42.16° N · 2.53° E · Besalú
An hour and a quarter or an hour and a half of flight over the cones and forests of the volcanic zone, leaving from Santa Pau, about 30 minutes from Besalú. Includes a welcome coffee, a toast in the air and a farmhouse breakfast on landing.
Who offers it
Independent companies: you book with them, on their terms. Prices are as they publish them and may change.
Step by step
You begin between 6:30 and 7:30, depending on the season, with coffee and pastries at the flying field, beside the Croscat volcano.
The crew prepares the balloon in the field and you climb into the basket through its door.
Over the volcanic zone, with a toast of rosé cava and coca de llardons in the air. The wind sets the route.
A traditional breakfast with local products and a flight certificate signed by the pilot.
The wind decides the route, but the setting is always the same: the extinct volcanoes and beech woods of the Garrotxa in the first light. The baskets have a door, so there is no need to climb in.
The Garrotxa volcanic zone is a landscape of rounded cones covered in forest, lava flows turned into beech wood and villages of basalt stone. From the ground it is hard to make out the shape of the volcanoes; from the balloon you see them as they are. Take-off is from a field beside the Croscat volcano, in Santa Pau, and the flight lasts between an hour and a quarter and an hour and a half. On clear days, in the distance, you can see the Pyrenees, Canigó, Pedraforca, Montseny, Montserrat and even the Mediterranean.
What sets this flight apart is everything around it: coffee and pastries before take-off, a toast in the air with rosé cava and coca de llardons, and on return a farmhouse breakfast with bread with tomato, cured meats, Santa Pau beans with butifarra sausage, desserts from La Fageda, wine, ratafia and coffee.
Almost everyone. The baskets have a door and are adapted for older people, people with reduced mobility and wheelchair users, which is unusual in balloons. The company advises against the flight for children under 5 and pregnant women. If you fear vertigo, the company explains that you do not feel it in the basket, because there is no contact with the ground. Dogs do not fly, but can wait in the shade beside the bar, with the staff.
Vol de Coloms's facilities are on the Croscat volcano road, in Santa Pau, with its own car park. From Besalú it is about 30 minutes by road, and from Olot, less. As you start between 6:30 and 7:30, sleep in the Garrotxa the night before.
Flights run all year, on weekdays and at weekends. The departure time changes with the season, because you set off at first light, when the air is coldest and most stable. In autumn, the beech woods change colour; in winter dawn comes later and you get up less early. Wrap up warmer than you think: in the air it is the same temperature as on the ground at that hour, and at that hour it is cold.
From €195 per person on weekdays and €225 on Saturday and Sunday. A private flight for two people, from €980, and for four, from €1,520. The price includes the welcome coffee, the toast in the air, the farmhouse breakfast and the flight certificate signed by the pilot.
The company calls two days before with the forecast. If rain is expected, the flight is moved to another date; and on the same morning the pilot can postpone it if it rains or if the surface wind exceeds 15 km/h. The flight is not lost: another day is always found. Gift flights do not expire.
Who it's for
You want a calm flight with a good breakfast, you are travelling with older people or people with reduced mobility, or you fancy seeing the volcanoes from above.
You are travelling with children under 5 or you are pregnant: the company advises against it.
What to bring
More to do
Itineraries
Tips
€195 against €225 on Saturday and Sunday.
From Besalú it is about 30 minutes; from Barcelona you would have to leave in the small hours.
If the pilot postpones the flight because of wind, they will offer you another date.
After the flight there is a full farmhouse breakfast: no need to eat beforehand.
Questions
From €195 per person on weekdays and €225 at weekends. The private flight for two, from €980.
The flight, between an hour and a quarter and an hour and a half. With the coffee and breakfast, a morning.
Yes, on weekdays and at weekends. The departure time changes with the season.
Yes, although the company advises against the flight for children under 5.
Yes. The baskets have a door and are adapted, for wheelchair users too.
It is moved to another date. The company gives notice two days ahead with the forecast and the pilot decides on the morning itself.
Not in the balloon, but it can wait at the facilities while you fly.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/catalonia/besalu/things-to-do/hot-air-balloon-garrotxa-volcanoes
