The cheapest hot air balloon in the world in Vang Vieng, Laos

One of the main things that people do when they visit Vang Vieng in Laos is go on a hot air balloon ride.

Apparently Vang Vieng is the cheapest place in the world to go in a hot air balloon. It cost us $130 (around £102) per person which did make a big dent in our travel budget but it did sound like a once in a lifetime experience.

On reflection we should have researched it more and booked it earlier than we did. We actually ended up booking it through our accommodation the day before we did it (typical us).

I had found a company called Above Laos Ballooning that looked like they offered a great experience but they didn’t have any availability. My advice is to book further in advance than we did to make sure you have the best experience possible.

Anyway, we were picked up from our accommodation at around 4pm, and then went to collect some other people. We were then driven to the hot air balloon field where there were 4 balloons waiting to be blown up.

The balloons got blown up one by one, and it was pretty impressive watching it. They were absolutely huge and the guys who were blowing them up were experts.

Our balloon was the last one to be blown up and in total there were 9 people in it (including the pilot). It was pretty cramped in the balloon basket so we couldn’t really move. It was also incredibly hot. The heat from the fire powering the balloon was intense and we didn’t actually expect it to be as hot as it was!

We were in the air for around 30 minutes and flew over Vang Vieng. We got to see the sunset and the views were beautiful.

We could see lots of other balloons in the sky. Some of them did seem to be in a better location for watching the sunset so this probably depends which company you book with. We did get some amazing views though.

Although it was one of the most expensive activities we have done in South East Asia, I’m glad we did it. As I mentioned at the start I would recommend doing more research into the company you book with to ensure you have the best experience. I wish we had done this and booked further in advance, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.