Traveling during Thanksgiving? Here’s what you need to know

Thanksgiving is coming up, which means many of us will be hitting the roads — or the sky — to visit family and loved ones.

About 6.26 million Californians are expected to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday this year, up 3.6 percent from 2016 and the highest number of Thanksgiving travelers since 2007, when 6.44 million Californians took a trip, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

The organization said it expects 5.37 million Californians to drive and 693,000 to fly, with more than 200,000 travelers taking another means of transportation.

On the whole, drivers will see the most traffic during the early evening on Wednesday, when commuters mix with holiday travelers.

Unfortunately, as our wallets know, gas prices have skyrocketed recently. This Thanksgiving will be the most expensive fill-up since 2013, according to AAA, and prices are likely to remain above $3.20 a gallon on average.

Here are the top five Thanksgiving destinations for Southern California travelers:

1. San Francisco

2. San Diego

3. Anaheim

4. Grand Canyon

5. Santa Barbara

If you have questions about weather wherever you’re going, you can get forecasts for anywhere in the United States by checking weather.gov.

This story was originally published November 21, 2017 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Traveling during Thanksgiving? Here’s what you need to know."