(Bloomberg) -- Budget hotels in small Texas towns are asking for the moon as tourists descend on the area for prime solar-eclipse views.

The Wine Country Inn in Fredericksburg – a Hill Country town in the “zone of totality” where eclipse viewing will be at its best April 8 – wants $1,288.19 with taxes for a king room the night before the astral phenomenon. It’s more than eight times the price the no-frills motel is seeking later in the week, according to its website. About two hours southwest of Fredericksburg by car, The Inn at Uvalde is asking $1,325.56 for a queen bed, 10 times its normal rate. Similar pricing dynamics can be seen in the towns of Junction, Kerrville and Comfort. 

Tourists enthused about the solar eclipse — during which the moon blocks the view of the sun from Earth — are opening their wallets to secure a spot in the narrow band of the country where the sun will be completely obscured. While that strip of the country runs northeast from Texas through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois and eventually on through Maine, the most committed stargazers are heading to Texas because of its relatively lower chance of cloud cover. 

This is the first total solar eclipse visible in North America since 2017, and there won’t be another one covering such a large swath of the continent until 2045. Rental cars are already unavailable for some days at Austin’s airport.

Read more: How to Find the Best Cities to Watch the Solar Eclipse

RV campgrounds are also seeing an influx of visitors. At the Ingram Lake RV Park outside Kerrville, owner Irena Hajek said she was getting so many calls from prospective customers that she ended up converting 12 acres of hayfield on her property into primitive sites with no hookups. The older portion of the site is sold out, and she said she already has deposits for 40 spots out of the 150 that can fit in the new space. She’s charging $350 for three nights.

“There’s been huge demand from people wanting to sleep in their vans, a tent, just anything,” Hajek said.

Cities outside of Texas are getting in on the action and also seeing outsize demand.

Rooms at a hotel in Idabel, Oklahoma, are going for $1,000. The surrounding McCurtain County, with a population of 30,000, is expecting 100,000 people to visit, according to Jackie Lecrone, executive director of the local chamber of commerce. In Idabel, which sits in the southeast corner of the state, an already-planned event that weekend was rebranded as the “Miss Eclipse” pageant and the National Guard will be on site to help with traffic. Lecrone said the tourists will be a huge windfall for small businesses there.

“Hopefully this one weekend will get them through the slow months,” she said. Her biggest concerns are traffic snarls and stores running out of food.

In Hot Springs, Arkansas, there are a bevy of eclipse-watching events and other attractions for tourists. A local yoga studio will host a “sound bath” for visitors to “harness the energy of the solar eclipse to set new intentions and manifest” goals. NASA will do a public presentation.

For those who want to experience the eclipse from the sky, and avoid outrageous hotel fees, there are still options. 

Delta Air Lines Inc. is offering two eclipse flights April 8. At publication time, the one from Austin to Detroit was completely booked. But there were main-cabin seats available on a route from Dallas to Detroit, for $719 one way.

Dallas-based carrier JSX is offering an eclipse flight that leaves Dallas at 1 p.m. and will travel within the path of totality before landing back by 3 p.m. The flight will only take 12 people and passengers need to win a sweepstakes to get on board.

--With assistance from Alex Tribou and Denise Lu.

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