Start planning now for viewing next year’s total solar eclipse

ATLANTA — It might still be nine months away, but you should start planning now if you want to see next year’s eclipse in the path of totality. That 115-mile path will be your last chance for decades to experience a total solar eclipse in the contiguous United States.

On April 8, the path of totality will start in northern Mexico, cross 13 U.S. states and finish in eastern Canada. Anyone within 200 miles of the path will likely experience the total eclipse. Outside that distance, and you’re stuck with a partial solar eclipse.

That’s why you need to start planning now. During the 2017 total solar eclipse, hotels and campsites were booked months in advance, with traffic snarling the roads leading to areas with the least amount of light pollution.

Jay Anderson, a retired meteorologist with Canada’s weather service and an amateur astronomer who created the website Eclipsophile.com, said your best bet might just be Mexico, so why not make a vacation of it?

“Rooms are still available along the path of totality but are going fast. The longer people wait, the harder it will be to find accommodations inside the eclipse path. And the higher the rates will be as the hotels and property owners get wise to what’s happening,” Dave Clark, who runs the website NationalEclipse.com, told CNN Travel.

If you can’t find a hotel room, consider a campground (if you’re driving your RV), Airbnb or Vrbo. Waco, Texas, is holding Eclipse Over Texas 2024: Live from Waco festival on the banks of the Brazos River.

Don’t forget to bring your eclipse glasses to protect your eyes.