Boituva is a city in the interior of São Paulo that is well known for the National Parachuting Center, it is here where many people decide to jump with a parachute or take a hot air balloon ride.
It's very likely that if you're not into extreme sports, you've never considered Boituva as a tourist destination, but you really don't need to jump in to have fun.
Boituva, SP
Flying in a balloon is something that was in my bucket list long time. I had already flown in Torres -RS, and now I wanted to fly on the stage of the biggest balloon festival in Brazil that takes place in Boituva.
The hot air balloon ride was great, I highly recommend it to everyone, so here are some tips for our tour of Boituva below.
Planning for your balloon flight
If you google it, you will surely find a lot of varied information, values, companies, and even complaints from dissatisfied customers.
That's why we, from Wenttrip, did our homework and looked one by one for the steps to fly in a hot air balloon.
It's actually something very simple, you don't need anything special or different.
Which company to hire to fly in a balloon
It is very important that, when contacting companies and booking the tour, you are sure of the service and quality of the balloon, the number of people going in the balloon and, obviously, the value of the tour.
We flew with Playmobil Balonismo, the balloon pilot is Eduardo, a super nice and experienced guy.
In the balloon we were 3 couples plus the pilot, a total of 7 people.
Cost to ride a hot air balloon in Boituva
Balloon Ride is not precisely the cheapest plan to do, but actually after seeing all the work and all the people behind a beautiful photo in the balloon, I believe that the value is fair.
Couple: R$ 550 . I heard that groupon sometimes offers promotions, but in fact I almost never had good experiences with the site, but it doesn't hurt to take a look at the prices to compare.
Or an important point is if you want to travel only with the pilot, the prices vary and are much more expensive.
In many cases a couple wants to travel with the pilot and have a celebration up there, something romantic, they hire the basket just for the couple, and the price is also different.
How to get to the Boituva National Skydiving Center
Getting to the Boituva National Parachuting Center is very easy. It is right at exit 116 of the Castelo Branco highway.
There are some big easy to see warnings, but if it's not too early you just need to look at the sky, if you can see colorful parachutes coming down then you're close.
It's really exciting to see a bunch of people falling from the sky like it's a very normal thing.
The atmosphere of the place is incredible, there are people landing all the time, little planes leaving and arriving, excited children looking at the sky and some good bars to drink something. An environment of extreme sports, adrenaline and emotion can be felt.
When to fly in a balloon
Balloon flights in Boituva depend on 100% of weather conditions, generally the tours are every weekend from 6:00 am, for two reasons: the first because the ambient air is colder and so the balloon can reach further, and the second to avoid air traffic between planes , balloons and paratroopers.
It is important to know that due to weather conditions it is possible that the flight will be rescheduled, as it is very unwise to take off with unfavorable winds.
This happened on our tour, we had scheduled a date at 6:00 am, but the weather had turned and it was not possible, so we rescheduled it for 4:00 pm, a time valid only in winter because in summer the air is very hot and not to fly.
With whom to fly in a balloon
From what we've noticed, most of the balloons are occupied by young couples, but it's actually a cool plan to share with family, friends and even kids.
Guidelines
Once you've arrived downtown, the company you hired takes passengers in a van to the place where the balloon will take off.
It is usually a place away from buildings but not too far from the skydiving center.
It is important that you know that the Balloon is not a means of transport where you can control the destination, that is, it depends solely on the wind for us to move, that is why the take-off place will never be the same as the landing place.
before the flight
This is probably the most exciting part, and well worth the wait, of the procedure for inflating the balloon.
It is very exciting to look at this pile of colorful fabric on the floor that little by little turns into a giant air. The noise of the fire to heat the air, the fans, the canasta, the sky and everything is incredible.
In flight
Our flight was super smooth. It's super exciting when the canasta leaves the ground defying gravity, manages to climb very quickly and before you know it, you're about 500 meters high looking at the ground and realizing how small and fragile you are.
The tour was very smooth, we had no surprises or problems.
balloon takeoff
Like the whole flight, the take-off was quite smooth, but I have to admit that I was nervous, because we were flying very close to the ground, above condominium houses where people came out to the street to greet us and take pictures.
Once we reached the ground, we got out of the balloon, it was deflated and then we had champagne toasts for having had an excellent flight, following the tradition of the French, brought to Brazil thanks to Santos Dumond.
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