Hot air ballooning over the UAE desert

Flights leave in the cool, calm hour around dawn, because wind rises with the sun. A typical package picks you up from your hotel in the dark, drives you to the launch site, inflates the balloon in front of you and flies for about forty-five minutes to an hour before landing wherever the wind has taken you. A ground crew follows in vehicles. Breakfast, and often falconry or camel photography, follows. The whole morning takes three to four hours.

The wind decides the route and the landing, which is the point: you drift in near silence, not along a set line.

Most flights launch from the desert outside Dubai, and some operators run packages with pick-up from Abu Dhabi; balloons also fly at the Liwa International Festival on some weekends. Operators differ on price, basket size, age limits and breakfast. A shared basket is cheaper; a private basket suits a proposal or a small group.

Book on a date with a margin, because weather cancels a meaningful share of flights, and ask the operator what the policy is: a free reschedule or a refund. Age and height rules vary by operator.

For most people, yes, once. It is a quiet, beautiful way to see the dunes and one of the most photogenic things to do in the UAE. If you want to be on the dunes rather than above them, a private desert evening gives you time on the sand with nobody else around.