How Much Does Thanksgiving Travel Cost in 2026?

Average Thanksgiving travel cost

What you pay to get home for Thanksgiving depends mostly on one choice: fly or drive. Here are the newest numbers for each piece of the trip, as of Oct 31, 2026.

Sources: Hopper 2026 Holiday Travel Index via FOX6 News, Sep 30, 2026; AAA, Oct 31, 2026; EPA; CoStar, Dec 4, 2025. Gas per mile is our calculation.

Flights and gas both cost a lot more than last year. Hopper says Thanksgiving fares are up 31% and at their highest level in about a decade. Gas is up about 37.6% from a year ago (our calculation from AAA’s $4.18 today and $3.04 a year earlier). Hotels are the one piece that has held steady.

How much it costs to fly for Thanksgiving

Hopper’s 2026 Holiday Travel Index, released in late September, puts the average domestic round-trip Thanksgiving flight at about $402, up 31% from 2025. That implies an average of roughly $307 last year (our calculation). Christmas flights are even higher, at about $452, up 23%.

The day you fly matters as much as the route:

• Most expensive: returning on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when Hopper says fares spike above $600.
• Priciest departure: Kayak’s 2026 data names Friday, Nov 20, the week before Thanksgiving, as the most expensive day to fly.
• Cheaper days: Thanksgiving Day itself, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, per Hopper. Kayak says flying on Thanksgiving Day could save up to 19% on domestic fares compared with leaving Nov 20.

Timing matters too. Kayak says domestic Thanksgiving fares have historically hit their low about five weeks before the holiday, then climbed sharply in the final two weeks. With Thanksgiving on Nov 26, 2026, that low point is around now. Hopper advised booking flights and hotels before Halloween.

Other airfare numbers you may see

You will see different averages depending on the source. They measure different things.

Sources: Hopper via FOX6 News, Sep 30, 2026; AAA, Nov 17, 2025; BTS, Sep 29, 2026 and Jun 24, 2026. BTS Q4 2025 figure is before adjusting for inflation.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) average is the broadest yardstick because it counts fares people actually paid. Its $445 for the second quarter of 2026 is the highest second-quarter fare it has recorded before adjusting for inflation, and 11.2% more than a year earlier. That fits with Hopper’s report of higher holiday fares this year.

How much it costs to drive for Thanksgiving

Most people drive. In AAA’s 2025 forecast, at least 73 million of the 81.8 million Thanksgiving travelers went by car.

On Oct 31, 2026, AAA’s national average for regular gas was $4.1837 a gallon. That is down from $4.43 a month earlier but up from $3.04 a year earlier. AAA said on Oct 29 that crude oil above $100 a barrel was limiting further drops at the pump. For comparison, the national average was $3.10 on Nov 20, 2025, the week before last Thanksgiving.

The EPA says the average new vehicle gets a record 27.2 mpg in real-world driving (model year 2024). At that mileage and AAA’s Oct 31 price, here is what gas costs for a round trip.

Source: Our calculation using AAA national average regular gas prices (Oct 31, 2026 and one year earlier) and EPA’s 27.2 mpg average for new vehicles.

Gas works out to about 15.4 cents a mile (our calculation). Older cars, SUVs and pickups often get fewer miles per gallon, so plug in your own mpg. Gas prices also change week to week, so check again before you leave.

If you need a rental car, AAA’s booking data showed domestic rentals were 15% cheaper over Thanksgiving 2025 than in 2024. Wednesday was expected to be the busiest pickup day. AAA has not released 2026 rental figures yet.

How much hotels cost over Thanksgiving

Hopper says domestic hotel rates for Thanksgiving 2026 are holding steady at about $170 a night. Christmas stays are up 18% to about $197.

CoStar, which tracks what hotels actually charge, gives a lower number for the holiday itself. In the week of Nov 23 to 29, 2025, the U.S. average daily rate was $141.31, up 0.2% from the year before, and occupancy was just 49.8%.

For a three-night stay, that is about $510 at Hopper’s 2026 rate or $424 at CoStar’s 2025 Thanksgiving-week rate, before taxes and fees (our calculation). See our average hotel cost per night guide for prices by city and hotel class.

How many people travel for Thanksgiving

AAA, working with S&P Global Market Intelligence, projected a record 81.8 million Americans would travel at least 50 miles from home over Thanksgiving 2025, from Tuesday, Nov 25 to Monday, Dec 1. That was 1.6 million more than in 2024.

Source: AAA Thanksgiving travel forecast, Nov 17, 2025.

AAA released its 2025 forecast on Nov 17, 2025, 10 days before the holiday. The 2026 forecast is not out yet, and we will update this page when it is.

Airports were busier than ever. TSA expected to screen more than 17.8 million people from Tuesday, Nov 25 to Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025. On Sunday, Nov 30, it screened about 3,133,924 people, the most in its history, beating the previous record of just over 3.09 million on June 22, 2025.

Traffic follows a pattern. In AAA and INRIX’s 2025 forecast, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons before the holiday were the most congested, Thanksgiving Day itself was light, and the Sunday after was heavy most of the day. On most days, leaving before about 11 a.m. was the best way to avoid the worst of it.

Example: Thanksgiving trip for a family of four

This is an example, not an average. Say a family of four lives about 500 miles from relatives and needs a hotel for two nights. Here is how flying and driving compare using the newest national figures.

Source: Our calculation using Hopper’s 2026 Thanksgiving averages ($402 round trip, $170 a night), AAA regular gas on Oct 31, 2026 and EPA’s 27.2 mpg.

1. Flying costs about four times as much for this family. The airfare scales with every ticket, while the gas cost is the same whether one person or four ride in the car.
2. The math changes for a solo traveler. One $402 ticket plus the hotel is about $742, compared with about $494 to drive alone. Flying still costs more, but the gap shrinks a lot, and you save the drive.
3. Leave room for extras. The example leaves out airport parking, checked bags, a rental car at the other end, tolls, meals on the road and wear on your car. Each can add real money.
4. Your dates move the price. Flying home on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, when Hopper sees fares above $600, could push the flying total much higher. Flying on Thanksgiving Day could bring it down.

How to pay less for Thanksgiving travel

1. Book flights now. Kayak’s data says fares usually bottom out about five weeks before Thanksgiving and rise fast in the last two weeks.
2. Fly on the holiday itself. Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are cheaper days to fly, per Hopper and Kayak.
3. Skip the Sunday return. It is the busiest day at airports and the priciest day to fly home.
4. Drive if you have passengers. Gas costs the same no matter how many people are in the car. Use our road trip cost calculator to price your route.
5. Leave early in the day. AAA and INRIX found that leaving before about 11 a.m. missed the worst traffic on most days in 2025.
6. Stay with family. In the example above, two hotel nights cost about $340. A spare room or air mattress cuts that to zero.
7. Protect a pricey trip. If you prepay a lot of nonrefundable fares, check what travel insurance would cost and what it covers before you decide.

How Thanksgiving travel fits your holiday budget

Getting there can cost far more than the meal. If you are hosting instead, see our guide to Thanksgiving dinner cost. And with Christmas fares running even higher, it helps to plan both holidays together. Our average Christmas spending guide shows what a typical holiday season costs.

See how we research every number on our method page, or browse more travel costs.