Dec. 14—There's no place like home for the holidays according to the popular Christmas carol, "Home for the Holidays" by Al Stillman.

But, according to AAA, nearly 113 million people will travel 50 miles or more away from home from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2. That's an increase of 3.6 million people over last year and closing in on pre-pandemic numbers.

2022 is expected to be the third-busiest year for holiday travel since AAA began tracking in 2000.

"With Christmas Day and New Year's Day both falling on Sunday this year, more Americans are planning to travel to take advantage of those long holiday weekends," said Bevi Powell, senior vice president, AAA East Central. "More people are using these much-needed breaks to reconnect with loved ones and recharge their batteries during the holiday-travel season."

Nearly 102 million Americans will drive to their holiday destinations. Despite fluctuating gas prices in 2022, this holiday season will see an additional 2 million drivers compared to 2021.

Travel by car this year is about even with 2018 but shy of 2019 when 108 million Americans drove out of town for the holidays, the highest year on record.

Christmas Eve will likely be the busiest day to drive to your destination. However, Friday, Dec. 23, can be busy too for people getting a jump on the holiday weekend, according to AAA.

Air travel will see a 14 percent increase over last year, with nearly 7.2 million Americans expected to fly. Flights and airports will be packed this holiday season.

"Travel is up; it's getting to pre-pandemic levels at our office," said Ed Schmidt, a travel advisor with Lake County AAA.

Demand for flights has surged despite higher airline ticket prices. AAA expects the number of people taking holiday flights this year will come close to matching 2019, when 7.3 million Americans traveled by air.

If your schedule is flexible and you haven't booked a flight yet, try to avoid the season's busiest days for flights which are Dec. 22, 23, and 26. Flying out of smaller, alternate airports may help you avoid crowds. Additionally, traveling on Dec. 25 can help you experience lighter crowds, as most travelers are already home for the holidays, according to AAA.

Other modes of transportation are also rebounding in a big way. AAA estimates travel by bus, rail and cruise ship will rise to 3.6 million this holiday season, a 23 percent increase from last year and nearly 94 percent of 2019's volume.

"People are cruising again," Schmidt said. "We're getting a lot of Christmas cruises going to the Caribbean and Mexico."

Theme parks in Orlando and southern California, Las Vegas and New York City top the list of the most popular destinations in the U.S. for the year-end holidays, according to AAA.

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