Hot Air Balloon Ride North of Marrakech, Morocco

Pickup is from your hotel while it is still dark, and the drive north runs between 35 minutes and an hour. The launch field sits out on the plain beyond the city, where the ground turns to stone and scrub and the villages are small. You watch the envelope inflate: loose fabric on the ground one minute, a standing balloon the next. Then the burner opens up and the basket leaves the ground without you catching the moment it happens. The flight lasts 45 to 60 minutes depending on the wind. Underneath are the flat brown fields, dirt tracks and mud-brick hamlets of the country north of Marrakech. The High Atlas holds the southern horizon the whole way, with snow on the high ground through the winter. Where the balloon actually goes is decided by the air rather than by the pilot, so the route changes every morning. Back on the ground there is a traditional breakfast with tea, taken with people from the villages nearby, and the return runs along 4x4 tracks. Allow 4 to 5 hours door to door. Two departure slots are bookable and the times move with the season: 5 am from June to August, 6 am in spring and autumn, 6:30 am between November and the end of February, with a later slot available on the same mornings. The ride costs 120 EUR and holds 4.5 from 178 reviews.