Despite high gas prices and inflation, it’s still one of the busiest weekends for travel.
“Even with the high gas prices, it’s not scaring people away from driving this year,” said Morgan Dean, AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesperson.
AAA expects about 42 million Americans to travel by car this weekend. In Virginia, more than 1 million people are expected to travel at least 50 miles, and most of them plan to drive to their destination.
“We chose not to fly because of the delays,” said one traveler.
“I’m not a big fan of the crowds and stuff,” said another.
For some though, gas prices did impact their destination.
“We were thinking about heading toward California, but the prices out there are terrible, so we’re not doing that right now until things start to calm down,” one man explained.
One woman, who rented a van with her husband and dog from California to Virginia, attested to that.
“Better here than in California. In California, we were paying 6, close to 7, in some places $8 a gallon,” she said.
When you’re talking holiday travel, time is of the essence. Some travelers scheduled their vacation a week early.
“The airports when we came, it was a week ago so it was fine, but we’re concerned today because it’s an afternoon flight,” said one woman.
Others had a very early wake-up call.
“The roads really haven’t been that bad. We left early. It’s Thursday, I don’t think we’d want to do this tomorrow or Saturday,” one man said.
If you still plan on hitting the road on Friday, some times are better than others.
“If they’re leaving tomorrow, before 10 a.m. and after 9 p.m. If you’re sitting out in the middle of the day, that’s the time you tend to run into the biggest backups,” Dean added.
Being prepared can prevent a traveling headache ahead of the holiday.