Cost of Witnessing the First Total Eclipse Since 2017 Soars
If you think seeing a total eclipse of the sun will be a cheap thrill, you’re mistaken. On Monday, April 8, the US will experience its first total eclipse since 2017 — and the cost to witness it is already soaring.
The “zone of totality,” where you can see the sun vanish completely, goes from Mexico’s Pacific coast on a north-easterly path through Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine before passing through Canada’s maritime provinces.
And on that path, your money can already vanish. The whole cycle of the eclipse takes two and a half hours, but totality, when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, turning day into night, lasts just under four minutes.
Accommodation Prices Skyrocket
In Killeen, Texas, Fairfield Inn by Marriott is offering rooms for $809 on April 8. One week later, the same accommodation runs $103. On the upside, those who splurge for eclipse pricing will not be lonely in Killeen. It is located in Bell County, where the population of 400,000 is expected to double. The county’s schools will be closed on April 8, and residents are asked to stock up on food and gasoline.
Terre Haute, Indiana’s Holiday Inn is charging astronomical fees for those who want to watch the eclipse from the city that is known for its federal death cell. In Terre Haute, Indiana, best known for the federal death cell, the Holiday Inn Express normally comes in at $135 a night but is booked out on Sunday night before the eclipse and comes in at $459 for those who stay to party.
Further northeast, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, has a one-bedroom Airbnb at $1,350. In Cleveland, Ohio, virtually every hotel is sold out Sunday night, but Airbnbs are available. A one-bedroom apartment downtown is priced at $3,500 for just one night.
Further northeast, in Burlington, Vermont, rooms at the South Side Inn are usually around $120. But during days surrounding the big event, they’re a stunning $1,585 per night. That high tariff encourages would-be guests to angle for the good rate. “A couple claimed they were coming to town for their daughter’s wedding that weekend,” South Side owner Greg Nixon told The Post. “They wanted a room [at the standard price]. We told them that we couldn’t do it. I felt terrible. But, on the way out, the man said, ‘Actually, there is no wedding.’ He was lying. He totally had me.”
Alternative Accommodations and Airfare Prices
The sneaky couple might have done better to contact First Unitarian Universal Society, a church in Burlington. “Congregants are renting out whatever accommodations they have,” Reverend Karen G. Johnston told The Post. “Whatever gets paid will be a donation to the church. A fold-out sofa went for $100.”
Airfares are also up. Flying from New York to Cleveland for a one-night chance to see the eclipse runs $946 on United; the same flights the next week come in at $520. Meanwhile, Delta is charging $749 for a flight from Austin, TX, to Detroit, Michigan, that is designed for in-air eclipsing, though the airline claims no responsibility for weather or take-off delay.
Serious eclipse hunters can’t take chances on missing the action due to human or natural occurrences. Joe Rao, a former meteorologist on 1010 WINS radio, has seen 13 eclipses. He will not miss this one. “I have hotel reservations in Texas, Plattsburgh, Syracuse, and Arkansas; plus we have relatives near Cincinnati,” Rao told The Post. “One day before, I’ll figure out the best place, go there and cancel the others.”
Private Jet Chasers
Then there are those who will not have to worry about 11th-hour air accommodations because they fly private. “I have a group that will be chasing the eclipse on one of our jets,” Michael Giordano, a partner at Cirrus Aviation Services, told The Post. “At the last minute, they will go to wherever is best that day, watch from the tarmac, get back on the plane and fly home.”
The Experience of a Lifetime
Those who are watching the eclipse will do well to view it through glasses designed specifically for that purpose. Eclipse chaser David Makepeace, a media producer, says hotels are “gouging” and he is heading to Mazatlan, Mexico, leading a group who will see the natural wonder from the beach. “We were originally going to South Texas, but it wound up being $900 per night to stay at roadside motels,” Makepeace told The Post.
Instead,