I actually want the room/s for the seventh through the ninth and I KNOW that once booking opens up everywhere will be filled up in days if not hours.
Any suggestions as to how we can be first in line when things open up? I’ve already tried booking online and calling the hotels but that is too far in advance. There are things that people want and then there are things that people really WANT. This is something I WANT, but if we can get it without having to sleep in our truck, that would be great.
Hmmm. 4 years is way too early. I’d call the upper end hotels or small independent ones, the most likely to have in-house reservations, and ask when booking is likely to open for those dates.
That’s way way way way too early for a hotel reservation. Is that the anniversary of the Branch Davidian cult?
Anyway, most hotels open up for bookings about a year in advance except for very special events like an Olympics or a World Cup.
That timeframe seems too early for a college graduation, those will often take reservations two years out which is when most schools set their academic calendar.
Waco is 90 m8n South of Dallas and 90 min north of Austin. That entire length of I-35 is small commuter towns, all of them packed with hotels, motels, RV parks, etc. Waco itself is home to a major college (Baylor) and so has the hotel capacity to handle football weekends and related events. I think you’ll be fine if you book at the earliest possible date.
Do you actually have to stay in Waco, or just close enough to make it there in time for the eclipse? FWIW, I had no difficulty reserving a last-minute hotel room in Jackson, TN on the day before the last eclipse, and from there it was an easy drive to the zone of totality.
Plus, the path of absolute totality is a bit north of Waco anyway.
Hillsboro is the closest town of any actual size along I-35, and Ennis is the biggest along I-45. Kaufman is sizeable, and along 175 southeast of Dallas.
All 3 towns are directly along the center of the path of totality, and might be easier than trying to deal with Waco.
A bit further afield, Sulphur Springs is also in the path, and it’s more or less due East of Dallas on I-30. There’s also Terrell, which is a good sized town that’s not exactly in the center of the path of totality, but is right down the highway from it.
One other thing to keep in mind is that the range of totality actually encompasses almost the entirety of Dallas/Fort Worth (I think Denton is just outside), Austin, and the NW half of San Antonio. In all likelihood, I’ll probably just watch it from the plaza out in front of the building I work in, rather than do anything special for an extra 45 seconds of totality.
Greatest eclipse time is going to be in Mexico, perthis map. It looks like the totality line passes just west of Kerrville too. You’ve lots of potential hotel room choices.
Unless for some reason, it has to be in Waco. Gigantic Dr. Pepper fan?
Holy crap! I didn’t really think of looking further southwest.
Go to Fredericksburg, young man! It’s sort of a Texas tourism hidden gem. It’s literally a little German town in the Texas Hill Country- it was founded by German immigrants in 1846, and the population spoke only German until sometime in the early 20th century (Admiral Chester Nimitz grew up speaking German there). Lots of German restaurants, bakeries, beer gardens, etc…
The town is surrounded by the Texas Hill Country AVA, and there are quite a few wineries nearby to tour and sample. The LBJ Ranch and National Park is just a few miles east of town, and there’s even a bat cave that you can watch the bats pour out of (it’s an old abandoned railroad tunnel). And if you’re in to country music, Luckenbach is just outside of town (ISTR there’s a dancing place there, but not much else).
It gets one second less totality than the exact path (which is a few miles north), so it’s a good location for the eclipse too.
There are some amazing suggestions here, thank you, everyone! We aren’t going to Mexico, and I picked Waco because when I was googling hotels, Waco had a bunch.
I’ve tried calling several hotels, to be told that they weren’t taking reservations for longer than 2 years out. With all the other crazy stuff that is going on, I’m slightly concerned that the smaller, local places might not be able to stay open.
I’ve never seen a total eclipse, and this will probably be the last chance hubs will have to see one. Its really important to me that we get it right the first time!
Its close to Mazatlan and its the perfect time of year to visit coastal Sinaloa. I know you dont want to go to Mexico but a couple days in Mazatlan can be lots of fun with the seafood, sport fishing, nightlife and shopping.
July 20, 1963 - drove an hour to the zone of totality - only to be welcomed by a rainstorm. It cleared enough so that the sun was occasionally visible between clouds, so make sure that the area in which you intend to view has a good record of clear days!
Waco has a lot of hotels- probably more than the city would otherwise warrant, because it’s home to Baylor University, who fields strong football teams in a Power 5 conference. That’s really all there is to recommend the place though; there’s a Dr. Pepper museum, there’s a Texas Ranger museum, and there’s the Chip and Joanna Gaines place a few blocks away. Outside of that, there’s the Waco Mammoth National Monument, which is one of the best sites for seeing Pleistocene mammoth bones and stuff. That’s it for a city of somewhere between 100k and 150k.
That said, there are a lot of other places you could be near totality in Texas that aren’t as barren in terms of stuff to do outside of the 5 minutes of the eclipse.
Eclipses are popular but not as popular as you expect. I had no trouble getting a reservation in Paris(1999), Port Douglas (2012), or Nashville (2017) a few months in advance.
[My first post in 2+ years mostly made to inaugurate myself on the new board. After which I may submerge from view for another couple of years].
Considering that the path of totality goes directly over Buffalo, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and as noted above, most of greater DFW, you’re looking at 10s of millions of people in large cities/burbs who live in the path. Few of whom will bother to travel. And there are 10s of thousands of hotel rooms all along the path.
My bottom line: finding a room along the path will be easy. Guessing right about the weather will be harder.
If I was inclined to attend this eclipse I’d get a room anywhere in greater DFW and leave it at that.
Then again I’m not one of those nuts who brags about his/her lifetime aggregate seconds of totality. The hassle of getting from DFW to Waco & the lack of anything much there hardly pays for an extra 30 seconds in the shade. At a minimum one can drive to the nearest eclipse centerline point to DFW much more easily.
OTOH, if you’re into army & other military museums, Killeen is close to Waco and has some goodies.
Or stay in Kerrville if you don’t like the idea of $284 for a Best Western room. Seriously. 20 miles apart and the hotel rooms are significantly cheaper.
