Eclipse Day Planner

Pick the town where you will spend the night of Sunday 1 August 2027. The planner shows how long totality lasts there. It then lists the nearest places in the path of totality by drive time, with the seconds you gain at each one, the odds of a clear sky and a suggested departure time.

One piece of advice first: if you can, sleep inside the path. Totality reaches the Cádiz coast at about 10:45 local time and Almería at about 10:51. It is a Monday morning in August, and a lot of people will be heading for the same coast at the same moment. If you already sleep in the path, the traffic cannot take the eclipse away from you. If you drive that morning, it can.

Reading the results

• Totality: how long the total eclipse lasts at that place. Outside the path you see a partial eclipse, shown as the share of the Sun covered.
• Gain: the seconds of totality you add compared with staying put. In brackets, the seconds gained per 30 minutes of free-flow driving. It shows when going further stops paying off.
• Clear days: the share of days around the eclipse date with an almost clear sky.
• Leave at: when to set off to be parked two hours before totality.

The list only shows places worth considering. If another place is no further away, has at least as much totality and no worse cloud odds, we hide the weaker one. The button under the list shows them all. The recommendation is the longest totality within your maximum drive. If several are within 10 seconds of each other, we pick the closest.

Four worked examples

These use the default settings: at most 2 h 30 min of driving, traffic x2 towards the coast and x1.5 inland.

From Seville: Cádiz, Vejer or Tarifa

Seville is outside the path. The Sun is 98.35% covered, but there is no totality. Cádiz is 1 h 26 min away (121 km) and gets 2 min 54 s. Vejer de la Frontera is 1 h 57 min away (163 km) and gets 4 min 06 s. Tarifa is 2 h 25 min away (207 km) and gets 4 min 38 s. Vejer gives the best return: 63 seconds of totality per half hour of driving. Tarifa is the recommendation because it is the longest totality within 2 h 30 min. The price is an early start. To be parked by 8:45 you leave Seville at 3:55 for Tarifa, 4:50 for Vejer or 5:50 for Cádiz. Cádiz also has weaker cloud statistics: 54% clear days against 66% for Vejer and Tarifa.

From Málaga: stay, Marbella or Estepona

Málaga city is already inside the path: 1 min 50 s of totality without touching the car. Marbella is 48 min away (61 km) and gets 3 min 17 s, 1 min 27 s more. Estepona is 1 h 10 min away (92 km) and gets 3 min 37 s, 1 min 47 s more. With traffic at x2 you leave at 7:05 for Marbella and at 6:25 for Estepona. With 2 h 30 min allowed, the planner recommends Tarifa: 4 min 38 s at 2 h 09 min free flow, leaving at 4:25. But look at the return. Fuengirola adds 75 seconds per 30 minutes of driving. Tarifa adds only 39.

From Granada: Motril or Almuñécar

Granada sees a 99.22% partial eclipse. The nearest totality is on the Costa Tropical. Motril is 55 min away (68 km) and gets 1 min 45 s. Almuñécar is 1 h 06 min away (80 km) and gets 1 min 51 s. That is six extra seconds for eleven extra minutes on the road. Leave at 6:55 and you reach Motril with time to spare. Both have the best cloud odds on the Andalusian coast: 72% clear days. If you accept a longer drive, the planner suggests Fuengirola: 3 min 10 s at 1 h 56 min, leaving at 4:50.

From Almería: a 99.99% partial or Cabo de Gata

Almería city misses the path by a whisker: the Sun is 99.99% covered. That sounds like nearly the same thing. It is not. Without totality there is no corona, no darkness and no stars. Cabo de Gata is 49 min away (36 km) and gets 2 min 01 s of totality. It is the recommendation, leaving at 7:10. Roquetas de Mar is even closer at 22 min and gets 1 min 34 s.

How we estimate

• Eclipse: durations and times are our own calculation with NASA’s JPL DE440 ephemeris, for the coordinates of each town. Times in Spain and Gibraltar are CEST (UTC+2). Times in Morocco are local time (UTC+1).
• Drive times: computed once with OSRM, an open routing engine that uses OpenStreetMap data. They are free-flow times from town centre to town centre, without finding a parking space.
• Traffic: we assume that on eclipse morning each drive takes twice as long towards the coast and one and a half times as long inland. This is our assumption, not a forecast. You can change it in the selector.
• Departure time: the start of totality at your destination, minus two hours to park, minus the drive time with traffic. We round down to the nearest 5 minutes.
• Cloud: satellite data from NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg). We count the days from 26 July to 9 August, 2001 to 2024, with a daily mean cloud amount under 20%. It is the average of a 1° grid cell, about 100 km across, so it cannot tell one beach from the next. See our weather page for more.

Routing: OSRM, © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Keep reading

• The best places to watch, with the duration everywhere in the path.
• Southern Spain and the Strait: Tarifa, Tangier, Costa de la Luz, Campo de Gibraltar, Málaga, Costa Tropical and Almería.
• Plan your trip and weather prospects.

Frequently asked questions

What time should I leave on eclipse morning?

It depends on where you sleep and where you are going. Our rule is to be parked two hours before totality, which means by about 8:45 in the province of Cádiz and a little later towards Almería. We subtract the drive time multiplied by a traffic factor. From Seville to Tarifa that means leaving at 3:55 in the morning. From Málaga to Marbella it means 7:05.

Is it worth driving if I already sleep inside the path?

Sometimes. Look at the seconds you gain for every half hour at the wheel. From Málaga, Fuengirola adds 75 seconds of totality per 30 minutes of driving. Tarifa adds 39. The further you go, the less each minute on the road buys you, and the more a traffic jam can cost you.

What if I am staying in Ceuta, Melilla, Tangier or Tetouan?

Stay where you are. Ceuta gets 4 min 48 s of totality, Tangier 4 min 50 s and Tetouan 4 min 51 s, more than anywhere on the Spanish mainland. Melilla gets 4 min 33 s, five seconds less than Tarifa. Crossing the sea that morning is not worth it.

How reliable are the drive times?

They are free-flow times from OSRM, an open routing engine that uses OpenStreetMap data, measured from town centre to town centre. On 2 August 2027 the roads will be busier than usual, so we multiply them by 2 towards the coast and by 1.5 inland. That factor is our assumption, not a forecast. Check the Spanish traffic authority (DGT) before you set off.