Iowans Driving For Memorial Day Weekend Should Leave At This Time

The kickoff weekend to summer is here and it's travel time.

Memorial Day weekend is always the slightly official start to the summer. Many of us get Monday off and this year is expected to be very travel-heavy. In fact, it's supposed to be a record-breaking Memorial Day weekend for travel numbers.

According to ABC, AAA predicts that there will be 3.51 million people flying this weekend (the highest Memorial Day weekend number since 2005) and millions more hitting the road.

Gas is expensive but a lot of us want at least somewhat of a getaway for the long weekend, so we're driving. We're packing bags, planning logistics, so now you ask yourself and your partner: when do we need to leave?

When To Hit The Road

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INRIX told ABC that if you're driving for Memorial Day weekend, the best times to head out are May 23rd or May 24th either before 11:00 a.m. or wait until the evening to leave. You can avoid the worst traffic by leaving then (you'll still probably run into traffic, but it likely won't be as bad).

As for coming home, INRIX says that the worst time to be on the road on May 26th or May 27th is from 3:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. So it's time to be either be really early birds or true night owls.

It seems like we're all still trying to catch up on post-COVID travel fun. 38.4 million people are expected to travel by car this weekend, which breaks yet another record. That's a 4% increase from last year.