic
WHAT YOU DO HERE
- —Pre-dawn transfer to the launch site
- —One-hour flight with the basket sized to 12–16 guests
- —Bush breakfast celebration on landing
- —Flight certificate — and the photos to prove it
PART OF
Read the park field noteSerengeti National Park
POSTCARDS
The attraction in pictures.
Press any photo to open it full-screen.
KEEP EXPLORING
