Traveling around any holiday can be a pain. We’ve all heard the horror stories of how busy the airport gets before and after Thanksgiving, and Christmas is only marginally better. You might not expect Memorial Day to be a terrible time to be at the airport, since most people drive to their holiday weekend destination – but you’re still going to see more people at airports just before and after Memorial Day weekend than you do the weekend before or after.
With that in mind, are there what you might consider “best” and “worst” days to travel for Memorial Day weekend? The short answer is – sort of. The long answer? Well, that’s the rest of this article.
Because most people will have Memorial Day itself off of work or school, moving your travel plans around to avoid what some might think are the best or worst days to fly isn’t really a feasible option. Besides that, as mentioned above, the vast majority of people who are going to be somewhere other than their own backyard for the three-day weekend are going to drive there – so the airports aren’t as busy over Memorial day weekend as they are for Thanksgiving anyway.
But having said that, because airports are a bit busier over the holiday weekend than they are on a non-holiday weekend, if you’re someone who absolutely loathes a busy airport then you may want to adjust your schedule a bit.
>> When is Memorial Day? In 2012, it’s on May 28.
Most of the time travel tips are more location-dependent, which is why you’re going to find guidebooks for places in the bookstores rather than something called a “Memorial Day Travel Guide.” But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some Memorial Day travel tips that are good to think about regardless of where you’re going.