Eclipse 2027 by City: Luxor Gets 6 Minutes, Seville None

Totality town by town: how long, and from what time

These durations and start times are for each town centre at sea level, computed with NASA's own eclipse calculator and the published elements of this eclipse. Inside a town the figure moves by a few seconds, and near the edge of the band a few kilometres decide whether totality happens at all. Times are local clock time.

• Tarifa, Spain: 4 min 39 s, from 10:45 am
• Gibraltar: 4 min 27 s, from 10:45 am
• Cádiz, Spain: 2 min 54 s, from 10:45 am
• Málaga, Spain: 1 min 52 s, from 10:48 am
• Tangier, Morocco: 4 min 51 s, from 9:44 am
• Oran, Algeria: 5 min 8 s, from 9:51 am
• Sfax, Tunisia: 5 min 40 s, from 10:08 am
• Djerba, Tunisia: 4 min 40 s, from 10:09 am
• Luxor, Egypt: 6 min 20 s, from 1:02 pm
• Marsa Alam, Egypt: 5 min 30 s, from 1:08 pm
• Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: 5 min 59 s, from 1:22 pm
• Abha, Saudi Arabia: 6 min 3 s, from 1:34 pm

The booked cities that only get a partial eclipse

In a partial eclipse, even a deep one, the sky never goes dark and your eclipse glasses stay on from start to finish. Several of the places people are booking sit outside the band, some by only a few kilometres. Each line below gives the nearest towns where totality does happen.

Almería shows how sharp the edge is: the city sits right on it. If your hotel is outside the band, eclipse day becomes a road trip, and the phone is the tool for it: live traffic on the way, the forecast the evening before, and the ferry or coach you switch to when cloud sits over your first choice.

• Seville: partial. The band starts about 70 km to the south. Jerez gets 1 min 39 s, Cádiz 2 min 54 s, and the coast from Conil to Tarifa from just over 4 minutes up to 4 min 39 s.
• Granada: partial, about 40 km outside. The coast below it gets under 2 minutes: Motril 1 min 46 s, Almuñécar 1 min 53 s.
• Faro and the Algarve: partial. The nearest totality on land is the Cádiz coast.
• Rabat, Casablanca, Fes, Marrakesh and Agadir: partial. Head north: Larache 4 min 18 s, Chefchaouen 4 min 13 s, Asilah 4 min 44 s, Tangier and Tétouan 4 min 51 s.
• Algiers: partial, about 14 km outside. Chlef gets 4 min 35 s, Mostaganem 5 min 2 s and Oran 5 min 8 s.
• Tunis, Sousse, Monastir and Enfidha: partial. Kairouan gets 2 min 44 s, Mahdia 2 min 48 s, Gabès 4 min 5 s, Djerba 4 min 40 s and Sfax 5 min 40 s.
• Cairo and Giza, the Grand Egyptian Museum included: partial, more than 160 km outside. Minya gets 4 min 8 s, Asyut 6 min 7 s and Luxor 6 min 20 s.
• Hurghada, Safaga and Sharm el-Sheikh: partial. Down the coast, El Quseir gets 2 min 26 s and Marsa Alam 5 min 30 s.
• Aswan and Abu Simbel: partial, with Aswan about 15 km outside. Downstream, Kom Ombo gets 3 min 24 s, Edfu 5 min 31 s and Esna 5 min 45 s.
• Medina, Yanbu, AlUla and Riyadh: partial. Jeddah gets 5 min 59 s, Taif 3 min 53 s, Al Baha 5 min 11 s and Abha 6 min 3 s.
• Malta and Lampedusa: partial, with Lampedusa about 16 km outside. The nearest totality on land is in Tunisia.

Spain and Gibraltar: the longest Spanish totality is on the Strait

Spain's government counts 2026, 2027 and 2028 as a trio of eclipses, and the 2027 band covers only the far south. It comes ashore on the Cádiz coast and runs along the Strait. Tarifa gets 4 min 39 s, Zahara de los Atunes 4 min 25 s, Barbate 4 min 16 s, Algeciras and Gibraltar about 4 min 27 s, Estepona 3 min 38 s, Marbella 3 min 18 s and Fuengirola 3 min 11 s, falling to 1 min 52 s in Málaga. On the African side, Ceuta gets 4 min 48 s and Melilla 4 min 33 s.

The August 2026 eclipse showed what the day does to the country. Beforehand, Spain's traffic authority, citing an economy ministry study, expected between 400,000 and 1.5 million extra journeys towards the band, and warned that everyone driving home at once after totality would cause queues, especially on minor roads. Telefónica said it had tuned and added capacity at 2,756 mobile sites in 31 provinces, after checking coverage at more than 400 viewing points named by the regional governments.

For data, our Spain plan connects to Movistar and Orange, both at 5G. Gibraltar counts as a separate destination with its own network, GibTel, which the Spain plan does not reach. Our 33-destination Europe list takes in both, priced the same as the Spain plan for 1, 3 or 5 GB, so if the Rock is anywhere on your route, buy that list instead.

Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia: totality in the morning

Northern Morocco gets totality before 10 am local time. Tangier and Tétouan get about 4 min 51 s, Asilah 4 min 44 s, Al Hoceima 4 min 26 s, Larache 4 min 18 s, Nador 4 min 14 s and Chefchaouen 4 min 13 s. In Algeria the band covers the north-west, from Tlemcen with 3 min 10 s and Sidi Bel Abbès with 4 min 30 s to Oran with 5 min 8 s. In Tunisia it crosses the centre and the south-east: Sfax 5 min 40 s, Djerba 4 min 40 s, Gabès 4 min 5 s, and Tozeur, on the edge of the desert, 1 min 42 s.

easyJet said bookings to Tunisia, Enfidha and Djerba included, were up 189% after the 2026 eclipse, the biggest rise on its list. Enfidha itself only gets a partial eclipse, while Djerba is inside the band.

Tunisia is also the cheapest of the three for data: a 5 GB month costs a third more than the Spain plan, on Ooredoo at 5G. Algeria's costs half as much again as Spain's, with Mobilis at 4G and Ooredoo at 5G, and no regional or worldwide list we sell includes Algeria, so it always needs a plan of its own. Morocco's costs two thirds more than Spain's and runs on Orange Morocco at 5G, while the lists that include Morocco reach it at 4G.

Egypt: six minutes in Luxor, a partial eclipse in Hurghada

Egypt gets the longest totality on the path. Luxor has 6 min 20 s from just after 1 pm, and Karnak and the Valley of the Kings a second more. Dendera gets 6 min 14 s, Qena 6 min 11 s and Asyut 6 min 7 s, and the longest point of all, 6 min 23 s on the centre line, is near Sohag. National Geographic put Luxor on its Best of the World list for 2027 and expects demand for the eclipse to be overwhelming.

The classic Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan spends most of its route inside the band: Esna gets 5 min 45 s, Edfu 5 min 31 s and Kom Ombo 3 min 24 s. Aswan itself lies about 15 km south of the edge, so a boat moored there on 2 August sees a partial eclipse. On the Red Sea, Hurghada and Safaga are just north of the band, while El Quseir, inside it, gets 2 min 26 s and Marsa Alam 5 min 30 s. Cairo, Giza and Sharm el-Sheikh see a partial eclipse.

Our Egypt plan connects to three networks, Etisalat, Orange and Vodafone, all at 5G. A 5 GB month costs a little under twice the Spain plan, and a one-gigabyte week costs the same as Spain's. For a heavy week in Egypt, compare a week of unlimited with the 20 GB month: here the unlimited week costs only about a tenth more.

Saudi Arabia: Jeddah, Mecca and the Asir mountains

The shadow reaches the Saudi coast about 20 minutes after Luxor. Jeddah gets 5 min 59 s from 1:22 pm, King Abdulaziz International Airport 5 min 45 s, and pilgrims in Mecca 5 min 8 s. Along the coast to the south, Al Lith gets 6 min 11 s. Inland, Taif gets 3 min 53 s and the mountains further south get more: Al Baha 5 min 11 s, Khamis Mushait 6 min and Abha 6 min 3 s. Medina, Yanbu, AlUla and Riyadh are outside the band.

August is the rainiest month of the year in Abha. Saudi Arabia's National Center for Meteorology gives the city 10.5 rain days in an average August, against fewer than one in Jeddah, so in the mountains keep the forecast close and a second spot in mind. On the coast the problem is heat rather than cloud: Jeddah's average August high is 38.7°C.

Our Saudi plan runs on STC at 5G, and the regional lists that include Saudi Arabia connect through Mobily, some through Zain as well. A 5 GB month costs about two and a third times the Spain plan, a one-gigabyte week costs the same as Spain's, and at 10 GB Saudi Arabia is cheaper than Egypt.

Crossing a border in eclipse week: one plan or two

Eclipse chasers move with the weather, and some trips take in two countries anyway. One list that covers both sounds simpler, but on this path it is nearly always the dearer way, because the country plans here are cheap and the lists are priced for far more destinations than you will visit.

Our worldwide plans do cover Spain, Gibraltar, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, though not Algeria, and 5 GB on them costs at least six times the Spain plan. They suit a long trip through many more countries than this, not an eclipse week.

• Spain and Gibraltar: our 33-destination Europe list, priced like the Spain plan at 1, 3 and 5 GB.
• Spain, Gibraltar and Morocco: that list plus a Morocco plan. At 5 GB each it costs about 30% less than 5 GB on our 41-destination Europe list that includes Morocco, and gives you twice the data.
• A day across the Strait: a 1 GB Morocco week costs less than a Morocco 2 GB day plan.
• Egypt and Saudi Arabia: two country plans at 5 GB each cost less than half of 5 GB on our Middle East and North Africa list.
• Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt: three country plans at 5 GB each cost about 30% less than 5 GB on our Africa list.
• Algeria with anything else: always two plans, because no list we sell includes Algeria.

Eclipse day: what to download before the crowd arrives

Two things happen to mobile data on eclipse day. Across a whole country, people put their phones down: during the 2026 eclipse, Cloudflare measured web traffic in the regions on the path of totality falling by roughly 15 to 30% around maximum eclipse, then recovering within minutes as people went back to their screens. At the viewing spot it runs the other way. Thousands of phones share a few masts, and they all reach for the camera and the share button in the same few minutes, which is why Spain's operators reinforced their networks at viewing points that year.

So do the slow work the evening before, on hotel Wi-Fi:

Then leave the big uploads until the shadow has moved on. A clip sent an hour later arrives just the same, and if a post stalls right after totality, leave it queued and send it from somewhere quieter.

• Offline maps of the whole area, including the roads to a second spot
• The contact times for your exact spot, saved as a screenshot
• Ferry, coach and site tickets saved as files, not links
• Photo backup switched to upload over Wi-Fi only, so a long video cannot start syncing at the worst moment
• The phone charged, and a power bank kept out of the sun

Heat: why your phone struggles in Luxor and Jeddah

Apple designs iPhones and iPads for ambient temperatures between 0 and 35°C. The average August high is 41°C in Luxor, according to the Egyptian Meteorological Authority, and 38.7°C in Jeddah and 42.8°C in Mecca, according to Saudi Arabia's National Center for Meteorology. The Spanish side of the Strait is milder, 24.5°C in Tarifa and 27.9°C in Cádiz, and Tangier averages 29.7°C.

Apple lists what an iPhone does when it gets too hot: charging slows or stops, the display dims or goes black, camera features can switch off, and the cellular signal can weaken as the radios drop into a low-power state. It specifically warns against using the camera for a long time in hot conditions or direct sunlight. In Upper Egypt and on the Saudi coast the eclipse falls just after 1 pm with the Sun nearly overhead, and the partial phases around totality last well over two hours.

• Keep the phone in shade or in a bag between shots, never on a hot wall or a dashboard
• Charge it from a power bank in the shade, not in the sun
• If a temperature warning appears, switch the phone off and move it somewhere cooler, as Apple advises
• Wear eclipse glasses that meet the ISO 12312-2 standard for every partial phase. NASA says you can look without them only during totality, and never through a camera lens, binoculars or a telescope without a solar filter on the front

How much data the trip takes, and the earliest date to buy

A normal travel day of maps, messages, social media and a short video call home uses about 700 MB, which is why 5 GB covers most weeks. The eclipse adds video. A minute of 4K can be more than 300 MB, and a live stream is bigger still: YouTube's minimum setting for a 1080p stream at 30 frames a second is 5 megabits a second, about 37.5 MB a minute. Twenty minutes around totality comes to roughly 750 MB, and the whole eclipse in Luxor, about 166 minutes, to more than 6 GB.

As a rule of thumb: 5 GB for a week without streaming, 10 GB if you share a lot of video, and 20 GB or an unlimited plan if you go live. On an unlimited plan the daily full-speed share is 3 GB, with 1 Mbps after it, too slow for HD video, so even unlimited will not carry a full HD stream of the whole eclipse.

Two dates matter when you buy. From the day of purchase, an eSIM from us has 180 days in which to connect for the first time, and the plan's days are counted from that first connection, not from the purchase. So the earliest sensible purchase date is 180 days before your arrival: for a Friday 30 July 2027 landing that is 31 January 2027, and for a Sunday 1 August landing, 2 February. Bought earlier, it would run out of time before your flight. If the trip falls through before you install it, the eSIM is refundable, so buy once your dates are inside that window, install it at home shortly before departure, and turn the line on after landing.