Hot Air Balloon Flight over Vic and the Osona Valley: sunrise above the medieval plain

The hot air balloon experience — flying over the Vic plain

You arrive at the Vic sports ground before daybreak. The sky is still dark blue and the plain is wrapped in low mist — the kind that only forms when the night gets trapped in the valley. The crew is inflating the balloon at the far end of the field and, as the envelope rises, the burner lets out its first roar. You are about to cross the roof of the mist.

The activity begins at the Club Atlètic Vic. The crew welcomes you, gets everyone settled in the basket and runs the technical briefing: posture at take-off, posture at landing, what to do during the flight. The basket holds up to 12 people and has a side door, making it easy for children, older participants and people with reduced mobility to board. The pilot explains that the balloon has no rudder — it changes altitude to find different winds — and that the landing depends on how the morning behaves.

The flight lasts one hour. We climb above the thermal inversion and the Vic plain appears as a sea of cotton with bell towers poking through. The Vic cathedral rises above the mist. As the light grows, the horizon broadens: the Montseny massif appears to the right, the Guilleries hills to the south and, in the distance, the Pyrenees still snow-covered. No engines. Just the intermittent breath of the burner and a silence that not even Vic at its quietest can match.

We land in a cultivated field. The ground crew arrives to collect everyone and the post-landing ritual includes a cava toast and a traditional Osona breakfast with local produce. We have been doing this flight for 30 years and it is still hard to get out: the ground, after an hour of floating, feels different.