Well-Seasoned Travelers Start Holiday Early

One thing that drivers will give thanks for this week is the lower price of gas. The average price of a gallon of gas in the Washington region is $2.26, according to AAA, a penny lower than the national average and nearly 60 cents lower than a month ago. Still, that price is 30 cents higher than last Thanksgiving.

Regina Hardter would take the whole week off, but she has to work Monday. Instead, she said, she'll be leaving "bright and early before the sun comes up Tuesday" to drive what she hopes will be four hours from Alexandria to Nazareth, Pa. "It's more convenient all around," Hardter said, even with taking the extra days off work. "I won't be stuck driving on the way there or coming home," she said, because going early means she'll return early.

And Hardter knows what that's like. She's done the six-should've-been-four-hour drive. "It generally hasn't seemed like a vacation," she said. "It's pretty stressful." She figures it would be a seven- or eight-hour drive this year if she left Wednesday afternoon. "It would be well into Thursday morning before I actually arrived," Hardter said.

Hamilton said huge crowds are expected this week at National and Dulles, where traffic has increased this year by 13 percent and 30 percent, respectively. Airport officials said five additional screening lines have been added at National, but travelers are still advised to arrive 2 1/2 hours early for domestic flights and three hours early for international ones so they have enough time to get from car to gate.

Jonathan Dean, spokesman for Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, said the Thanksgiving travel period started at the end of the week, as fliers looked to avoid the rush and took advantage of cheap fares. He said traffic increased steadily starting Friday and would peak Wednesday.

Dean also recommended that travelers get to BWI plenty early, although he added that the airport does not expect a shortage of parking because of new facilities.

Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said train riders started to prolong their vacations beyond the Wednesday-to-Sunday norm a couple of years ago, when the system started requiring reservations for Thanksgiving week travel. Now the Thanksgiving rush extends from the Tuesday before through the Monday after the holiday.

This year, Black said, Thanksgiving week will be Amtrak's busiest of the year, with more than 600,000 riders nationwide, a 30 percent increase over a normal week. Many of those riders will be in the Northeast corridor between Washington and Boston, where Amtrak will operate more than 60 extra trains.