The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is something that shows up on many people’s bucket lists, whether or not they have an RV. We camped on the fairgrounds in the South Lot. Albuquerque Balloon Festival RV Camping fills up fast, so make your reservations as early as possible.
If you’re lucky enough to have an RV and can get to Albuquerque for the festival, you are in for a treat!
This is the world’s most photographed event, so come prepared with your camera.
Albuquerque Balloon Festival RV Camping
After crossing into New Mexico, we were well on our way to the hot air balloon festival.
We made it to the official RV campground for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, which for our campsite, was really just a glorified parking lot, as the parking spaces are pretty tight. They try to fit in as many RVs as possible.
Given there is so much demand for RV camping at the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, this makes sense!
Regardless, we were thrilled to be there. (If the campground is sold out, check other RV parks in the Albuquerque area.)
The festival offers several types of RV site camping options, including:
- Standard lot: Dry camping, glorified parking lot, which is where we stayed and it was fine
- Box view: Dry camping, view of the launch field
- Premium: 30 amp electrical connection and water connection
- VIP: Dry camping, adjacent to the launch field
- President’s compound: Sites on a bluff overlooking the launch field with water and 30 and 50 amp electrical connections
We stayed in the standard dry camping lot, for which you’re assigned a space when you arrive.
Keep in mind this is a huge lot with over 1,200 other RVs, including this enthusiastically bedazzled motorhome:
We were lucky enough to have a water faucet nearby where we were able to get water easily, but they also offer one free water tank fill-up when you arrive.
There are also services that will come and empty your tanks for you into a truck. We paid $25 for this service once during our stay there.
Without electricity, your options are to run a generator and/or use solar power panels.
We used both and were fine the whole time.
There are numerous rally groups that hold a rally at the festival.
We came across an Airstream group who holds a rally there every year with a prime rally spot overlooking the launch field from the box view campground.
We met some interesting people as we wandered through their rally space.
These folks came prepared with a tour bus and viewing platform!
Hot Air Balloon Landings Right in the Campground!
When we looked at some watered down, high-level schedule of festival events, we thought nothing was happening for a few days.
However, our first morning waking up in the campground, we heard what sounded like Darth Vader’s iconic wheeze breathing (e.g., whoooosshh) overhead. We opened up the curtains and, holy cow, there were hot air balloons everywhere around us in the campground!
We were thrilled to learn that, depending on the wind each day, the balloons often travel right overhead the RV campground, with many landing in open spaces in the campground next to RVs.
The photos do not do this experience justice!
This scenario repeated itself almost every day we were there. We would wake up at the crack of dawn to see the hot air balloons all over the place.
The balloons were landing right next to us, and sometimes they had a little difficulty with a smooth landing, while other times it was very smooth.
It was quite the sight to see hundreds of balloons floating over us! Here’s a short video of what we experienced that morning taken steps from our campsite.
The fiesta is definitely bucket list worthy as there are over 600 balloons at the festival each year.
Sometimes the hot air balloons had a bit of a rough landing near the RVs when the wind did not cooperate.
Some of our favorites were the special character balloons, which light up one night for a glodeo.
During this event, the balloons all light up but don’t take off. It was so much fun for adults and kids!
Final Thoughts on Albuquerque Balloon Festival RV Camping
The campground reservations fill up incredibly fast, so book as early as you can.
