Paragliding in April

Billing, at 2,400m in Himachal Pradesh, is where the Paragliding World Cup has been held. The site offers some of the longest cross-country routes in Asia, with pilots regularly flying 60km or more over the Dhauladhar range. This is not a tandem tourist destination. It is a site for pilots who want to fly seriously in Himalayan conditions, with a small resident community that takes the technical side of the sport seriously. The landing zone at Bir is in a Tibetan refugee settlement, which adds an unusual cultural dimension: monasteries, good food, and a slow pace between flights.

Pokhara sits at 900m in a valley surrounded by 8,000m peaks, with Annapurna and Machhapuchhre the most visible. The thermal conditions from Sarangkot ridge are well-documented, and the view during a flight stops pilots mid-air. The scene here is mature: several internationally certified instructors are based year-round, the lakefront landing zone is straightforward, and beginner, intermediate, and cross-country pilots coexist without the crowds you get in Europe. This is the rare place where the flying is serious and the cost of spending a week is genuinely low.

Signal Hill and Lion's Head provide urban launches with Table Mountain and the Atlantic as the backdrop. Flying in Cape Town means flying in one of the world's great natural amphitheatres, with the ocean on three sides and a 1,000m plateau defining the horizon. When the South Easter settles, ridge soaring above Camps Bay and Clifton is some of the most visually striking flying in the sport. The scene is small, technically demanding, and self-selecting: pilots who fly here know what they're doing, which keeps the sites from getting crowded.

Babadag Mountain rises 1,960 metres directly above a turquoise lagoon, giving Oludeniz one of the most distinctive launch-to-landing trajectories in paragliding. The flight path crosses above the Blue Lagoon, a protected natural park, before landing on Belcekiz Beach. Tandems dominate the scene and the landing zone is one of the busiest in the sport, but the mountain draws serious solo pilots too: the thermals are predictable, the views are genuinely remarkable, and the sheer verticality of the site makes it worth experiencing regardless of your level.

The Col de la Forclaz launch sits 1,100 metres above Lake Annecy, and the flight to the lakeshore is among the most photographed in the sport — turquoise water, the old town, and the Aravis massif as backdrop. The lake's thermal engine is predictable and powerful, making Annecy a summer training hub for European pilots and one of the continent's premier tandem destinations.