Cities in the Path of 2024's Total Solar Eclipse

• Population: 1,510,687
• Estimated Time of Totality—1:35pm local time
• Top Attractions:
  • San Antonio Riverwalk
  • The Alamo
  • San Antonio Missions National Park

San Antonio will be the first major to see the eclipse in the United States. It's also the most populous city proper we could find within the path of the eclipse's totality. That's where the moon is close enough to the Earth to be larger than the Sun. So during the eclipse, the moon will completely cover the Sun for people at these vantage points. Do be aware that some southeastern portions of the city may not see the totality (where the whole sun is covered). They may just see a partial eclipse depending on their positioning. But the further northwest you go, you should see the full eclipse.

• Population: 1,314,210
• Estimated Time of Totality— 1:40pm local time
• Top Attractions:
  • The Sixth Floor Museum
  • Reunion Plaza
  • George W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum

Visitors to Dallas have an ample number of hotel rooms to choose from. That has kept prices relatively low compared to some smaller cities. Rooms may even be cheaper elsewhere in the DFW metroplex. The wrinkle in the plan, however, is that traffic is already very congested in Dallas on a good day. With all the extra people in town to see the eclipse, city and transit officials are expecting complete standstills. So make sure that wherever you end up watching the eclipse, you have everything you need with you and are content to chill in that location for a while.

• Population: 995,049
• Estimated Time of Totality— 1:40pm local time
• Top Attractions:
  • Stockyards National Historic District
  • Water Gardens
  • Kimbell Art Museum

Like San Antonio, Fort Worth is near the edge of the path of totality. Some areas northeast of the city may only end up seeing a partial eclipse depending on your positioning. Otherwise, like Dallas, the city is used to hosting major events throughout the year anyway. So it has plenty of hotel infrastructure which means the prices of hotel rooms are astronomically high. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it's a clear sunny day and that April showers stay away!

• Population: 984,655
• Estimated Time of Totality— 1:37pm local time
• Top Attractions:
  • Texas State Capitol
  • LBJ Presidential Library
  • Barton Springs Pool

Austin has, perhaps, one of the coolest locations from which to watch the eclipse. Rent a paddleboard, kayak, or other watercraft and make your way out to the middle of Lady Bird Lake in downtown. You'll be away from buildings and trees with a completely unobstructed view of the sky. The drawback is that hotel rooms around downtown Austin are already expensive to begin with. And with the demand from the eclipse, they've jumped to a premium. Traffic is also already a nightmare in Austin, so expect tons of congestion, long lines, and extended travel times.

• Population: 877,023
• Estimated Time of Totality— 3:09pm local time
• Top Attractions: 
  • Children's Museum of Indianapolis
  • Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum
  • Indianapolis Zoo

Indianapolis is used to hosting major events as well. The city has hosted the NCAA Men's Final Four eight different times, for instance! So you shouldn't have a tough time finding a reasonable hotel price. Plus, you can catch an Indiana Pacers NBA game the night before. For a more unique viewing of the eclipse that involves Indianapolis, you may want to check out Southwest Airlines. They have a special flight departing Austin and arriving in Indianapolis on the day of the eclipse. You'll be guaranteed to see it since you'll be above any cloud cover. And since the plane flies along the totality path in the same direction as the sun, the eclipse from this vantage point will last much longer than the normal 4 or 5 minutes you would experience on the ground.

• Population: 354,043
• Estimated Time of Totality— 3:15pm local time
• Top Attractions:
  • Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  • Cleveland Museum of Art
  • West Side Market

Once we start to get to cities with the population of Cleveland and lower, that's where we start to see hotel prices start to climb dramatically. These places only have so many rooms to fill, and the occupancy rates for this weekend in April are upwards of 95%. There just aren't that many rooms to be had! We are seeing one-night prices of $550 for the Comfort Inn, $900 for the Hyatt Regency, and $1,000 at the DoubleTree downtown. But even further out in the suburb of Independence, OH, rooms that may typically be around $100-$150 per night are going for $300-$500.

• Population: 273,768
• Estimated Time of Totality— 3:20pm local time
• Top Attractions:
  • Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House
  • Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park
  • Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Buffalo has the same hotel room crunch. Most people who are traveling to Buffalo for the eclipse bought their rooms months ago. During our perusal two months out from April 8, we were seeing prices in the $600s, $700s, and $800s. Yikes! If you are tempted, you could make the journey up to Niagra Falls in order to catch the eclipse in a location with notable scenery! That area is tourist-heavy on a good day, however, so traffic is bound to be nightmarish. You may want to leave that excursion for the day before or the day after the main event.

• Population: 261,415
• Estimated Time of Totality— 3:13pm local time
• Top Attractions:
  • Toledo Zoo
  • National Museum of the Great Lakes
  • Oak Openings Preserve

Toledo is near the edge of the totality. If you are on the northwestern edge of the city, you may want to travel further east to get a more total eclipse view. Otherwise, Toledo may be one of the more perfect places to view the eclipse. You can still find affordable hotel rooms, and it's not a highly populated capital city. So it's not expecting the infrastructure-bottlenecking crush of visitors some other cities are anticipating.

• Population: 205,642
• Estimated Time of Totality— 3:23pm local time
• Top Attractions: 
  • The Strong National Museum of Play
  • George Eastman Museum
  • Seabreeze Amusement Park

Rochester is another area where you can enjoy the celestial wonder of a total eclipse while also enjoying the wonders of nature. Here, it's the shores of Lake Ontario that will offer expansive open areas from which to view the eclipse. Assuming there aren't too many clouds in the way, that is! Hotel space is limited, however, as the area is already at maximum occupancy capacity.