Kerrville, Fredericksburg, and Llano have touristy downtowns and probably some event or fair. Leave early and take a scenic route through the Hill Country. Look into Pedernales Falls and Enchanted Rock state parks, but reserve a day pass at the exact time they go on sale, they'll sell out in minutes.

I drove to Beeville for the annular eclipse in October, lots of people in parking lots and on the side of the road, but no traffic of note coming or going. Not sure how that will extrapolate to a full eclipse.

I’ve not been in that area before ( been along I-35 and east in SA, austin, Dallas). If they are generally single lane each way roads it will be a crawl getting out of there.

I was in grand Teton in 2017. Flight out next morning from SLC. Ivr bern in tetons many times before so I only did one night there ( night before). I came in from idaho falls and they were folks camping all over that road. Just like tailgating where folks sold stays on their land. I knew trying to head out thst way would be horrendous.

therr are generally 4 ways out. West to idaho falls, south to Evanston, a middle route through soda springs, and a longer route to pinedale snd rock springs.

heading to Evanston. It was a crawl on the roads from jackson to 25 miles south ( route split) where one heads to soda springs and one to Evanston. The drive was moving a little faster but it still was this long string of cars. The drive normally would be about 5.5 hrs. It took close to 8 hrs.

heading in/out of there for eclipse is going to be bad.

in Tetons I already knew where I’d go for the eclipse. I left my hotel before sunrise.after jackson it was a car Crawl for about 10+ miles where there was a turn off nany would go. There was other crawl points. It took 90 minutes to go 15 miles or so.

Probably, but there are a lot of highways and ways in and out, as the map above illustrates. This site estimates potential visitors, and seems to point to Kerrville as the epicenter. What it doesn't do is make any estimates for travel times on the roads. 400,000 people driving from Kerrville to San Antonio on I-10, yes, that is going to be bad.

No matter where you go to view a total solar eclipse, be sure to allow between double and triple the time to return once the eclipse has concluded.

Very much this if anything like the last one. From our hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska to a small town where we watched (Fairmont, NE) was just under an hour drive. The return took something like 2.5 hours.

Exactly this, and consider that if you go into the Hill Country, many of the roads are 2-lanes (one lane each direction), and can be windy. After all, it is the Hill Country.

I would suggest Marble Falls, it is one of my favorite places to go in that area. But if you want to get out in a hurry, I have a feeling it will be gridlock leaving.

Thought some people might appreciate this information:
https://www.kxan.com/eclipse-2024/ho...total-eclipse/

Here is just a bit of the stuff happening on the actual date (they have more planned before)

We drove from Denver to Casper, WY, in about four hours. Nary a car on the road. The return drive took 12 hours. :eek:

Travis County, where Austin is located, has issued a disaster declaration in preparation for the eclipse:
https://www.kxan.com/weather/eclipse...solar-eclipse/

Several other cities/counties in the area have also done similar. Many schools will be closed to keep buses off of the roads.

I am coming to Texas for the solar eclipse. I booked at a hotel in Waco from Sat. 04.06 to Tuesday 04.09.24
It's a Hampton Inn @ about $400 per night. I made the reservation for the hotel over a month ago. Prices have gone up since then.

Baylor University has an observatory and is having a big festival that day. I am from Los Angeles, our hometown observatory at Griffith Park
is taking a group to Baylor. I am pretty excited. I had planned to fly into to DFW and drive to Waco. It looks to be about 90 miles.
Now I am wondering if flying into Houston may be better. Dallas to Waco & Houston to Waco are of similar distance.
I note that Houston also has 2 airports. What would be the better drive? Any advice would be much appreciated!!
Patricia

Have a good trip. I am also from So. Cal and will be watching the eclipse from Waco, Baylor University is having a big event.
What airline are you flying?

I'm really surprised that there were rooms left a month ago; from what I heard most hotels and other places to stay in Waco were booked up by last September.

There are still hotels in the Round Rock / Cedar Park area that are in the $200-300/night range for those dates. The normal rates for those places would be about half that.
The Hampton Inn in Georgetown, TX is listed at $522/night, which is insane.

I'm glad that you're staying until Tuesday. Where are you flying to? By then, the roads should be mostly back to normal, although the I-35 between Austin and Dallas is almost always a mess.

I have a friend ask me where to go, but I said I couldn't commit anywhere without knowing the weather.

However, I just realized one important thing: In search of being closer to the centerline or better weather, and if you're presented a 20-mile state highway drive versus a 100-mile interstate drive, use the interstate! (This will be mainly in the SA-Aus-DFW corridor, I-35 and I-45.) Less chance of congestion, better food and bathroom options!

This may be the first time in history that the words "SA-Aus-DFW corridor, I-35" and "Less chance of congestion" have been used in the same sentence. :D

it’s all about flight tickets + rental car prices. Find the best deal.

Hobby is mainly southwest airport. I think delta has some flights. IAH has other carriers.

the issue will be driving out of the area right after the eclipse Monday afternoon.

interstates are going to be the worst heading out. Most know the interstate routes.

the main routes heading outside the totality band will be the worst heading out right after the eclipse.

the only way of certainty is when you are about 72 hrs before the eclipse.

buffalo, Rochester Cleveland , indy, Dallas are airports inside totality. You could book differrnt airlines flights to different cities hitting eclipse time.

San Antonio airport is the exact line in San Antonio where the line of totality starts in the city, so that’s also an airport option.

Who is so worried about traffic that they are going to stay put even if clouds are forecasted? I can leave Dallas for a less cloudy area at 2am, but I'm afraid going back may take 8-12 hours regardless of taking Interstate-35 which parallels inside the totality zone or side roads. We have plans Monday night in Dallas.

Sweetheart are venturing to Alvarado, TX for the eclipse. I joke that we are driving 4-days (round trip) for 4-minutes of totality.

watching eclipse from dfw
 

Not an AA question, but you guys might know something about DFW. I have flights to and from DFW on eclipse day (arr. 10:30 dep 5:00). I have a car reserved (off site, but I can return it to DFW), but I'm wondering if I should just stay in the airport. If I were to do that, any suggestions on best place to view the eclipse?

At the airport itself, the top 5th floor of a parking garage (E? A? B?) might be good. Easy to walk to. If you like watching planes land and if they are landing to the south, "Founder's Plaza" is a short drive.

Your rental car is a hot commodity. Lots of places are sold out. You might keep it and drive farther away if there are clouds.

If my PDX experience of a few years' back is any indication, don't wander far from the airport. It could be faster to walk back than to drive back.

It Does Not Get That Much Better By Leaving the Airport
 

There are dire predictions of tourist traffic gridlock but who knows.

Last time we flew to Wichita (outside the path of totality but closest available ticket we could get) to drive to Kansas City, to a spot with long duration not far from where I grew up. All in order to "see" the total eclipse I had been waiting for since I learned it was coming as a little kid. Was a great choice till it went full clouds with five minutes to go. Then we were in an absolute hoard of traffic getting back around Kansas City to head back to the return plane in Wichita. Then it started raining. Hard.

This time the estimate at the house in Fort Worth it is a bit under two minutes of totality. We could drive somewhere some distance away for double that. With a zillion other people. Think we're just going to wander out in the back yard this time.

If you check the duration map I think, but don't warrant, it is something a bit over two minutes total eclipse right over the airport just before noon. Just for doing nothing but getting outside where you can see. (Like walking to the top of a parking garage--or just out the door to the top of the low-rise parking at Terminal B). Max anywhere in Texas is maybe double that for what is likely to be a traffic-congested effort. (The in-between alternatives are taking the Tex-Rail towards Fort Worth out of Terminal B, but getting off at the forsaken middle of nowhere first stop commuter lot north of the airport (with no facilities but wide-open spaces). Or the second stop in Grapevine (a bit of standard old-downtown tourist spot that would be an interesting layover spot, but bound to be crowded and the view more obstructed).

Might get boring waiting for a flight after it is over. But other than that I would suggest saving the car rental money and staying at the airport. The eclipse is coming to the airport. You don't have to go to it.

The small county I frequent is in the path and is expected complete gridlock after the eclipse is over. I would just stay at the airport honestly. That or take DART or TexRail a few stops away. The top of the parking garages would be good places to view.

The OP has a rental car reservation

.

Maybe they are able to actually get a car.

I would stay at the airport. It’s important to be in the zone of totality, but for four minutes (vs two) I would not bother with a rental car and traffic. Source: I camped in the Cascades in the zone of totality for the OR eclipse and it was wonderful. No crowds, no traffic.

I'm flying in Sunday night and using an expiring Hyatt award at the Grand. I was going to rent a car to view it from a friend's property about 80mi east of DFW, but there were none available even months ago. So parking deck it is. Flying home a few hours later.

Fares were quite high but I managed to snag an award seat.

Hope it's a sunny day!

I did the eclipse apocalypse in western Kentucky in 2017, you do not want a rental car.

Assuming you can check most of your belongings I would get a ride share to White Rock Lake Park in Dallas, view the eclipse in "nature" for better effect and get DART back DFW. You do NOT want to be dependent on cars after the event.

I was on the north side of Salem for that one, we got in the car and headed north to PDX shortly after totality ended. It took an maybe an extra half hour than the ride down the prior day. Those who waited a bit longer had a 4 hour drive back to PDX. We hit every PP restaurant in the airport :D

This all may help me make my decision on whether I want to leave home and drive what normally would be about a 30 minute drive south in order to gain another minute of totality.

My last total eclipse was in Nova Scotia in 1972. (Anyone remember the Carly Simon song "You're So Vain" where the ex- is accused of flying his "Lear jet to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun." ) We took a VW bug, and went to Antigonish, and it clouded over near zero hour, but we drove 10 miles north and had clear sky. The obvious advantage of having wheels, and traffic in 1972 in rural Nova Scotia is different from Dallas in 2024. And its kind of cool to hear the birds start singing when the sun comes back out, which may not happen in the parking lot. But you have convinced me to stay away from cars. .

i heard story from a good friend of mine. His wife’s brother lived in Portland. They went out for the eclipse stayed in a camping area on the east side of the cascades. A wild fire occurred forcing them to move the day of to get into clearer air.

there is a big difference in a wider eclipse if you are near the peak line vs being on the fringe in terms of darkness.

2017 width was around 61-72 miles
2024 width is 108-122 miles

thus more darkness near totality line. Time of totality will be a minute or more longer.

getting a rental car will not be fun. I’m sure we are going to hear stories of no rental. We also will hear stories of hotels/ house rental reservations not being honored.

going to to your spot will be easier than coming home. Many spread out their arrival times but everyone leaves right after totality thus causing about a 4x longer drive home. A key is avoiding interstates.

in west like in Wyoming you don’t have many routes. Heading out of jackson heading south or west you had one primary route that split, then it split again. Only after the second split did it open up in traffic.

buffalo airport is very close to the totality max line..within a mile. You can fly there and then walk out.

Unfortunately, my return on Tuesday fell through as the return flight I was going to take was not available at the time I needed it. I am now returning on Monday after the Eclipse. I am flying in and out of Dallas. I arrive in Dallas at 5:00 a.m. but cannot get the rental till 9:00 a.m. I was only able to get a car through Enterprise, which is 8 miles from the airport and does not open till 9:00 a.m. I will have to kill time at the airport until I can pick up the car.

After I rent the car, I am driving to Waco. After the Eclipse I have to drive back to Waco to return the car and catch my flight which leaves at 7:00 p.m.
It's not ideal, I hope to get on the road back to Dallas as soon as the Eclipse is over.

For those who will be in the Austin area, or other areas where the bats come out at night...

https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/wil...ksA2-jWtePUbs#

I've done the Congress bridge bats, from the lake, and it was pretty cool.
And purely by chance, I was waiting for a stoplight near the I-35 bridge over McNeal in Round Rock and witnessed that one too. This seemed much more impressive, perhaps because I wasn't expecting it.

There is no guarantee that the bats will be confused enough and come out, but who knows.

We have DFW booked (arrive 8 AM, depart 430pm), IAH booked (with a drive to AUS / SAT -- bah), and CLE booked. All refundable. As long as the weather looks decent, my guess is that we'll go to DFW.

We should have a FT Eclipse DO on the top level of the parking garage!

That is not a good idea, as that event will likely be overshadowed by something else...

We chose Alvarado for it's location. We have a hotel for the nights of 4/7 & 4/8, so we should be able to just step outside without having to deal with a bunch of traffic. Now... the *day before and after* traffic, that may be a different story.

Is there a good place at/near Love Field to view the eclipse? I'm flying out of DAL at 4:48PM and intend to use only DART to move around on eclipse day. Looking on Google Maps it seems there is some sort of public park right next to the airport?

Haha, I see what you did there.

Well, I'm probably arriving around 9am, without a lot to do until the main event. Seems others are in the same boat. That was kind of my point.

I'd try to stay close to an airport so you don't have to do too much driving.

The US 290 between Austin and Houston can be a chore on a good day...I can't imagine driving it after the eclipse. Especially since Houston is outside of the zone, I'd imagine we'll get quite a few people driving over to experience it (and probably quite a few driving I-45 between DFW and Houston).

Our house backs up to a large county park, and I'm planning to just stay home. One of my dogs seems to know to go to bed at a certain time, I'm curious if she will want to when this is going on. The deer and other animals tend to come out at dusk, so maybe I'll get to see some of that too.