An hour without a sound
The flight is never the same twice. On one morning you may drift towards the fort, on another across mustard fields towards Samode, and on a third you may barely move at all, hanging over a single village while the sun climbs. You are not on a tour. You are on the wind.
No engine: a balloon travels with the wind, at the speed of the wind, so the air in the basket feels perfectly still even as you cross the land.
- Where
- Amer and Samode, north of Jaipur
- Season
- October to March
- Flight
- About an hour
- Start
- Well before sunrise
- Book ahead
- Keep a second morning free
- Less fear than expected: there is no rush of air and no sense of speed, and most people find the height far easier than they feared.
- A map unrolling: you simply rise, and the country spreads out around you.
- The Aravallis explained: from the air you see how the hills run in long broken ridges from south-west to north-east, and how every old fort sits where a ridge could be defended.
- Above Amer: the walls of Jaigarh and Nahargarh run along the crests above Amer, Amber Fort's honey stone catches the first light, and the lake below lies still as glass.
- The villages: square courtyards, flat roofs with grain drying, a woman carrying water, a boy driving goats along a track, a temple flag.
- Six centuries at Amer: the Kachwaha kings ruled from there before Sawai Jai Singh II moved down to the plain and founded Jaipur in 1727.
- Why they left: the hills that made Amer safe also made it cramped and short of water. You see it from the basket, and your guide tells the story over breakfast.
How a flight morning unfolds
- Pick-up
- Well before sunrise
- Drive
- Twenty minutes to an hour
- Launch site
- Chosen each morning by the wind
- Briefing
- Includes the landing position
- Afterwards
- Breakfast, or Amber Fort at opening
The pick-up, before dawn
Early: your chauffeur collects you well before sunrise, with coffee or masala chai in a flask.
- Dress warm: in midwinter it is properly cold at this hour, so wear layers you can peel off later.
- The drive: twenty minutes to an hour, depending on your hotel and that morning's launch field.
The launch field, chosen by the wind
No fixed airport: the operator checks the forecast the night before and the wind again early in the morning.
- Choosing the site: so the balloon drifts over good country and lands somewhere safe.
- Test balloons: pilots often release a small one to see how the air moves at different heights.
- Cancellations: if the wind is wrong, the flight is cancelled, and a good operator cancels without hesitation.
Inflation and the safety briefing
Inflation: the crew lays out the envelope, fills it with cold air from a large fan, then heats it with the burners until it rises upright above the basket.
- For photographers: it is wonderful to watch, so be ready.
- The briefing: how to stand, where to hold on and the landing position, which you practise once. Listen carefully. It matters.
Lift-off and the flight
Off the ground: the pilot fires the burners and, almost without noticing, you are up.
- Steering: the pilot controls height with the burner and uses different wind directions at different heights to steer a little.
- Low and high: sometimes you skim fields close enough to talk to the farmers, sometimes you climb high enough to see the Aravallis vanish into haze.
- The point of it all: the sun comes up while you are in the air, and the light on the hills is why you rose so early.
Landing, and the village that comes running
The ground crew: follows by road and meets the balloon wherever it comes down, usually an open field the pilot chooses in the last few minutes.
- The landing: generally gentle, sometimes with a bump and a short drag.
- The welcome: children and farmers appear from every direction, and the crew asks them to help hold the basket and fold the envelope.
- A reminder: you have just dropped, uninvited, into somebody's life.
Back to breakfast
Back to the car: the crew drives you there, and we take you to breakfast.
- Straight to the fort: some guests go on to Amber Fort, arriving as the gates open, before the crowds.
- Or a long rest: breakfast at the hotel and a sleep. Either is right, because you have already had the best hour of the day.
Where we arrange balloon flights
- Main operator
- Sky Waltz
- Flying areas
- Amer and Samode
- Samode
- About 40 km north of Jaipur
- Pushkar
- Some mornings during the fair
- Alternative
- A private helicopter flight
Amer and the hills north of Jaipur
The operator: the best-known, Sky Waltz, has long flown from two areas near Jaipur, around Amber Fort and Amer village, and around Samode.
- Over Amer: villages, small lakes and fields, with the fort, the walls of Jaigarh and the ridge of Nahargarh in view.
- No promises about the fort: the operator is clear that no flight is guaranteed to pass close to it, because the wind decides.
- Our checks: each season we confirm flights are running, and we book only with operators we have flown with ourselves.
Samode and the Aravalli valleys
Where: about 40 kilometres north of Jaipur, Samode sits at the head of a valley, its painted palace below and a fort on the hill above.
- The flight: farmland and scrub, hamlets and hills, with the palace in the picture on a good morning.
- Quieter country: than Amer, and if you are staying at Samode Palace the morning is wonderfully simple.
Pushkar, during the fair
When: some mornings during the Pushkar Camel Fair, in the Hindu month of Kartik.
- The view: balloons lift over the fairground and the dunes west of town, and the camels, tents and smoke from above are extraordinary.
- Never promised: flights depend on the year's arrangements and the weather, so we confirm them each autumn. Our Pushkar Camel Fair journey has more.
Elsewhere in Rajasthan
- Come and go: balloon flights and festivals appear from time to time in the desert or near the wildlife parks, then disappear for a few years.
- Ask us: if you travel in the cool months, ask what is flying on your dates. We will tell you plainly if the answer is nothing.
If a balloon isn't possible
- From above, without the weather risk: a private helicopter flight over the forts and lakes. Our page on helicopter and charter journeys explains how we arrange them.
- On the ground: the next best thing is the ramparts of Nahargarh at sunset, with the whole city below you.
What you see from the basket
Village life begins before sunrise, and from a balloon you see it as if someone had lifted the roof off: women lighting the chulha, the clay stove, children stopping dead to stare, grandmothers waving from rooftops. It is the most innocent kind of spectacle, and it is mutual. You are watching them, and they are watching you.
The hills first: the Aravallis look old and worn because they are, among the oldest mountain ranges on earth, ground down into low rocky ridges.
Fortress walls: along the crests run the walls of the Kachwaha fortresses, climbing and falling with the land for kilometres.
- Grey to gold to rose: in the early light the walls change colour, and you can see how an army approaching Amer was watched every step.
- Then the water: lakes and tanks show up as bright mirrors in the brown land, and after a good monsoon there are more than you'd guess from the road.
- Maota Lake: below Amber Fort, it reflects the walls on a still morning, while egrets and herons lift off the smaller ponds.
- October and November fields: still green from the rains, with the millet being harvested.
- January and February fields: the winter crop is up, and mustard turns whole stretches vivid yellow against the brown hills.
- Smoke and farmers: brick kilns send up thin lines of smoke, and farmers are already out walking their land.
- The shadow: the balloon's shadow runs ahead across the fields, with half the village running after it.
The season, the weather and the art of waiting
- Season opens
- October, as the heat breaks
- Fog risk
- December and January
- Our favourite
- February and March
- Season closes
- Late March
- Our rule
- Never your last morning
October and November
The opening: the season starts as the heat breaks.
- Conditions: the land is still green after the monsoon, the dawn air is generally clear and calm, and mornings are cool rather than cold.
- Book ahead: Diwali weeks are busy.
December and January
Still mornings: cold and often perfect for flying.
- Fog: these are also the months of winter fog across north India, which can cancel a flight or delay it until it lifts.
- The light: when it comes, soft and golden.
- Wrap up: it is colder in the air than on the ground before sunrise.
February and March
- Our favourite weeks: mustard in flower, mornings fresh rather than freezing, and very clear air.
- The close: by late March wind and heat build, and the season ends.
Why flights are cancelled
Light, steady winds only: too much wind, gusts, rain, poor visibility or a wind towards somewhere unsafe to land will ground a flight.
- Decided on the morning: often only then. That is not bad planning, it is good piloting.
- Our back-up: we always keep a second morning free in Jaipur, and if both fail, a quieter plan, such as a dawn walk up the old ramparts at Amer.
Flying safely
Regulated: commercial balloon flying in India comes under the civil aviation regulator, and operators need proper permissions, licensed pilots and maintained equipment.
Our checks: we work only with established operators, ask about their pilots and safety record, and fly with them ourselves before sending guests.
Doubts end bookings: if we ever have concerns about an operator, we stop using them.
- Regulator
- India's civil aviation regulator
- Operators
- Established, flown by us first
- You must
- Stand for an hour; brace to land
- Wear
- Flat closed shoes, layers, a hat
- Tell us
- Any medical condition, in advance
- Transfers: your own chauffeur takes you to the launch field and collects you after landing.
- Not for everyone: operators set their own rules on minimum age or height for children, on pregnancy, and on conditions such as recent surgery, heart problems or back and joint trouble.
- Why: you must stand for an hour and brace for landing, and climbing in and out of the basket needs some agility.
- Tell us honestly: we check with the operator before you book, so nobody is turned away at the field.
- What to wear: flat closed shoes, trousers or a long skirt you can climb in, a hat and layers. Nothing loose that could blow away, and small bags.
- Cameras: one with a strap, or a phone on a lanyard, is ideal.
- Follow the pilot: without argument, especially during landing.
- Nervous: say so at the briefing. Pilots are used to nerves, and most first-time fliers are surprised how calm they feel once up.
Photographing a balloon morning
A smooth platform: the basket is crowded but moves smoothly, with no engine vibration, and sunrise light is as good as Rajasthan ever gets.
No second chances: you can't stop, turn round or go back, so be ready for whatever the wind gives you.
Kit: one body and two lenses at most, a wide zoom for the inflation and landscape and a short telephoto for villages, forts and the balloon's shadow.
- Straps on everything: anything dropped from a basket is gone, and could hurt someone below.
- The sequence: shoot the inflation from beside the basket, then turn round at lift-off for the crew and the field falling away.
- Look down: rooftops, courtyards, field patterns and the balloon's shadow on the mustard make the most surprising pictures.
- Use the haze: in December and January fog and haze soften the distance, so work with them rather than against them.
- Landing: put the camera away, hold on and brace exactly as the pilot showed you.
- Read more: our photography tips cover Rajasthan's light, and our photographer's Rajasthan journey builds a trip around the best hours.
Who will love it
Couples
Sunrise in silence: above the hills it makes people hold hands, and more than one guest has proposed in the basket.
- A celebration: tell us beforehand and we'll make the breakfast afterwards somewhere special.
- More ideas: our pages on Rajasthan honeymoons and vow renewals in a palace.
Families and photographers
Older children: they love it, provided they meet the operator's age and height rules.
- What thrills them: the burner, the crew, the village children running to meet the basket, and the landing.
- Photographers: they love the light and the patterns of the land. Have a wide lens ready for the inflation and a longer one for the villages.
Who it suits less well
Early starts and standing: anyone who struggles with either.
- Fixed expectations: anyone who would be unhappy if the wind took them nowhere near the fort, or who needs everything to go exactly to plan.
- Our alternatives: a dawn at Amber Fort, a private heritage walk in the old city, or a sunrise at one of the best sunset and sunrise points.
Landing in someone's field
The right field: good crews choose fallow ground or harvested fields wherever possible and walk carefully around standing crops.
Stay put: remain with the basket until the crew tells you to step out, then keep to the field edge rather than wandering into the crop.
- Landing ground
- Fallow or harvested fields
- Crops
- Walk around, never through
- Children
- No sweets, pens or money
- Ground crew
- Tip them
- Photographs: ask before photographing villagers, especially women, and accept a shake of the head with a smile.
- No handouts: don't give sweets, pens or money to children. If you want to help, we can suggest a local school or project.
- Thank the farmer: whose field you landed in. The crew usually knows how to do it properly, and we make sure they do.
- Tip the ground crew: they have been up longer than you, and they did the hard work.
- Drones: a separate matter with their own rules in India, and we ask guests not to fly them near forts or villages without permission.
A balloon morning, the way we'd plan it
The day before
Arrive and rest: in Jaipur.
- The evening check: we confirm the flight with the operator, set your alarm and leave warm clothes by the door.
- Early night: dinner early, and no late nights.
Dawn, in the air
Pick-up: in the dark, with chai in the car.
- The flight: inflation at first light, then an hour above the hills as the sun comes up.
- Landing: folding the balloon with the village children and a short drive back to the car.
Breakfast and the fort
Breakfast: at a palace hotel near Amer, or a picnic we set up on the way.
- Amber Fort at opening: before the day's crowds.
- Then old Amer: the stepwell of Panna Meena ka Kund and the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing.
Afternoon and evening
Afternoon: lunch, a swim and a long sleep.
- Evening: drinks on a terrace and an early dinner, or a private dinner in a palace if the morning was a celebration.
- A longer stay: our Jaipur things to do guide and our Jaipur in three nights journey show how a flight fits.
Where to stay for a flight
In the city
- Easy pre-dawn drives: Rambagh Palace, The Oberoi Rajvilas and Samode Haveli all reach the launch areas easily.
- The reward: coming back to a palace breakfast after a flight is one of Jaipur's nicer pleasures.
Towards Amer
- Fairmont Jaipur: Fairmont Jaipur stands on the Delhi road north of Amer, close to the fort and the hills, so early starts are shorter.
- Good for: families who want space and a pool.
In the hills
Samode Palace: Samode Palace puts you in the second flying area.
- Alila Fort Bishangarh: Alila Fort Bishangarh, a warrior fort on a granite hill about an hour and a half north of Jaipur, is a dramatic night before or after.
- Compare them: our luxury hotels in Jaipur guide.