The best placed large city inside the path of totality
Totality begins at 10:45:26 and ends at 10:48:20 (Spanish mainland time, CEST). Maximum eclipse is at 10:46:53, with the sun 37° above the horizon. The partial phases run from 09:40 to 11:59.
Cádiz is by some distance the best placed major city in Spain for the eclipse of 2 August 2027. It has almost three minutes of totality, hotels, a railway station, kilometres of city beach and an old town to stay in. None of that is a small thing when tens of thousands of people are looking for a spot on the same morning.
The city is inside the path but not in the middle of it. The northern limit passes barely twenty kilometres above, close to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, which misses out by a whisker. Go south towards Conil, Vejer or Tarifa and totality gets longer. Go north towards Seville and it disappears altogether.
Almost three minutes in the middle of the city
High and to the east. You do not need a clear horizon
From Seville and Madrid, so you can leave the car behind
Three kilometres of open sand with room for thousands of people. This is the easy option: a parasol, water, a chair, and then you wait. In August the beach fills up by mid morning, which is exactly eclipse time, so get into position early.
The most photographed beach in the city, tucked between two castles. The causeway out to the castle of San Sebastián has sea on both sides, which makes it a beautiful place to watch the light drain away during totality. It is a small space and it will fill very early.
The seafront promenade of Campo del Sur, with the cathedral behind you, and the gardens of the Parque Genovés both give you shade through the two hours of partial phases. In August that matters more than you would think.
The tallest of the old watchtowers in the old town, with its camera obscura, looks out over the whole city. Numbers are limited and demand on eclipse day will be heavy, so book well ahead.
Yes, if you can move. Half an hour by car to Conil or Vejer adds more than a minute of totality, and an hour to Tarifa takes it to 4 minutes 38 seconds. If you stay in Cádiz you will still get an excellent total eclipse.
The partial phases start around 09:40 and finish just after 12:00. In between, totality in Cádiz runs from 10:45:26 to 10:48:20. These are Spanish mainland times. Remember that those three short minutes are the only moment you can look without eclipse glasses.
Train: Cádiz has a station right in the centre, with services from Seville in a little over an hour and a half and direct trains from Madrid. It is the best way to avoid the traffic chaos that is likely that day.
Car: the city sits on a narrow spit of land and parking is hard in August. If you drive, consider leaving the car in San Fernando or Puerto Real and taking the local train in.
Plane: Jerez airport is 40 km away with a direct train to Cádiz. Seville, an hour and a half away, has far more flights.
Accommodation: Cádiz, San Fernando, El Puerto de Santa María and Chiclana together hold thousands of beds, all of them inside the path. It is the best logistical base for the eclipse in Spain. Book a long way ahead, because August is high season with or without an eclipse.