What’s the busiest journey time for Thanksgiving in Columbus?

Thanksgiving is nearly right here.

But earlier than you possibly can chow down on turkey and stuffing, you will must get there. Be it by aircraft, prepare or car (though your prepare choices in central Ohio are decidedly restricted), journey is probably going within the close to future for you or your loved ones.

An estimated 81.8 million Americans will journey a minimum of 50 miles or extra this Thanksgiving vacation interval from Nov. 25 to Dec. 1, a brand new file, based on the AAA. That’s a rise of 1.6 million over 2024 and a leap of 5.1% over 2019, previous to the COVID pandemic.

To take a number of the vacation stress off your shoulders, listed here are some journey ideas it is best to find out about for Columbus for the busiest journey week of the yr.

Travel ideas for Columbus Thanksgiving drivers

If you intend to drive to your Thanksgiving vacation spot this week, you will be becoming a member of 73 million different Americans or practically 90% of vacationers, together with round 3 million Ohioans, based on AAA. That 73 million estimate is up 1.3 million from final yr, and will improve if air journey issues drive individuals to vary plans.

The busiest time to hit the roads in Columbus can be on Tuesday. There can be heavy visitors that day between 3 p.m. and seven p.m., according to ODOT.

On Wednesday, nationally one of many busiest journey days of the yr, visitors in Columbus can be delicate from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

As you would possibly anticipate, visitors on Thanksgiving and Black Friday can be mild, based on ODOT. Traffic over the weekend can be at commonplace ranges.

You’ll additionally must preserve a watch out for development. ODOT is working to attempting to scale back the variety of lane closures and highway work for the vacations, however there’ll nonetheless be orange cones to look out for on I-70 in Columbus.

On a nationwide degree, the worst instances to hit the highway can be from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, 11 a.m. to eight p.m. on Wednesday, 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, 1 p.m. to eight p.m. on Sunday and 12 p.m. to eight p.m. on Monday, based on the AAA.

For minute-to-minute updates on Columbus’ visitors, you can check OHGO.com or check out your map app of alternative.

Travel ideas for Columbus Thanksgiving air vacationers

More than 400,000 persons are anticipated to journey by John Glenn Columbus International Airport and Rickenbacker International Airport this week, based on the Columbus Regional Airport Authority.

The busiest day can be Sunday with an anticipated 39,822 passengers flying into or out of Columbus’ airports. The second busiest day can be Monday, Dec. 1, and the third busiest can be Tuesday, Nov. 25.

The CRAA recommends arriving to the airport 90 minutes beforehand for home flights and two hours earlier than worldwide flights. Make certain you examine parking availability on the airport authority’s’ web site and produce your REAL ID compliant identification with you.

If you intend on choosing individuals up from the airport, you will have two cellphone heaps to select from. One is between the air visitors management tower and the terminal, whereas the opposite is simply west of the rental automobile storage. The inexperienced shuttle lot can be free for the primary hour of parking.

Transportation and neighborhoods reporter Nathan Hart will be reached at NHart@dispatch.com, at @NathanRHart on X and at nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.