Spain: the 2027 Total Eclipse in Cadiz and Andalusia

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Seville

   Seville Airport or Santa Justa station to your hotel in the old centre

   • Environ 15 min de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Seville
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Seville Airport (SVQ) or arrive at Santa Justa station by train from Madrid; a driver meets you and takes you to a central hotel in the old town. Afternoons in late July are hot, often near 40°C, so the plan is to rest and let the city come to you after dark. At about 7:30 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week: how the eclipse morning works, what the cloud plan is, and how we pace the days around the heat. Then we walk out as the streets fill again, through the lanes of Barrio Santa Cruz, past orange trees and tiled patios, to the floodlit cathedral and the Giralda tower. The welcome dinner is at a local restaurant, late by Spanish custom, with small plates to share: salmorejo, fried fish, Iberian ham and something cold to drink.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Seville Airport (SVQ) or Santa Justa station
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Evening walk through Barrio Santa Cruz
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

   Activité : Arrive by about 5 pm to settle in before the briefing.

2. Jour 2 : The Alcazar at opening, the cathedral, and Triana

   A day on foot in Seville

   • Petit-déjeuner
   • Nuit : Seville
   Détail du jour 2

   We are at the gate of the Real Alcazar when it opens, at about 9:30 am, with timed tickets bought months ahead. The palace is still a working royal residence and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the early hour means cool courtyards and room to stand in the Patio de las Doncellas, the Hall of the Ambassadors under its gilded dome, and the gardens with their fountains and peacocks. From there it is a few minutes' walk to Seville Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, where your guide shows you the tomb of Christopher Columbus before we climb the ramps of the Giralda, once the minaret of the city's great mosque, for the view over the rooftops. By early afternoon the heat is serious, so lunch is yours and the afternoon is for a siesta or the hotel pool. In the early evening we cross the river to Triana for its ceramics workshops, then walk back along the Guadalquivir.

   Compris

   • Real Alcazar at opening with your guide, timed entry included
   • Seville Cathedral and the Giralda with your guide, entry included
   • Early-evening walk to Triana across the Guadalquivir

   Activités en option

   • A flamenco show in the evening, booked through your guide

   Option plus facile : Skip the Giralda climb and wait in the cathedral's Patio de los Naranjos.

   Option plus active : Walk out in the evening to the Plaza de España and Maria Luisa Park before Triana.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : The Giralda has 35 ramps, not steps, but it is a steady climb in a warm tower.

   

3. Jour 3 : Down to Cadiz on the Atlantic

   Seville to Cadiz, then the old town on foot

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Cadiz
   Détail du jour 3

   After breakfast we drive about an hour and a half south to Cadiz, a narrow peninsula city almost surrounded by the Atlantic and often called the oldest city in western Europe, founded by the Phoenicians about 3,000 years ago. It is a few degrees cooler than Seville, with a sea breeze. We check in, then sit down to lunch: fried fish from a freiduria is the local habit. After a rest, we walk the old town in the late afternoon: up the Torre Tavira, an 18th-century merchants' watchtower whose camera obscura projects a live view of the rooftops onto a dish, then through the Barrio del Populo to the Roman theatre. The walk ends at La Caleta, the small beach between two castles, for a swim or a drink as the sun drops into the ocean. Before dinner, your guide gives the eclipse briefing: timings, safe viewing, photography and the forecast for tomorrow.

   Compris

   • Drive from Seville to Cadiz with your guide
   • Lunch in Cadiz
   • Torre Tavira camera obscura, entry included
   • Old town walk: Barrio del Populo and the Roman theatre
   • La Caleta beach at sunset
   • Eclipse briefing and the site decision for the morning

   Temps libre : Evening free in Cadiz

   Activité : Bring a swimsuit; La Caleta is a calm city beach.

   

4. Jour 4 : Eclipse day: totality over the Atlantic coast

   Cadiz to the chosen viewing site and back (plan B: the hills around Medina-Sidonia; plan C: toward Tarifa)

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Cadiz
   Détail du jour 4

   Monday 2 August 2027. At about 7 am your guide checks the satellite images and forecasts against last night's call. If the coast is clear, we watch from our scouted site at or near Cadiz; if sea fog or low cloud sits on the coast, the vehicle leaves by 7:15 am for the hills around Medina-Sidonia, inland, or about an hour and a quarter east toward Tarifa. All three are inside the path of totality. The partial phase begins at about 9:40 am, the sun high in the east, and through your eclipse glasses the moon eats slowly into it. In the last minutes the light turns strange and metallic and the air cools. At about 10:45 am the sun goes out: about three minutes of totality at Cadiz, nearer four toward Tarifa, with the corona, planets in a dark sky and a sunset glow all round the horizon. Glasses go back on for the last partial hour. Then a long celebration lunch and a siesta. In the late afternoon we visit Cadiz Cathedral, and the evening is free.

   Compris

   • Eclipse viewing at a scouted site inside the path of totality, with your guide
   • Certified ISO 12312-2 eclipse glasses
   • Cloud plan B and C with our own vehicle
   • Celebration lunch after the eclipse
   • Cadiz Cathedral in the late afternoon, entry included

   Option plus facile : Chairs and shade at the site; if the forecast is clear at Cadiz, walk to the site and back to the hotel.

   Option plus active : Late afternoon, climb the cathedral's Torre de Poniente for the view over the old town and the bay.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Cadiz

   Activité : Totality length and the exact contact times are confirmed for each candidate site; we send them with your final itinerary. Roads around the path will be busy, so a plan B move means an early start.

   

5. Jour 5 : Jerez: the dancing horses and a sherry bodega

   Cadiz to Jerez de la Frontera

   • Environ 45 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Jerez de la Frontera
   Détail du jour 5

   A short drive of about 40 minutes inland brings us to Jerez de la Frontera, the town that gave sherry its name and one of the homes of flamenco. At noon we take our seats at the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art for its show, in which riders in 18th-century dress put Andalusian and Carthusian horses through dressage to Spanish music; in August it usually runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and the departure is dated so that we are here on a Tuesday. After the show and a free lunch, the hottest hours are for the hotel. Late in the afternoon we walk the old centre with your guide, past the Alcazar walls and the cathedral, then tour a sherry bodega: high, cool, whitewashed aisles of oak casks, the solera system that blends young wine into old, and a tasting from bone-dry fino to sweet Pedro Ximenez. Dinner is tapas at a tabanco, Jerez's old sherry bars, where flamenco is sometimes sung late.

   Compris

   • Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art show, tickets included
   • Old town walk in Jerez with your guide
   • Sherry bodega tour and tasting
   • Tapas dinner at a tabanco

   Temps libre : Lunch and early afternoon free

   Activité : If the school changes its show day for August 2027, we book a training session visit instead and tell you before you travel.

   

6. Jour 6 : Vejer de la Frontera, then up to Ronda

   Jerez to Vejer de la Frontera, then through the hills to Ronda

   • Environ 3.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Ronda
   Détail du jour 6

   We drive about an hour south to Vejer de la Frontera, a white town on a ridge above the coast that keeps much of its Moorish street plan, its walls and gates. Your guide walks you in through the Arco de la Segur, up to the castle and the church, and round to the Plaza de Espana with its tiled fountain, with views over the plain toward the sea and, on a clear day, the mountains of Morocco. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Vejer, a town known along this coast for its food. In the afternoon we drive about two and a quarter hours east through the cork oaks and hills of the Alcornocales and Grazalema country to Ronda. Today is the longest driving day at about three and a quarter hours, split by Vejer and lunch. We arrive as the day-trippers leave and walk to the Puente Nuevo to watch the evening light fall into the gorge.

   Compris

   • Walk through Vejer de la Frontera with your guide
   • Lunch in Vejer
   • Evening walk to the Puente Nuevo in Ronda

   Temps libre : Evening free in Ronda

   Activité : Vejer is steep; the walk is short but uphill.

7. Jour 7 : Ronda's gorge in the morning, then Malaga

   Ronda to Malaga Airport

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 7

   Ronda is best early, before the coaches from the Costa del Sol arrive. After breakfast your guide walks you across the Puente Nuevo, finished in 1793 and standing about 100 metres above the Guadalevin river in the El Tajo gorge, into the old Moorish town. We go down to the Arab baths, among the best preserved in Spain, with their star-shaped skylights, and look out from the viewpoints below the bridge. On the way back you pass the Plaza de Toros, one of the oldest bullrings in Spain. In the late morning we drive about an hour and three quarters down through the hills to Malaga Airport (AGP), arriving by about 2:30 pm. Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm. If you are staying on, we drop you in central Malaga instead, a few minutes further on.

   Compris

   • Morning walk in Ronda with your guide: the Puente Nuevo, the old town and the viewpoints
   • Ronda's Arab baths, entry included
   • Drop-off at Malaga Airport (AGP) or central Malaga

   Option plus facile : Stay on the level streets of the new town and the bridge while the group goes down to the baths.

   Option plus active : Walk down the path below the bridge to the lower viewpoint for the full height of the gorge.

   Activité : Book a flight leaving Malaga after about 5 pm.

   

Faune et météo : August is hot and usually dry in Andalusia, with long clear days that give this coast good odds for the eclipse; the risks are morning sea fog on the Atlantic coast and haze when the levante wind blows, which is why the site is chosen on the day.

• Seville2 nuits
• Cadiz2 nuits
• Jerez de la Frontera1 nuit
• Ronda1 nuit