Hi,

I live in Limoges (France) without a car and not even a driver’s license.

Does anyone know the best places to travel to using only public transit and manage to experience the total solar eclipse, in terms of easiness of access, transportation cost, accomodation cost, tourist density ?

I’ve considered taking a train to somewhere near the border (Saint-Jean-Pied-De-Port, Bedous) then figuring out local transportation, or taking an international train to Barcelona (details for both options in my other post linked below), but I think the best option will be taking a national train to a big national hub, then taking an international bus there.

So, for international bus, I found the following, but I’m of course open to other destinations :

• from Toulouse (4h of train away for 20€) :
  • a 6 hour bus ride to Zaragoza, 1m 23s of totality, 15% cloud risk, for 70€ ;
  • an 8 hour bus ride to Burgos, 1m 43s of totality, 25% cloud risk, for 55€ ;
  • a 9 hour bus ride to Vitoria‑Gasteiz, 1m 3s of totality, 45% cloud risk, for 35€ ;
• from Bordeaux (3h of train away for 25€) :
  • a 9 hour bus ride to León, 1m 44s of totality, 30% cloud risk, for 60€ but with a 1h layover, I must admit I’m not a fan of that (turns out this option just disappeared between 10 days ago and now) ;
  • a 6 hour bus ride to Santander, 1m 2s of totality, 45% cloud risk, for 90€ ;
    • or keep going 3 hours longer on the same bus to Oviedo, 55% cloud risk, 1m 48s of totality, for 100€ ;
    • or keep going 7 hours longer to A Coruña, 1m 15s of totality (less than the previous stop), 25% cloud risk, for 120€ ;
  • a 7h and a half hour bus ride to Valladolid, 1m 31s of totality, 10% cloud risk, for 45€

(Note : I’d trust locals more than statistics regarding the cloud risk).

In another post on Reddit, people also suggested Bilbao (which is on the way to Burgos) but honestly I’m not doing all this for not even half a minute of totality.

What do you think ? I mostly need help regarding local logistics, like transportation within the city, finding an observation spot, finding food that my partner with dairy/egg/nuts/shellfish allergies can eat, etc.

Also, flying is out of the question, and carpooling is too risky in case of cancellation for such a very time-sensitive occasion.

This is also becoming more and more urgent because as I’m posting for help for the 5th time across all platforms between a month ago and now, options are disappearing, prices are rising and I haven’t even looked at Airbnb yet.

Thanks very much