Leave early or late to skirt Independence Day travel throngs

[tanyev]

1. I don't understand why Independence Day is a big travel holiday.

Granted, hubby and I are anti-social introverts who don’t even travel for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but I do understand why people are so committed to traveling then. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”, “Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go” yadda, yadda, yadda. Even the background music of those seasons guilt trips you into planning a trip.

But if you get a paid holiday for Independence Day, it’s only one day that often falls midweek. Surely fireworks shows at comparably sized towns and cities are pretty much the same nationwide. Why so much travel in the most miserably hot part of the summer?