MA Memorial Day Travel: Best Times To Drive, Head To Airport

MASSACHUSETTS — If you’re among the 42.3 million Americans expected to travel 50 or more miles from home over the May 25-30 Memorial Day holiday week, the auto club AAA’s travel forecast gives advance notice on when to get out of the Boston area and, especially, when to avoid Route 3 heading to Cape Cod.

AAA expects the six-day period to be the third-busiest since it began measuring Memorial Day travel a decade ago.

Most people will drive. Road trips are expected to be up 6 percent over last year, with about 37.1 million motorists on the roads — about 2 million more people than last year competing for space on highways.

The holiday could be one of the busiest at the nation’s airports since Memorial Day in 2005, with nearly 3.4 million people, an 11 percent increase from 2022, expected to fly.

As a result of lower gas prices compared to last year, “drivers should expect long delays this holiday weekend, especially in and around major metros as commuters mix with Memorial Day travelers,” said Bob Pishue, a transportation analyst at INRIX, AAA’s data partner in the forecast.

The best times to travel by car are in the morning or evening after 6 p.m. The lightest traffic days will be Saturday and Sunday. Major metro areas like Boston, New York, Seattle, and Tampa will likely see travel times double compared to normal.

Here are some tips from AAA as Boston residents plan their road trips:

When you’re leaving, avoid traveling from 3-6 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday. Instead, leave before 1 p.m. on Thursday and noon on Friday.

At the end of the weekend, noon-3 p.m. Monday and 4-6 p.m. Tuesday are expected to be busy. Better times are before 10 a.m. Monday, and before 2 p.m. or after 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

In Boston, the route from the city to Cape Cod is expected to be about 89 percent busier than usual at 8 p.m. on Monday, increasing travel time by an estimated 2 hours and 12 minutes.

That route is the worst when it comes to trying to get back into the Boston area after the holiday, but what's the toughest route for those leaving the city to start the weekend festivities?

According to AAA, Boston to Portsmouth, New Hampshire via I-95 North is the toughest trip when it comes to traffic, with the worst time being Tuesday at 4 p.m.

If that's when you've planned your drive, AAA said the trip could be 28 percent longer, turning a drive that's typically just over an hour and a half into one that's at least two hours.

Even with lower gas prices, travel will be more expensive overall, in large part because of the rising cost of airline tickets. AAA said its booking data shows a 40 percent increase in airfares to this year’s top destinations. International travel is surging as well, with a 250 percent increase over 2022.