ST. LOUIS — The Fourth of July weekend is already in full swing for many in the metro, and experts predict a record number of travelers will hit the highways.
According to AAA, about 50 million people nationwide are expected to travel for the Independence Day weekend.
AAA spokesperson Nick Chabarria said about 950,000 people are expected to hit the roads or the skies for the holiday in Missouri. In Illinois, AAA is predicting 2.9 million travelers.
All of these numbers are record-breaking, even surpassing where were in 2019 before the pandemic, according to Chabarria.
"We know that travel has really been rebounding since early 2021. It's only continued, and of course, we're expecting another busy holiday weekend here," he said.
About 90% of travelers will be going by car, but expect air travel to be busy too, AAA said.
Even though airline tickets are 50% higher than they were last year, experts said people are still buying them.
Chabarria said it's clear people want to get out and about.
"We still believe that people are very much making up for the lost time during the pandemic when they couldn't travel," he said. "We also know people are looking to take more generational trips with families, take some of those larger trips that maybe they had to put off. Across the board, it's a good sign, certainly, that travel is coming back, but expect it to be a busy one out there over the weekend."
Every form of travel from car to plane to train is expected to be busy this weekend, but no matter how you're traveling, Chabarria said keep these tips in mind.
"I think the biggest thing again is expect it to be busy. Make sure you're leaving plenty of time to get to where you're going safely if you're driving. Certainly, avoid some of those peak travel times, which typically tend to be in the afternoon hours on the Thursday or Friday before the weekend. That's kind of when the busiest traffic will happen," he said.
Missouri currently has one of the cheapest gas prices in the country for the holiday weekend, so, Chabarria said, Missouri residents should fill up in the state to save money.
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