Some of the earlier Mars rovers used inflatable balloons to cushion the landing. They bounced around for dozens of meters on rocks without popping. Not an expert by any means, but would think it should be possible to inflate a gas bag at a certain altitude, after dumping the thermal shield and using a parachute to slow down.
A powered-flight probe would be interesting in that it could be more easily directed to specific areas and have the ability to stay over a given area. A balloon would likely not be as controllable.
But would be happy with any Venus mission, even a low altitude orbiter would be cool.
