If you neighborhood seems a little empty this weekend, blame the holiday weekend. Trip Advisor says 34-percent of Bay Area residents are traveling this weekend and most of them are getting to their destination on four wheels.
Families are hitting the road even though gas prices are squeezing their budget. In the same survey Trip Advisor found 29-percent in the Bay Area said that gas prices have been affecting their travel plans. Even with the gas squeeze, experts said people who delayed travel plans last year due to the overall economy are now feeling more confident.
The Associated Press did the math and found that for every $10 the typical household earns before taxes, almost a full dollar is now going to pay for gas. That is a 40-percent jump from normal, according to AP who found households spent an average of $369 on gas last month compared to $201 from April 2009.
As we enter the Memorial Day weekend, the nationwide average for a gallon of unleaded is $3.81. You'd be lucky to find that price in Northern California.
The top five California travel destinations for the Memorial Day weekend according to AAA are: Tahoe, San Diego, San Francisco, the California Central Coast and Disneyland.
According to Yahoo Travel, the top searched destinations worldwide are:
- Mexico
- Bahamas
- Jamaica
- Hawaii
- London
- Caribbean
- France
- Las Vegas
- North Carolina
- New Orleans
Most of those locations are clearly not a possibility for people looking to make their trip on a tank or two of gasoline.
