The World's Top 10 Aerial Tours

The Scenery: Floating over Nepal’s Katmandu Valley, not only can you look down over monasteries, stupas (Buddhist monuments), and terraced rice paddies; you can look around you at the snow-covered peaks of the world’s tallest mountain range—including Ganesh, Langtang, and Gauri Shankar, and rising above them all, Mount Everest.

The Flight: Once your nine-story-tall balloon lifts off, you’ll float across the valley for between one and two hours. You’ll reach a flying altitude of almost 10,000 feet—which may be too high for comfort if you’re prone to altitude sickness or not yet acclimated to the Katmandu Valley’s thin oxygen.

When to Go: October–November and March–April are the best times of the year for ballooning (and traveling) in Nepal; the most popular ballooning trips leave in the early morning to catch the spectacular sunrise as it lights up the mountains.

From the article The World’s Top 10 Aerial Tours