Hot Air Ballooning is an extremely popular thing to do for visitors to Cairns, Port Douglas, Palm Cove and the Northern Beaches, and those touring The Atherton Tablelands. It’s a beautiful way to spend a morning with breathtaking sunrise views. We went for a hot air balloon ride with Hot Air Balloon Australia (Cairns) in 2025. This post tells you how to book, gives you options, and should have all the information you need. This activity is highly recommended by us.
It’s an amazing experience to see the balloons taking off around sunrise on The Tablelands, near Cairns.
I was not flying, I was there to watch, and I had a blast!
You can go hot air ballooning in many locations around Australia, other locations include those below, chick through on these links for more information on hot air ballooning near you.
Hot Air Balloon Rides in Cairns (and the Northern Beaches, Port Douglas, and The Tablelands, Queensland). I’ll explain more about pick-up locations and optional extras further down the page.
Now back to our review and blog post on Hot Air Balloon Cairns.
Hot Air Balloon Cairns
After you book this experience online here, you will receive booking confirmations and forms to fill in from Hot Air Balloon Cairns. You will need to select your pick up location from a long drop-down list. As we didn’t need a pick up, we met our guide at the Mareeba Tourist Information Office, photo below, it’s a few minutes away from the launch site.
The Cairns hot air balloons depart from Mareeba, you can meet your tour here. After your flight stop by the Heritage Museum, it’s good. We wrote about it here.
If you need to clarify anything about you balloon flight, you can call their office in Cairns, we did, everything was fine. Phone 07 4039 9900.
Where can you be picked up in the Cairns area? There are a lot of pick up locations, including the following.
Our driver was great and very fun to be around, as was the balloon pilot. The whole day was a great experience.
As I wasn’t flying, we stayed with our driver on the bus. We could fully watch the takeoff, which was stunning, and then drove to the approximate landing spot.
Obviously, nobody knows exactly where the balloon will land on the day so there was a little bit of chasing around with balloons scaring the local troups of wallabies.
The balloons are only in the air for about an hour, so waiting was fine.
Landing the hot air balloon in the Australian bush, on the Atherton Tablelands, near Cairns.
The landing process was just as fun to watch, and after champagne and a breakfast spread, we all helped fold the balloon back into its bag. Another interesting experience!
I honestly felt that I’d missed out on absolutely nothing by not flying myself. Chef, in the basket, had a ball. It was a bucket list item ticked off for him. He said he felt completely safe, particularly as the pilot had been flying for over 20 years.
Chef enjoying the process of getting the balloon back into the bag. It’s been a while since you saw Chef, he’s getting older! Note the heavy fleece, you’ll need a warm outfit for hot air ballooning at dawn on The Tablelands. You can even get a frost up here in winter.
After the balloon ride we headed back to Cairns, via Kuranda, stopping for a coffee and for a short hike at Davies Creek Falls & National Park. More on local swimming holes here.
We had time to explore the new Tombs of the Pharaohs attraction in Cairns, before our “free” 3-course lunch at Lemoncello’s on the waterfront in Cairns.
The 3-course meal at Lemoncello’s Cairns – which was basically free, was from a short special menu, but there were some tasty items. We ordered calamari, carpaccio fish, chicken parmigiana, pasta and tiramisu. Lunch included a free glass of wine, and it was good. It is Lemoncello’s, not Limoncello’s, and for our US readers, an entree is a starter in Australia.
We rounded our day off with that beautiful drive to Port Douglas along the scenic coast road.
So all up, a great day out and a very positive review from us on behalf of World Travel Family and Port Douglas Australia .com.au.
The hot air balloon basket is bigger than you may expect and took around 24 people. Small children could crouch down and look through the peepholes at the bottom of the basket.
Taking Kids on a Hot Air Balloon, Cairns
There were several small children on the balloon flight, and they all seemed perfectly happy in the air. There is no discount for children that we could see.
We didn’t take our older kids on this adventure; this was a treat for Mum and Dad. Which is rare!
Best Time To Go Hot Air Ballooning From Cairns
Go in winter! It will be chilly, but winter into spring will you the best chance of a dry morning. It would be risky to book this activity in cyclone season (summer, the wet season) but these balloon tours do operate year-round, weather allowing.
The conditions on this August morning (winter in Australia) were perfect. August can also be a very good time on The Great Barrier Reef. The Tablelands can get a frost sometimes, but this year winter has been very mild, nothing below 7C for us at dawn.
Hot Air Balloon Photos
The balloon was equipped with camera equipment to take photos during the ride. These were included in the price.
Alyson is a British medical scientist who jumped ship to chase dreams. A former Chief Biomedical Scientist in London hospitals, she started in website creation and travel writing in 2011.
Alyson is a full-time blogger and travel writer, a published author, and owns several websites. World Travel Family is the biggest.
A lifetime of wanderlust and over 6 years of full-time travel, plus a separate 12 month gap year, has given Alyson and the family some travel expert smarts to share with you on this world travel site.
Today Alyson still travels extensively to update this site and continue her mission to visit every country, but she's often at home on her farm in Australia.
