Bay Area Glider Rides

Awesome! Highly recommended. My kids (11 and 13 y.o. girls took a ride together today) and they were ecstatic. Experienced pilot. Courteous personnel. You may text/​call your kids while they are gliding. They can send you aerial pictures while you watch from the ground. Cell reception is excellent.

I wish I could give them 7 stars. The overall experience was just that good.
Arrived for my 1pm ride @ the BAGR office, showed them my Amazon voucher, and went out onto the runway. I chose the afternoon slot when the thermals were more pronounced, wanting to live out my childhood movie fantasy of «Naussica, Valley of the Wind». I casually mentioned my little private why for being all the way out there.
Bill Sharon — my pilot who happens to be the owner — explained every part of the flight and the soaring we would experience. Minutes later, remembering my movie memory, he quietly asked «Do you like roller-​coasters?» and proceeded to execute a few aerobatic maneuvers — a vertical climb and dive and what felt like a slicing-​pirouette on the wingtip. O. o WOW. Exhilaration and awe. Surprise and delight.
We’d settled into a smooth cruise and Bill pointed out the lay of the land: Monterey Bay, San Andreas Fault, and the first Spanish mission in CA. And through it all, there was just a QUIET… just wind flowing over the fuselage and white razor thin wings. I felt so safe that I wondered if I might fall asleep.
So we went down. Smooth touchdown and landing. And then out of the blue (yes, I said it) and completely unasked for — one of their regulars invited me up for a ride in one of the competition-​grade gliders. The timing was just right for a second flight if I had a bit more time. Hell yeah. This flight was difference… the difference being a well-​maintained corolla and a performance-​grade Porsche.
Long story short, these peeps run a tight little business w/​real devotion and passion for flight. They’ll show you what they love about being up in the air so connected to the quiet and the wind.
You should go. You should go. You should go. Like plan it right now.

This place is awesome. I had an amazing gliding experience with Bill. He is quite informative n experienced in gliding. I highly recommend them for gliding.

I watch this company take the gliders up very often. The gliders are great to watch when they land. Silent and fast.

This was on my bucket list of activities to try. I have so far been zip-​lining, hang gliding, sky diving, rode a mule down the Grand Canyon, repelling, spelunking, white water rafting and this was by far one of my biggest adrenaline rush. Part of the rush is I am highly claustrophobic as in scared of elevators. I wasn’t sure if I could do this activity but the pilot talked me through everything and made my experience a great one!
I found that even a claustrophobic person such as myself can go on a glider. The view from the glider feels as if you are out of the plane. Going up my heart was racing as I felt the turbulence and then the cord snap as they released the glider from the plane. This was truly an amazing, peaceful experience even though it started out with me quite nervous. Wonderful experience and great pilot!

Took my teenage daughters gliding yesterday. Everyone was nice. Our pilot Charlie was great. It’s a must do for a great family experience.
Len P

It was my boyfiend’s BDay so I thought what can I do out of the norm & exhilarating for him? How about gliding. Neither one of us had done this before so I contacted Bat Area Glider. Quest was extremely helpful & really went out of his way to make this happen. Quest normally is closed Tues & Wed, our days off from work, and he made it happen for us. Not only did we have a spectacular & thrilling glide 8000 Feet above, Quest took photos of us & had a BDay basket of surprises; his attention to detail was greatly appreciated.
Thanks Quest for making my mans day extra special!!!

What an absolutely fantastic time!
I had purchased a Travelzoo deal with my mom, brother and a friend. We made a reservation for Sunday 7÷16÷2012 and headed to Hollister.
Right from he start the customer service was fantastic. My pilot was Quest and he was an awesome guy. Extremely friendly, positive attitude and a great pilot. He explained everything in detail on the ground from safety to what he was planning on doing while in the air.
Once in the air Quest was very knowledgable of the area below us and was constantly pointing out landmarks, local agriculture etc. the ride to our altitude of approximately 5,000 feet was very smooth with slight turbulence. Quest let me pull the handle to release the cable connected to our tow plane and we were off.
The best part was when Quest treated us to some light Ariel maneuvers to give us a taste of what their aerobatics flight is like. He did a coupleZzero G maneuvers, a lazy 8 and a stall. All were absolutely amazing!
This is definitely a professionally run organization and the staff and pilots are second to none. If you’re looking to glider ride, this is where you go, period.
Quest is definitely a guy that just doesn’t come to work everyday. He clearly likes doing what he does and enjoys seeing the satisfaction on his customers faces. I wish all businesses were like this!

What a great experience at Bay Area Glider Rides, Hollister. I purchased this experience for my daughter through Groupon. The fam jumped into the non-​mini van SUV and pointed south to Hollister. The place was easy to find (big fat sign) and we were greeted by a super friendly woman. The office was filled with great pics of glider rides and info pertaining to the same. We upgraded the ride for a bit more sail time and daughter and wife prepared for flight. We were shuttled by a nice young man to the tarmac and assisted in the preparation for flight with Haven. Now here’s a guy who appears to be living life to the fullest… Haven. What a spirit. Warm, friendly and all around having a great time. I bet he can tell stories. Oh… actually he can… he’s got an online blog and takes pics of your flight for posting. I chilled with the tarmac guy while Haven my wife and daughter taxied behind the pilot plane and sailed off. I toured the surrounding hangers and general area while waiting for the 30 minute flight to conclude. The fam later enjoyed a picnic lunch (we brought) on one of the near by picnic tables. Next time I’d like to try the café and there’s a small museum. I’d have to say the overall experience was the best and I didn’t even glide. The people made the world of difference and I appreciate that. I hope to go soon myself. Bring a picnic lunch and a sweatshirt for premium enjoyment or call the café ahead for hours of operation.

My wife and I went to Bay Area Glider Rides to use a coupon that was about to expire, we were excited as that would be our first time gliding.
Getting there from the South Bay was a quick 45min drive without traffic and this is what we found:
The place was quite simple, but the staff was very courteous and welcoming. Our host was a lady who was more than happy to check us in and talk about gliders; she was quite knowledgeable as she was a pilot herself and she proudly showed us a picture of her glider. The waiting time was pleasant.
We were offered a coupon upgrade from the standard 15mins flight to a longer 25mins flight for $ 60, which we accepted, there was no pressure in doing the upgrade and I was glad they offered it because we thought it was worthy.
Our pilot was Haven, a nice guy who introduced us to our plane, an old glider that can carry 3 people, but frankly it is a bit of a push. My wife and I are on the short-​and-​lightweight side with a combined weight of 230lbs and we fit tight in the plane, like if we were on the back seat of a small sports car. If you have wide shoulders you will have trouble fitting comfortably with another passenger so consider flying solo.
The weather was clear with a bit of haze, but Haven told us that it was not really ideal for gliding because it was too stable with no thermos to lift the glider and keep it flying. A small plane pulled us into the air and that was quite nice! I Once we reached our ceiling I got to pull the cable release lever and that was cool!
I used my phone to gps-​track the whole flight and it took about 35 minutes from start moving all the way to landing and parking the glider, which was a bit more than what we expected. During the whole time Haven gave us essential info about the scenery, the landmarks, geography, weather condition and the basics about gliding. He noticed that we were relaxed and suggested a quick maneuver to show how capable gliders are and that was very cool, to nose dive and feel weightless and then pull up strong and feel the gravity pulling strong was quite nice, pulling left afterwards to a controlled quick stall. He also managed to find a tiny little thermo to show us how it feels to gain some altitude. Our short ride ended with a sharp turn to align with the strip, then a quick dive to give us a save low altitude speed and then a pull up to decelerate and land smoothly. We were glad to get this last maneuver, it was really nice.
Overall the whole experience was great for us first timers, we really enjoyed it. As for Bay Area Glider Rides, they were very professional and provided us with great service, we had the impression that everybody there was passionate about gliding and quite happy to be working with their hobby.
We decided to write this review to share our experience with this business since there are none (that we could find) here on Unilocal