Travelers gearing up for Memorial Day road trips will have plenty of company

Roads and airports will be busy this upcoming holiday weekend as millions of people head out of town. About 80 % of California travelers will take trips by car.

GasBuddy phone app: Check. Spare tire: Check. Sunscreen: Check.

If you are one of the millions of Californians loading up the car and hitting the highway on Memorial Day weekend, be prepared for lots of company.

AAA says more people will travel for the holiday weekend than in nearly two decades. They’ll flock to sunny vineyards in the Napa Valley, rollicking theme parks in Southern California and busy entertainment venues in Las Vegas and New York, according to the auto association.

“Ever since COVID restrictions were lifted, we’ve seen record after record travel numbers,’’ said AAA spokesperson John Treanor. “There’s been a real hunger for many Americans to get out and take the trips they weren’t able to take before. This year, in particular, we are seeing amusement parks at the top of the destination list.”

AAA says 2024 will finish narrowly behind 2005 as the busiest Memorial Day travel weekend since the company began keeping track in 2000. An estimated 5.6 million Californians will head out for the holiday, with about 80% of those folks taking a trip by car.

In the South Bay, California’s Great America is offering entrance to its South Bay Shores waterpark in addition to the rides and rollercoasters, and there will be fireworks on Sunday night as the holiday weekend comes to a close. Disneyland too has some special promotions and packages for the holiday weekend.

Dave Kallal, who lives on the Central California coast, will be one of those hitting the road for the long holiday weekend, making a trip in his Glampervan. The Oakland-based company sells vans equipped with a queen size bed, kitchen, roof deck and plenty of room for storage.

“We basically travel every weekend and surf and camp, and we’ll be going to Hobson Beach Park in Ventura for Memorial Day,” he said.

He said he’s not worried about traffic because he’s riding in style.

“The drive down there is easy and beautiful,’’ Kallal said. At the beach “you basically open up the back doors of the van, and you can lay in bed and look at the ocean drinking your coffee in the morning.”

Those traveling by car will see some relief at the pump for the holiday as the wholesale price of gasoline is just fractions away from falling to its lowest point since February, said Patrick De Haan, head petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, in a social media post.

“With gas prices now nearing a 10-cent drop to the high we saw a few weeks ago, the future looks good as we get closer to Memorial Day,” De Haan said in a statement on GasBuddy, which uses crowdsourcing to track gas prices.

In California, where gas prices are the highest in the nation, regular gas was sitting at $5.22 a gallon Friday. Last year at this time, drivers paid an average of $4.79 a gallon for regular gasoline.

AAA says Interstate-80 between San Francisco and Napa will be the busiest Bay Area route as people head out of town Friday morning, but there are plenty of other places to visit in California in any direction.

Visit California says a drive down historic Highway 1 is a top pick for travelers yearning to see dramatic cliffs, towering redwoods and breathtaking water views. Part of the highway near the Rocky Creek Bridge that was closed since late March reopened Friday.

The tourism group also recommends taking Highway 49 to the Sierra Foothills for a combination of scenery, history, outdoor adventure and the Strawberry Music Festival in Grass Valley.

Those looking for a high-energy weekend can check out Palm Springs for desert hiking, Los Angeles for urban nightlife and Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez for some Pinot Noir tasting and lounging at sun-glazed Refugio State Beach.

But before you hit the road, Chris Pyle, a long-time car mechanic and current automotive specialist with San Francisco-based Just Answer, has some advice.

“All too often a car owner forgets to look at everything about the car. People get in a habit of only looking at things in the driver’s seat,” Pyle said. “For someone who is going out of town, they need to look outside the box and check every single thing on a car checklist.”

That means checking the lights, seatbelts, tire pressure, fluids and brakes and making certain the car’s spare tire is inflated and in good working order, Pyle said. And once they hit the road, Pyle also suggests slowing down for better gas mileage. Sixty-two miles per hour is the sweet spot, he said.

Those opting to fly out of town for the holiday weekend should also take extra precautions and arrive at the airport at least two hours in advance for domestic flights and three hours early for international trips.

AAA expects this will be the most crowded Memorial Day weekend at the nation’s airports since 2005 with 3.51 million air travelers, an increase of nearly 5% over last year.

The newly-minted San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport expects more than 130,000 passengers during the long weekend. That’s roughly the same number as last year but still more than 30,000 fewer passengers than pre-pandemic. And San Francisco International Airport says it expects 147,000 passengers to come through the airport between Friday and Monday. That’s about 33,000 fewer passengers than before the pandemic.

San José Mineta International Airport didn’t provide forecasts for the number of passengers expected to pass through the airport during the long holiday weekend but said airlines will have roughly 188,000 seats available during the time period.

Residents of the Golden State won’t be alone on the roads and in the sky.

AAA says more than 43.8 million Americans are projected to travel over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. That’s 4% higher than last year and comes close to matching 2005’s record of 44 million Memorial Day travelers.

“We’re expecting Memorial Day weekend numbers like we haven’t seen in almost 20 years,” said Brian Ng, senior vice president of Membership and Travel Marketing for AAA Northern California, in a statement. “It’s not just a return to pre-pandemic levels but also foreshadows the robust summer travel season ahead.”