Serengeti Balloon Safari: Price, What It's Like and Is It Worth It

Almost every guest who asks about ballooning asks the same two things: how much is it, and is it actually worth it. Because we add balloon flights to safaris every month, we can answer both honestly, including the part most websites leave out — what you give up in exchange.

How much does a Serengeti balloon safari cost?

Budget from $500 per person as a working figure. Prices vary by operator, by season and by launch site, and the flight is always paid as an extra on top of your safari because the balloon companies bill per seat and per date.

The price normally covers hotel or camp pick-up before dawn, the flight itself of roughly an hour, a champagne breakfast laid out in the bush at the landing point, a certificate, and the drive back to your camp or to your vehicle for the morning game drive.

• ·Reference price: from $500 per person
• ·Flight time: approximately 1 hour
• ·Total time away: 05:00 to about 09:30
• ·Minimum age: usually 7 years, and passengers must be able to climb into the basket
• ·Booked separately, paid with your safari balance

What the morning actually looks like

You are woken around 04:30 with coffee and driven in the dark to the launch site, where the envelopes are already being inflated by burners that light up the whole clearing. That part is louder and more theatrical than people expect.

You lift off as the sky turns and drift low — sometimes ten metres above the grass — following whatever the wind gives you: hippo pools, giraffe browsing the tops of acacias, the shadow of the balloon running over herds that barely look up. The pilot climbs for the wide view over the plains and then drops again.

Landing is a gentle skid, the crew packs up around you, and breakfast is served on white linen in the middle of nowhere. You are back with your driver-guide by mid-morning, and the rest of your safari day carries on exactly as planned.

It does not interfere with your safari or your group

This is the point we make to every guest. The flight happens before the normal game-drive day begins, and your driver-guide meets you at the landing site or back at camp. If you are travelling as a couple or family and only one of you flies, nobody's programme changes — the others simply have a relaxed start and a later game drive.

It also means the balloon is genuinely optional. We never build it into a quoted price, and there is no discount or penalty attached to skipping it.

When and where to fly

Flights operate year-round from the central Seronera area, and seasonally from the Ndutu plains in the south (December to March) and the northern Serengeti near the Mara River (July to October). Choose the launch site that matches where the migration is when you travel.

Balloons fly in almost all weather except strong wind and heavy rain. Cancellations for weather are refunded, which is one reason to book on your first Serengeti morning rather than your last — it leaves room to try again.

Is it worth it?

If $500 is a meaningful part of your total budget, spend it on an extra night in the Serengeti instead — more time in the park will always produce more wildlife than one hour in the air.

If it is not, then yes. It is the only way to grasp the sheer scale of the Serengeti, it is the single best photographic hour of most trips, and nobody we have sent up has come back disappointed. Honeymooners and first-time visitors are the ones who consistently call it the highlight.

How to add it to your safari

Tell us in your enquiry that you want the balloon and on which morning. Balloon seats are limited and sell out in peak season, so we book them as soon as your safari dates are confirmed. Any of our safaris of three days or more can include it, and the 10% donation to the Fruitful Orphanage is calculated on your safari payment as usual.