A balloon flight over the Dubai desert starts before dawn, and that is part of why it works: you are already in the basket as the sun comes up, and the light across the dunes at that hour is the reason most people book it. The ascent is gentle, to around 4,000 feet, and once you are up the sensation is unlike any other kind of flying - no engine, no rush of air, just the burner and a very slow drift with the wind. From that height the desert reads as a landscape rather than a view: ridgelines running to the horizon, sometimes wildlife moving below, and the Hajar mountains in the distance on a clear morning. Each flight lands wherever the wind takes it, and there is a certain satisfaction in watching the ground crew find you and pack the envelope away. The flight itself runs around forty minutes.