Americans rethinking long hauls

A lot of Americans still want a summer trip in 2026, but the trip is getting shorter. AAA says 39% of U.S. adults plan to take more vacations than in 2025, and 45% say road trips are among their top vacation types this year. (aaa.com) The price squeeze is showing up first in the parts of travel people feel before they even leave home. NerdWallet said overall travel prices in March 2026 were 3% higher than a year earlier, with airfares up 7.1%, dining out up 3.9%, and entertainment up 5.5%. (nerdwallet.com) That changes the math on distance. The farther you fly, the more chances you have to pay for baggage, airport meals, seat assignments, parking, and higher nightly costs once you land, while a shorter drive can bundle most of that into one tank of gas and a cheaper motel. (transportation.gov) (nerdwallet.com) Even the road-trip option is not exactly cheap now. AAA put the national average for regular gasoline at $4.166 a gallon on April 9, 2026, with California at $5.929 and Washington at $5.402, so travelers are not choosing driving because it is cheap so much as because it can still cost less than putting four people on planes. (aaa.com) That is why the likely substitute for a long-haul vacation is not “stay home forever.” It is the three-day getaway: AAA found 58% of Americans expect to take multiple trips in 2026, and 42% plan two or three vacations lasting at least three days. (aaa.com) The airline side of the story is messier than a simple “flying is dead” narrative. KAYAK said interest in 2026 travel is up 9% versus 2025 and domestic airfare is down 3% on its platform, which suggests people are still searching and still booking, but they are hunting harder for value and may be shifting dates, airports, or distances to find it. (kayak.com) Government fare data helps explain why travelers feel long distances more sharply than averages suggest. The Transportation Department’s airfare report groups fares by mileage because distance is a major factor in pricing, and it notes that in higher-fare markets the cheaper seats are often limited and heavily restricted. (transportation.gov) So the summer crowd map may change even if total travel stays high. If more families swap one big flight for two nearby drives, demand moves from cross-country routes and faraway resorts toward beaches within a day’s drive, national parks, lake towns, and second-tier cities that can be reached without a plane. (aaa.com) (ustravel.org) There is one more clue in the spending mood. NerdWallet’s 2026 summer survey found 45% of Americans plan a summer vacation, but 42% said they would rather stay home than book “budget travel,” which is a sign that many travelers are not giving up on vacations so much as rejecting trips that feel expensive and inconvenient at the same time. (nerdwallet.com) That leaves summer 2026 looking less like a collapse in travel and more like a reshuffle. Americans still want to go somewhere, but rising airfare and broader trip costs are pushing many of them to ask a smaller question than “Where should we fly?” and a cheaper one than “How far can we go?” (nerdwallet.com) (aaa.com)