My friend and I went on a morning flight booked through a “Red Balloon” voucher. This voucher was sold as “Hot Air Ballooning over the Gold Coast”, to a cost of almost $500. Red Balloon’s website advertises the following false statements as listed below:
- Hot air balloon flight over the Gold Coast
- Watch the sun reflect off the myriad of canals and waterways and view the surrounding forest-covered mountains of the Gold Coast hinterland on this spectacular hot air balloon ride.
- After the exhilaration of flying effortlessly above the Gold Coast skyline.
Having read the above statements online, one could expect to be floating over the Gold Coast during one of their flights, but after experiencing the reality, I am left feeling completely underwhelmed and frankly, defrauded.
Upon boarding the bus and finally departing close to 5:00am from the Italian Soccer Club, my friend and I had no idea we were about to embark on an hour plus bus ride out to Beaudesert. After a long bathroom break in Canungra, we continued on the bus ride and managed to catch the 6:18am sunrise, while still sitting on the bus, before eventually reaching a paddock in the country. By the time we got into the air at approximately 6:40am, it was well after the promised “sunrise” flight. I figured once we were up in the air, we must then make our way over to the Gold Coast and waterways (being my first time, obviously I had no indication of how long it would take to reach the coastline in a hot air balloon). After almost 60 minutes of floating above cow paddocks and farmland, it became apparent that we were not going any further, and then came down in a similar paddock shortly after. We landed in grass that was almost up to my chest, where we then had to assist in packing up the entire balloon and load it onto a truck. The pack up process took well over 30 minutes of standing in the long grass (I pitied the 90 year old woman celebrating her birthday at this moment). A glass of bubbly or a refreshment would have been a welcome addition, considering we were expected to stand in a paddock for 1/2 hour.
Finally we got back onto the bus, and started to make our way back to the Gold Coast, or so we thought. Our driver Gary, after about 15 minutes of driving, then shouted out that he “didn’t recognise any of these roads and could someone open Google Maps and see where we are”. I thought he must have been joking, but sadly he wasn’t. A few passengers, snickering, opened their phones to see we were headed north towards Jimboomba, and then had to navigate Gary over gravel roads to get us back towards Beaudesert. This added on an extra 30 minutes or so to our bus ride. Our bus was the last one to get back to the Soccer Club at 10:00am, by this time we were absolutely starving and feeling sick from being inside a bus on winding roads. We seated ourselves and then had to chase down a waitress to place our breakfast order which came out, cold and unappetising, at 10:30am. By this stage the whole experience had taken 6 hours (not the 4 as advertised on the website) so we managed a few bites of our meals and left.
I can’t express just how disappointed I was after the entire experience. It felt like a complete lie and I don’t think there was ever any intention of flying over the Gold Coast. My friend and I both live in Mudgeeraba, so seeing cows and farmland was hardly an experience for us. The weather was perfect, there was no wind in the morning, so they can’t use weather as an excuse, especially after reading review after review on TripAdvisor and Google, all the negative comments dating as far back as 2015, mentioning the long drive out to Beaudesert, floating over paddocks in the countryside, 2+ Hours travel time. Reading these comments further clarifies for me that this is obviously the reality of the tour.
Friendly approachable crew, knowledgeable and answered our questions during our flight. Weather was a bit hazy but that didn't take away from the flight experience.
Ticked off the bucket list, and will do this again in future with family.
Wow - what else can I say? Everything from the knowledgeable driver to the amazing flight over the Gold Coast hinterland where we could see Brisbane and Surfers Paradise in the distance. It was unfortunate that the wind wouldn't allow for us to fly over the Gold Coast itself but you can't help the weather! We would seriously love to do this again and I would do so in a heartbeat. Thankyou for a great trip - it's worth getting up early for.