Hot Air Ballooning California

Hot-air ballooning in California is a dawn sport with a remarkably varied map. Napa and Sonoma fly over the world's most photographed vineyards, the morning fog burning off the valley floor beneath the basket. Temecula's skies are among the busiest in the country at sunrise; Paso Robles and the Santa Ynez Valley add quieter wine-country flights; and the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento give friendly, inexpensive rides close to the city. Del Mar offers something almost nobody else does — a coastal sunset flight over the Pacific bluffs — while Palm Springs floats the desert floor beneath the 10,000-foot wall of Mount San Jacinto. And on Lake Tahoe, a balloon lifts off from the deck of a boat in the middle of the lake and lands back on it, a flight with no equivalent anywhere. Filter by scenery, occasion, price, family access, and which regions fly year-round.