10 World’s best hot-air balloon flights

The city of Bath is a scene of Georgian architectural splendour, bedecked in honey-hued stone buildings, with twisting cobbled streets. Green hills and the tranquil River Avon frame the cityscape.

Arguably the world’s greatest hot-air balloon flight, over Cappadocia‘s spellbinding moonscape-esque landscape of arches, honeycombed hills, striking spires and eye-popping, giant protuberances resembling gigantic mushrooms.

Drift over an ocean of rolling, golden dunes surrounding this extraordinary city at sunrise, see their crisp curves glinting under the Arabian sun. The occasional oasis punctuates the solitude, as does the occasional traversing camel.

Float gently above the Loire Valley, a captivating vista of verdant vineyards and charming villages, peppered with fairy-tale, turreted chateaux. The meandering Loire River, glitters in the early light, weaving a silver thread through the tableau.

There’s nothing quite like seeing this evocative landscape of ancient sites, Nile floodplains, and villages unchanged for thousands of years, as the sun rises over the Nile. Gasp-worthy sights include Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings.

Drift above evocative Marrakech, awash with vibrant colours, geometric patterns, and labyrinthine streets. Then it’s out over dramatic, arid landscapes of the Atlas Mountains, looking down onto traditional Berber villages.

Float over towering ochre-red dunes of Namibia‘s Sossusvlei, a sea of crimson curves stretching to the horizon, suspended in serene stillness. The desert below humbles with its immense, undulating beauty and dazzles with colours that change with the sunrise.

Silently drift above superlative Tuscan landscapes, a unique perspective on the quintessential vineyard-clad hills of the Val d’Orcia, dotted with ancient villages and castles.