MAGICAL SUNRISE HOT AIR BALLOON TOUR OVER TEOTIHUACÁN

One of the top things to do while visiting Mexico City is to take a sunrise hot air balloon tour. The experience is over the ancient Teotihuacán pyramids in San Juan Teotihuacán, Mexico. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the largest and greatest ancient ruins in Mexico. The flight over the pyramids is truly magical and transports you back thousands of years, even before the Aztec Empire.

The hot air balloon was my absolute FAVORITE activity I did when visiting Mexico City for the first time!! It was also my first time in a hot air balloon.

I collaborated with Aerostat, the top balloon tour on Tripadvisor. We originally wanted to do the all inclusive tour. The all inclusive tour includes the balloon ride + breakfast in a Teotihuacan Cave with a tasting of local liquors. We unfortunately had to get back to Mexico City so we opted for the flight only + return transportation. Let me tell you after the little sleep we got the night before, we were so relieved by this. We were back in Mexico City by 9:30am.

In the morning, we were picked up from our hotel at 5am. This was a struggle because the night before there were so many Día de Muertos activities happening! To be transparent, we went to sleep at about 2am. Even with 2 hours of sleep, the hot air balloon ride was SO worth it! TIP – bring a pillow and eye mask for the drive, you can nap in the car! Also bring warm layers of clothes and a jacket! It was freezing in the morning.

Once the hot air balloon is ready to go, everyone climbs into the basket & you start to ascend quickly! We shared a basket with about 8-10 people.

The hot air balloon was equipped with 2 GoPro’s – one for each side of the basket. There was also a drone that took video footage of us up in the air! The content was for an additional cost, about $125 for the whole package. Definitely worth it! There is no way you’d be able to get that kind of footage on your own.

There were SO many hot air balloons taking off at the same time as us! It felt like a scene out of a movie with the sunrise and the mountains in the background.

The ride lasts for about 40 minutes, and the descent happens very quickly.

The landing was a bit rocky…our Aeronaut (hot air balloon pilot) threw down a rope to the ground crew. The crew all together grabbed onto the rope, trying to stabilize the landing of the balloon. Well during this….the rope snapped, and we had a tiny collision into a tree. I was told by my friend who has been on 3 hot air balloons before, that this was NOT supposed to happen… but of course it was happening to us. The next thing I hear is men yelling in Spanish and I see them sprinting for us. It took the crew a few but what felt like many minutes to get control of the balloon. Luckily no one was hurt, just a bit shocked at what was happening. (& yes I got it all on video!)

There is always a risk when doing activities like this and human error happens. The ground crew responded quickly and knew what to do in case of an emergency, which I think is the most important thing to consider when booking with a company. You want properly trained crew if shit hits the fan. I acknowledge this and still at the end of the day I felt like the company was very professional. Aerostat has a great reputation and is a certified and qualified company.

After we landed and shook off the foliage, there was a celebratory toast with bubbles. Much needed 😉

A van took the group back to the home base where we reviewed all the footage – including the crash! We were very happy and fulfilled with our experience. Our driver took us back to our hotel in Roma Norte, Mexico City – where we proceeded to take a much needed nap before headed to Pujol – a 2 Michelin star restaurant! More to come on that, Pujol deserves it’s own blog post 😉