As far as flight training is concerned, outright cost to get you to your private certificate is $2400. Quite often we can either partially or totally fold the cost of training into the purchase price of a balloon, or adjust the cost by how much time you can spend with the retrieve crew. It is my preference to have a student spend about a year in training and a considerable amount of time on the retrieve team to learn exactly what the team on the ground goes through. It is also a time to learn why the instructor pilot makes certain "go" and "no go" decisions.

As far as a place to begin, I think either coming out to observe a flight or to participate, as a student/passenger would be appropriate. No reason to commit to the full training package until you see if balloons are in reality what you perceive them to be.