A Skysurfer Balloon Co

Elite '08

131

113

Tonie T.

San Diego, CA

Amazing, spectacular, and totally worth it!

When you are looking to celebrate your special occasion in a fun and different way, I totally recommend going on a hot air balloon ride with Sky Surfer Balloon Company. I recently did this for the 1st time to celebrate my birthday with 4 family members and friends.

The staff was professional, hardworking, fun, and helpful. We called to reserve our spot about a week ahead of time, and then met at the Vons parking lot in Del Mar where they drove us to the launching site together. It was really cool to see the crew set up the balloons before we boarded and were off. We had a 12-person basket with 10 customers. Thank god they didn't fill us to capacity, because 12 would have been uncomfortably crowded. There are lots of very cool photo opps during set up, as well as during the flight!

Our pilot, Phil, had 17 years of experience and was such an awesome pilot! He popped open a couple bottles of champagne mid-flight, took photos of us up in the air, knew everything about the landscape below, and laughed and had a great time with us!  Of all the balloons that went up with us (a total of about 6?) he kept us up in the sky the longest, and gave us such an amazingly smooth landing. He really enhanced an already super-cool experience.

Sky surfer has been flying balloons in the Del Mar area for 30 years, and advertised the best price I could find - $165 per person. But I was a little disappointed when they added a $10 "fuel charge" at the last minute without disclosing it on the website, or during the phone call when I booked. Ten bucks isn't going to make or break my decision to fly, and so I would have appreciated more up-front information about that. It just made me feel a little duped about the actual price.

This is an amazing experience. Book at least 5 days in advance and expect a total of 3 - 4 hours for the whole experience, with about an hour of that actually in flight.

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Elite '08

134

291

Jennifer L.

Los Angeles, CA

Great company leads to a great time!

I booked a hot air balloon ride for two about a month in advance for the boy friend's birthday.  Carol, who answered the phones every time I called was very helpful.  I booked the evening ride so we could watch the sunset, she sent reservation confirmation, explicit directions, and helped me decide on a place to book dinner for later that night (I decided on Firenze it was great).  

On the day of the flight, everything worked out.  We ended up flying with a different company, since Skysurfer was totally booked and had to lease out their patrons, but no matter.  They made sure we were connected with the other company, had the directions and were there at the site.  

The flight itself was amazing.  For someone who is a bit height sensitive, it was hard to tell I was off the ground, it was so smooth - and so gorgeous.  We watch the sunset and flew near the coast.  It was great.

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