Up & Away Ballooning

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The Experience

Flying in Sonoma County is spectacular. Our region offers serene countryside, miles of stunning rugged ocean coast and some of California’s most beautiful giant coastal redwood groves. Sonoma County’s incredible views, landscapes and mild climate make it ideal for growing wine grapes but particularly special for ballooning!

Sonoma County, California

In addition to the many wineries and vineyards, you’ll see beautiful countryside and the gently winding Russian River. On particularly spectacular days you may even see the Pacific Ocean, the Napa Valley from afar, and San Francisco 60 miles away!  This is no run of the mill amusement park ride. Each flight is totally unique and no two flights are exactly the same. After your flight, Sonoma County’s world class wineries, restaurants, hotels, sandy beaches, scenic overlooks and miles of trails will leave you no shortage of things to do!

** While Sonoma County is always our primary flight location, because of our proximity to the Pacific Ocean, there are times when the coastal fog prevents us from flying locally. On those days, we have found alternate flight corridors that weather permitting still allow us still fly safely outside of Sonoma County. We have carefully chosen these locations to provide our guests a flight experience that we feel would be comparable to our Sonoma Flights. Guests are given the option to join us at the alternate location at no additional cost and there are no penalties if guests decide not to go.

The Making of a Lifelong Memory:

Our pilot will meet you at the Charles M. Schulz - Sonoma County Airport located at 2200 Airport Rd, Santa Rosa, CA 95403.  Upon entering the airport make a left and park in the short-term parking lot. Look for our van as it will be parked across the street from Costeaux Bakery and the big bus stop, which is located on the southside of short term parking/rental car return lot. Please check your confirmation email for our departure time. After everyone has checked in and a brief pilot orientation, you are taken to one of our launch sites determined by our pilot to provide you with the safest, most scenic flight available for that morning. 

As you arrive at the launch site, you will be greeted by the colorful, larger than life balloon that will carry you away on your early morning adventure. Once the crew has completed the inflation and the balloon is standing upright, the pilot will call you to join him in the basket.  You climb in and it’s Up and Away!

The pilot adds heat to the balloon and it gently floats into the early morning sky revealing the glorious scenery below. Navigates the morning winds your pilot seconds as your guide, sharing with you points of interests from the local region and stories of ballooning and it’s history. Time stops as you float above it all.

Your flight reaches it’s conclusion and the balloon returns to earth. Your first thought is “let’s go again!” You carefully disembark as your ground crew works diligently to deflate the balloon.

Guest Comments:

Hi from Julie Ivey in Florida.
Just wanted you to know how much we enjoyed the flight with you, Jeff and team on Tuesday, 3/31. As you know, that was my first experience ballooning but it will certainly not be my last. We really appreciate all of the personalized attention you provided and also the lovely champagne brunch at Kendall-Jackson vineyard. It was an absolutely phenomenal experience!! As I told you on the day of our flight, I had narrowed my ballooning choices down to two companies but decided to go with Up and Away Ballooning because it seemed liked it was a more personalized experience. And after traveling with you, I can tell you that I certainly made the right decision. Thanks again for such a wonderful experience. Take Care....Will look you guys up next time we are in California.

Thanks so much!! Julie Ivey

Sorry that it has taken almost a month for us to write and thank you for a fabulous experience during our hot air balloon ride on Sept 11th for out 25th Anniversary. We were in Dream Chaser and the pilot and crew were professional, accommodating and a lot of fun. We truly enjoyed our hot air balloon experience and we will recommend your organization to anyone that will listen. If we ever get back to your neck of the woods, we'll definitely look you up again. Many Thanks, Gary and Sue Dangle

It was such a pleasure to experience Up & Away with Daniel at the helm and with your gracious crew we had a blast. We celebrated my daughter and her husband's first wedding anniversary as a party of 8 and 6 of us were first timers. The hot air ballon ride was so exciting, romantic, peaceful and breathtaking all at the same time. We also found the ride educational as we learned some things about Sonoma and we found it very interesting that you could see a long ways up and down the valley, take some great pictures and even hear the dogs barking from below sometimes. Up & Away is a class act from start to finish and the brunch afterword was amazing. We had an early morning ride so there was not much time for breakfast and by the time the ride was over we were all hungary. For the experience the price is reasonable and we would recommend Up & Away to anyone. I am sure we will be doing more business in the future.

Thank you and your team for such a memorable experience.

Curt, Family & Friends

WOW!
That was the absolute BEST bday I ever had! The day was beautiful, our pilot and crew were fantastic, cheerful, funny and amazing at what they do! I had no idea that balloon rides were so peaceful and smooth! The views, the flight was beyond my expectations!

My biggest fear before the air balloon ride was my older daughter freaking out on the ride. I mean, she cries on ferris wheels and roller coasters! I thought she would never forgive me for dragging her on this ride, but she LOVED it! She wasn't scared and thought it was great! Both the kids loved it and my husband too! This is something we'd love to do again! And we are extremely happy we picked Up & Away! Those certificates are super cute too!

Thanks again so much! Sincerely, Nicolet S. & family!