Oftentimes when you travel with that special someone, love is in the air—and it can be quite literally in the air if you opt for a "Mile High Flight" package from a company called Magical Adventure Balloon Rides.
Based in Southern California, the hot air balloon tour operator describes the early-morning experience on its website as taking place in a "private basket exclusively for your party." The balloon really does reach an altitude of 1 mile (5,280 feet) above the vineyards and golf courses of Temecula, situated between Los Angeles and San Diego.
Paying customers aren't alone up there. However, the description continues, "we separate the pilot compartment from the passenger cabin with a privacy screen." What's more: "Other than for take off and just prior to landing, our discreet pilot will wear protective hearing gear and focus solely on flying the balloon."
The tour includes use of a portable Bluetooth speaker. "You provide the music and any bedding," per the company.
And in case that's not clear enough, the website assures us this is "exactly what you are thinking."
Still, we had questions. After getting Magical Adventure Balloon Rides CEO and "chief pilot" Denni Barrett on the phone, we wanted to know if this is for real. Do people actually get busy up there amid the clouds?
"What happens in the balloon, stays in the balloon," he replied.
Discreet pilot indeed.
According to Barrett, the mile-high rides have been available since 2003, and the package is a fairly popular one among the many other (G-rated) flights the company offers. Around 20,000 people take balloon rides with Magical Adventure each year, Barrett estimates, with the mile-high tours accounting for three or four bookings per month.
The package has been especially popular with "older married couples," he says, though the demographic has been trending toward younger couples of various combinations—straight, LGBTQ+, what have you—since the Covid pandemic.
Perhaps surviving that ordeal inspired folks to reach for new heights, as it were.
Among the tour's unique guests, Barrett says, have been a group of nudists and one confused family from Sweden who just wanted to go up a mile high in a balloon. (The nudists and the Swedes were not on the same tour.)
That is a unique altitude for this type of aircraft, by the way. Barrett tells us standard hot-air balloon rides usually cap out at 3,000 feet.
As the company's main balloon operator, Barrett has piloted many a mile-high flight as part of this package, he says. Is it awkward, standing up there wearing your noise-canceling headphones while goodness-knows-what hanky-panky transpires behind that privacy screen?
"Not at all," he insists. Flying a balloon that high involves "more concentration and skill" due to the increased winds, he says, so he's too focused on staying safe and communicating with air traffic controllers to concern himself with anything else.
From a passenger standpoint, seems like high-velocity winds could disrupt the mood, but hey, nobody ever promised joining the mile high club would be easy.
Once balloon riders return to the ground, they get a certificate and pin acknowledging their membership in that august club. They're also treated to a Champagne toast.
The Mile High Flight from Magical Adventure Balloon Rides is restricted to consenting participants over the age of 18. The experience is not cheap, starting at $1,400 for two riders. You can add other guests to your party (we don't judge) for $159 per person.
For more information or to book a flight, go to HotAirFun.com.
