Hot air balloon flight in Calabria

Do you dream of taking a hot-air balloon ride in Calabria? We suggest where and how you can have your "baptism of the air" or practice hot-air ballooning in Calabria as an expert, depending on your skills.

Seeing Calabria in flight from above is an unparalleled experience: from the intense green of the woods and the Mediterranean maquis, to the turquoise of the sea with its golden coastline, passing through the shape of the small perched villages.

Treat yourself to a hot-air balloon ride in Calabria, it will be an emotion you will not easily forget!

Hot air balloon ride in Cosenza

If your first hot-air balloon ride in Calabria starts from the city of Cosenza, get ready for a flight that combines the old-world charm of the historic centre, Cosenza Vecchia, and the city's 7 hills, with the natural beauty of its surroundings: from the Sila National Park to the coasts of the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea, with villages overlooking the sea.

From the top of the hot-air balloon, Cosenza shows itself in all its elegance, also revealing the hilly hinterland devoted to viticulture, with hundreds of autochthonous rows of vines from which the fine Terre di Cosenza CDO wines are made. A scenery that alternates between cultivated fields, farms and pasture areas.

Have you booked a hot-air balloon ride in Calabria as a couple with your partner? Then the direction to take aboard the balloon is the Tyrrhenian coast, towards the beautiful Riviera dei Cedri, along which to witness one of the most romantic spectacles in the world: the fiery sunset over the sea.

The average duration of a hot-air balloon flight in Cosenza and the surrounding area can vary from one to three hours, depending on your needs and tastes. Usually flown from spring to autumn but, weather permitting, a hot-air balloon flight in Calabria can also be planned in other seasons.

Hot air balloon ride in Sibari

Experiencing the thrill of a hot-air balloon flight in Calabria over the Sibari Plain is priceless!

We are located between the municipalities of Cassano all'Ionio and Corigliano-Rossano in the province of Cosenza, in the coastal and flat area of the so-called Sibaritide, named after the ancient Greek city of Sybaris, whose remains seen from above tell of an ancient time that is always present. Flying over the Sibaritide National Archaeological Park in a hot-air balloon is a breathtaking sight.

An even more evocative scenario awaits those who choose to take an early morning hot-air balloon flight in Calabria, taking advantage of the first light of dawn over the Ionian Sea, with the sun's rays caressing the surface of the sea and the balloon.

With a hot-air balloon ride, Sibari reveals the expanses of its cultivated fields: the typical rice paddies, certified crops from which the renowned Sibari Rice, one of the best in Italy, is extracted, and the citrus groves where the sweetest Clementine di Calabria PGI, mandarins with an unmistakable aroma and flavour, grow.

During a hot-air balloon ride in the Sibaritide area, you will fly over the beautiful area of the Sibari Lakes, a naturalistic oasis composed of reservoirs connected by a large canal and a marina.

(The Sibari hot-air balloon flight takes about an hour. The basket has a capacity of 8 passengers).

Hot air balloon ride in Reggio Calabria

Seen from the top of the hot-air balloon, Reggio Calabria and the entire Costa Viola, looking over the Strait of Messina and the Aeolian Islands, is a priceless sight.

After flying over the centre of Reggio Calabria, with its Art Nouveau buildings, seafront promenade and surrounding green areas dotted with traditional panoramic forts, the hot-air balloon ride continues inland.

Flying over the Aspromonte National Park is like casting an eye over the most ancestral and authentic part of Calabria, amidst UNESCO World Heritage Geosites (Valley of the Great Stones) and tiny "ghost towns".

From one coast to the other, passing from the Tyrrhenian to the Ionian Sea, a hot-air balloon flight in Calabria becomes an opportunity to discover hidden treasures: torrents and rocky gorges, expanses of citrus groves cultivated with Bergamot of Reggio Calabria PDO and old disused production areas, today true sites of industrial archaeology.

The hot-air balloon flight in Calabria ends again over the Strait of Messina, where, at sunset, with a bit of luck one can witness two unparalleled optical phenomena: the so-called "Fata Morgana effect", whereby the two opposite shores seem to reunite and mirror each other, and the "Kiss of the Sun at Stromboli", with the fiery ball of the sunset that seems to be swallowed up by the volcanic crater.