Virgin Balloon Flights (Grantham) - Hot Air Balloon Rides

Strapping into a wicker basket and watching Grantham shrink to a toy town below is the sort of thing you either love immediately or spend the whole hour gripping the sides. Virgin Balloon Flights operates from Lincolnshire, giving you that rare thing - proper countryside perspective from a few hundred feet up. The flight itself takes roughly an hour, though you need to budget three hours total when you factor in the briefing, inflation, and the drive back to the landing site (they always drift downwind, so you don't touch down where you took off).

It's not cheap, and it depends entirely on the weather. You need calm morning conditions, which means flexibility - they'll reschedule if the wind's up, so check the forecast before you commit. On a clear day though, you can see across the Lincolnshire flatlands properly, pick out villages and church spires, watch the shadow of the balloon drift across fields below. Kids aged ten and up generally manage it fine; younger ones sometimes get nervous about the height, even though the basket is surprisingly stable.

This works well as part of a broader Lincolnshire break. Wagtail Country Park sits just under two miles away, so you could combine a morning flight with a couple of days' base camp at the park itself. The launch site varies depending on wind direction, but it's all within the Grantham area. Book ahead and prepare to be idle for a bit - there's genuine waiting around involved, which some find tedious and others use to chat with fellow balloonists.