From the vineyards of Champagne to the peaks of the Pyrenees

International Balloon Festival of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (August 11-19): Every August, over 125 balloonists descend on Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, halfway between Montreal and Vermont, for the largest hot-air festival in Canada.
Mass balloon launches at dawn and dusk bookend nine days filled with live music performances that range from Canadian folk group Cowboys Fringants to rapper T Pain, and relatives activities, including Balloon Planet, an inflatable amusement park. Come dark, dozens of tethered balloons are illuminated for "night suns," a multimedia event with music and projections. Reserve your own flight beginning at $170.


Book a private balloon flight in Cappadocia, Turkey, and you'll get to see lava deposits at Turkey's Mount Erciyes crooked by millennia of erosion in to hundreds of pillars and minarets known as fairy chimneys, making the landscape in the country's central Anatolian region look like a set from Lost in Space. Soak up the spires in all their glory, as well as hand-hewn church buildings and homes carved from the limestone, from one,000 feet on a 90-minute balloon flight from Royal Balloon.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (October 6-14): What started in 1972 as a local radio station promotion to round up the most hot air balloons in place has become the world's largest ballooning gathering and, boast organizers, the most photographed event anywhere. Fueled by Albuquerque's crisp fall climate and predictable air currents that permit balloonists to control their flights, the Balloon Fiesta attracts some 700 balloons from over 50 countries.
The weeklong festivities include fireworks and concerts and showcase all manner of dazzling displays, from a special shape rodeo to lighted nighttime "balloon glows," but the climax is the handful of spectacular mass ascensions in which all participants take to the sky in waves.