Hunting Down Solar Eclipses & Immersing Yourself in the Unknown

Hey there, lovely Travellers,

Happy Valentine's Day, or as many of you will no doubt call it, Hallmark Holiday.

If you're reading this and suddenly realise you haven't got a gift for someone you probably should have today (your significant other, your bestie, yourself...), let me direct you to our Members Lounge. What could possibly be more romantic than spontaneously grabbing one of the Flights our Navigators found this week? 

That said, anyone in the throes of a budding romance and trying to impress might feel like booking a trip together already is too intense. Instead, win them over by showing off your flight hacking skills, like how to avoid the middle seat on everyone's fave European budget airline.

Alternatively, if the only wooing you're interested in is the noise you make when opening a bottle of bubbles with your friends, lean into Finnish traditions today. 

Happy travels and safe landings,

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There’s nothing quite like a natural spectacle to remind you of all the wonders there are to see in this lifetime. Some of us are lucky enough to live under the dancing skies of the Northern Lights, wander through a sea of cherry blossoms in spring on our way to the supermarket, or witness the path of an annual migration from our doorstep.

But when it comes to matters of the galaxy, no one place on Earth gets exclusive rights to its orbital showcases. Sure, we know that certain constellations can only be glimpsed from the Southern Hemisphere, or that the Aurora Borealis dances in the north. But even they move.

When the event is that much rarer, everyone wants a piece — and that’s where travel comes in. 2026 and 2027 are spoiling us with a solar eclipse each during peak summer travel season in the Northern Hemisphere, so why not make a trip out of it?

These are our picks of where to watch the sun disappear over the next couple of years, as well as some bonus lunar action for those who just can’t get enough.

2026 Solar Eclipse

Iceland — Westfjords region

We’ll start with where you’ll get the biggest and bestest view of the eclipse: Iceland’s Westfjords. It’s usually touted as ‘Iceland without the crowds,’ but that’s all going to change this summer, when the path of totality skirts right along Iceland’s northwestern coast. This is where you want to be to catch the moon looking its largest for the longest.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the landscape and nature in the region are also completely mind-blowing, especially in summer. In classic Icelandic style, you can expect epic waterfalls, cliffs jam-packed with nesting birds, remote beaches and hot springs.

Even by Icelandic standards, this area is pretty sparsely populated, meaning there’s not a huge amount of accommodation available for, say, a sudden influx of international astrotourists. And since there are plenty of keen beans out there who planned well in advance, the peninsula is near enough fully booked during August’s eclipse dates already.

In fact, accommodation all along the west coast seems to be in short supply. What remains is a selection of Airbnbs at inflated rates, a space capsule-themed hostel, and this one eco house with its own hot springs that appears to have missed the eclipse-flation memo.

That leaves the rest of us with a few options:

• Find accommodation closer to Reykjavík or along the northern coast, and drive out to the Westfjords on the day. You’re looking at a drive of around 4–5 hrs from the capital or 5–6 from Akureyri.
• Campgrounds—ideally, with a campervan. Check that there is a spot available first, as you don’t want to get caught without somewhere to park up for the night. This map of all the campsites should help get you started. Wild camping with a vehicle (i.e. parking up anywhere and taking a snooze) is a big no-no in Iceland, so don’t try to wing it!
• Look elsewhere, like…

Northern Spain

Whether you’re wannabe pilgrims, historians, beach bums, foodies, or gallery goers, Spain’s north coast has a spot for you—one that’ll line up nicely with the path of the 2026 solar eclipse. With the exception of the Camino de Santiago and the steps of Bilbao’s Guggenheim, this part of the country truly is Spain's path less trodden.

Coastal crowd, base yourself around A Coruña. Aside from enjoying the beaches and tapas, you’ll have a top vantage point from which to catch the show—right next to the world’s oldest lighthouse, with views out over the Atlantic. This is also the place to be for any cerveza connoisseurs, since you can visit the Estrella Galicia Mega Museum within the brewery, cheeky sample included.

Oviedo in Asturias will take you further inland, offering up a very satisfying combo of picturesque cobblestone plazas, street art, and local cider. Easy access to the nearby mountains also gives you a decent chance of finding higher ground that’ll get you the perfect late afternoon west-facing view. The risk there, of course, is that the mountains may, in fact, get in your way, so pick wisely!

Northern Spain is rife with cute little towns, fantastic food, and affordable accommodation—even with the impending onslaught of eclipse hunters. You can’t go far wrong by hiring a car and basing yourself somewhere more rural, but just be sure to look for those clear western horizons to maximize your viewing time.

Eastern Spain & the Balearics

A popular choice in any given August, it’s hard to imagine an occasion that could make Mallorca or Barcelona even more packed to the rafters. But here we are.

While these spots are set up for mass tourism, they’ve also been pretty vocal about the effect it’s having on their local communities. Consider visiting smaller towns along the coast between Barcelona and Valencia to ease the pressure, and as a reward, you’ll get a better view of the eclipse too.

As for the islands of Mallorca and Menorca, quiet countryside villas and smaller coastal towns are your friend, i.e., let’s skip Magaluf—this year and every year. There are actually a bunch of beautiful hidden coves and cute old fishing villages hidden there between the sunbeds and British pubs; you just have to want to see them. And I’m willing to bet that Menorca’s Monte Toro will offer up some epic panoramic views come showtime.

Solar Eclipse 2027

If you wanna plan ahead a little better for the next time around, you thankfully won’t have too long to wait. On August 2nd, 2027, the path of totality will skirt across Spain’s southern tip and over North Africa, meaning you can chase the shadow once again, but this time surrounded by pharaohs and sarcophagi.

Luxor, Egypt

If you’ve always wanted to go a bit Indiana Jones or Lara Croft, but felt that wasn’t quite cool enough, just add in a solar eclipse. That’ll surely take your tomb-raiding cred to the next level!

In all seriousness, Luxor is at the peak of 2027 eclipse-watching locations thanks to over 6 minutes of totality and a high likelihood of clear skies. And given the early afternoon timing, finding a vantage point won’t be hard. 

Visitors will likely flock to the ancient columns and sphinxes of the Karnak Temple and the clifftops overlooking the Valley of the Kings. These are undoubtedly amazing spots to catch the show, but securing your spot on a Nile cruise might just be the most epic option. Try to avoid eclipse-specific trips organized by major companies and instead hop on a local felucca—plus, you’ll appreciate the breeze in that August heat.

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I’ve always been obsessive about art museums. It’s the first thing I usually do when I visit a new city. And while I love to admire galleries full of paintings and sculptures by iconic artists, my favorite works take on a different quality: immersion.

After experiencing about fifteen emotions simultaneously inside Tim Shaw’s Mother, the Air is Blue, the Air is Dangerous in college, I was hooked on the entire concept of immersive art. It takes one set of skills to make a beautiful painting; it takes another to transform a space and make viewers forget they’re in a museum. 

Yayoi Kusama is arguably the queen of such installations, with her polka-dotted rooms:

You might also remember Olafur Eliasson’s The Weather Project, in which he created an artificial sun in the Tate Modern.

But lately, the concept seems to be exploding in popularity outside the world of contemporary art. “Immersive experiences” are something of a tourism staple these days, from the million franchises of the Museum of Illusions, to that traveling Van Gogh projection.

Personally, I find many of these places to be a little too touristy. If there’s an identical copy of your “mind-blowing experience” the next city over, it feels less like a step out of reality and more like a gimmick. 

However, there’s one major exception to my sentiment towards major art exhibit chains, and that’s Meow Wolf: five locations, each completely different, each with an interactive story from the same universe. Their fandom definitely seems to be growing — the Vegas location is now on most lists of “Things to do in Vegas” (including mine), and there are even some folks who plan entire trips just to experience a new Meow Wolf (including me).

It’s hard to adequately describe the feeling of a Meow Wolf if you’ve never been to one. Imagine parking your car and walking into a nondescript warehouse, and then spending the next 3–-5 hours completely forgetting your normal life as you’re overcome with a need to solve a gripping interdimensional mystery by rifling through the items inside an artistic, interactive alien world. 

They really don’t mess around when it comes to details. I once opened a filing cabinet in one of their exhibits, expecting to find it either empty or locked, but it was full of readable typed pages with text that matched the worldbuilding. 

I always walk out of Meow Wolf feeling like I’ve just crash landed back on Earth after a vacation to another planet, which is exactly what I want from an immersive art exhibit. 

I’ve heard the Doloris Mazes in Tilburg and Utrecht bring a similarly surreal experience to the Netherlands, but without having visited, they’re a bit shrouded in mystery for me — phones and cameras are strictly banned, making it difficult to get a sense of the art inside without seeing it for yourself. The mystery grows even more tantalizing when you learn that all guests must enter alone, blindfolded. 

The intensity of their entrance rules is probably how the question “Is it scary?” ended up in their FAQ. Their answer includes the following lines:

“Because you do not know what lies ahead, entering the maze can feel exciting or tense. This feeling comes from stepping into the unknown rather than from any intention to frighten you.”

How poetic!

I think that quote really gets to the core of what makes these exhibits so popular, and so exhilarating to me. I can’t accurately explain Meow Wolf to you if you haven’t visited, and I’ll never understand the Doloris Meta Maze until I visit the Netherlands and see it for myself.

It makes sense that places like this become magnets for visiting travelers, because it really is like microdosing on travel — you never quite know what’ll meet you when you arrive, but you emerge with the sense that your normal life is lightyears away. And while you can spend hours telling your loved ones about it, you can never truly share the feeling with them.

I could write paragraphs about my experience in that Tim Shaw installation. I could describe, in perfect detail, the café tables, the floating trays, the eerie blue glow and the muffled audio. But I can never fully share the experience of waiting in line in an art museum with no idea of what was in that room, and then suddenly being immersed in another world. You just have to walk through that door yourself.

So here’s to stepping into the unknown, even if it’s just the contents of a gallery! And if you’ve had any similar experiences with an art installation or interactive experience, let me know in the comments — I’m always hungry for more. 

All the important (or silly, or strange) travel news from across the web this week.

• Last weekend was Super Bowl Sunday! Here's what happened pre- and post-game, in the skies.
  
  
• Air Canada and its fellow Canadian airlines have cancelled all flights to Cuba, interrupting snowbird travel to the island. US blockades are to blame — and they're affecting other countries as well.
  
  
• London Heathrow is set to lose its crown as the busiest airport in Europe! Can you guess who's about to take it? Hint: The two were neck and neck throughout 2025.
  
  
• A historic British train carriage is getting a cinematic makeover, courtesy of director Baz Luhrmann. If the concept art is anything to go by, it'll be just as decadent as his films.
  
  
• And finally, Sri Lanka joins the club of countries offering free digital nomad visas. Maybe next week, we'll be writing these blurbs while drinking from a coconut.