Memorial Day weekend is nearly upon us, and while it’s considered the unofficial start of summer, experts want to warn travelers to be safe because it’s also one of the busiest travel times of the year.
In fact, it's estimated that a record number of Americans are expected to head to the airport or hit the highway sometime this weekend. The American Automobile Association (AAA) forecasts that more than 45 million people will travel at least 50 miles away from their homes between Thursday and Monday. That's roughly 1.4 million more travelers than in 2024 and surpasses the previous Memorial Day travel record of 44 million travelers in 2005. The AAA has always defined what it constitutes as the Memorial Day weekend travel period as the five days between Thursday and Monday.
AAA’s travel forecast for this weekend is primarily focused on people driving to their destinations, an estimated 39 million out of the 45 million expected to travel, while a much smaller percentage will take flights.
Where do people go over Memorial Day weekend?
It is certainly a popular time to travel, but according to Stacey Barber, the vice president of AAA Travel, it’s not a travel period defined by “extravagant and costly” vacations.
"While some travelers embark on dream vacations and fly hundreds of miles across the country, many families just pack up the car and drive to the beach or take a road trip to visit friends," Barber said. "Long holiday weekends are ideal for travel because many people have an extra day off work and students are off from school."
Orlando, Fla., tops the list of popular destinations for this holiday weekend, according to the AAA, likely because of its popular theme parks and nearby cruise port, Port Canaveral.
What to expect if you're driving Memorial Day weekend
AAA is projecting that over 39 million people will be traveling by car this weekend. For anyone who plans to rent a car, AAA’s partner Hertz expects Friday to be the busiest day for pickups. Hertz also expects to see the highest demand for car rentals in cities like Orlando, Denver, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami and Seattle.
INRIX, a traffic data analysis platform, reports that afternoons over the whole Memorial Day weekend will be the worst time to drive, especially in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. INRIX recommends driving before noon on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and at least before 1 p.m. on Sunday and Monday.
For drivers, it's important to know that Memorial Day is also the start of what AAA and others call the 100 Deadliest Days of Summer, a period that typically sees a significant increase in traffic fatalities. According to the National Road Safety Foundation, teen drivers are the most likely to be involved in fatal car accidents during this period, which runs until Labor Day weekend in September.
What to expect if you're taking a flight during Memorial Day weekend
AAA anticipates that there will be more than 3.5 million flyers this weekend. Most of the flights are to destinations like Chicago, New York, Orlando, Denver and Seattle.
For New York travelers, it's important to keep in mind that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued new temporary restrictions on flights in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Tuesday after multiple radar outages and staff shortages over the past few weeks caused significant flight delays and cancellations at the busy airport.
The FAA said it expects higher than usual air travel for Memorial Day weekend, peaking on Thursday at an estimated 53,515 flights.
It's also important for fliers to remember that the Real ID requirement for domestic flights went into effect on May 7.
Sign Up
