Where to stay for the eclipse

This is the same independent Index as the rest of the site. Every hotel and short-stay apartment in Gibraltar, ranked on real guest scores, with nobody paying to move up and the mediocre named as such. For a booking you will make years ahead and cannot easily re-roll, honest rankings matter more than usual.

• Hotels suit the short, famous stay: the Rock Hotel's terraces, the Sunborn's superyacht novelty, the Eliott in the middle of town. Service on the day, breakfast before first contact, no logistics.
• Apartments suit groups and longer trips around the date, and Ocean Village puts you on a quayside that doubles as a viewing spot. Scores within one building vary enormously here, which is exactly what the per-listing rankings expose.
• Either way, a terrace, balcony or quayside with open sky east-to-south is worth paying for on this trip: the eclipse is high to the south-east, and stepping outside with coffee beats commuting to a crowd.

La Linea sits a walk across the land border and shares the same totality within seconds; the Spanish coast beyond it stays in the path for a long way. Sleeping in Spain and walking in is a genuine plan, with one caveat: everyone else in Iberia has the same morning in mind, so treat the crossing time on the day as unknowable and walk rather than drive.