Some face challenges returning from busy Fourth of July travel
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55 Best 4th of July Activities for the Whole Family 2025
4th of July is a great day to celebrate the U.S. with friends and family. There are plenty of activities for the whole family to choose from. Plan a road trip to a national monument or spend the night camping under the stars. Don’t forget to take fun photos and pair them with clever Instagram captions.
Summer alone is reason enough to gather with friends and family, but Independence Day is even more incentive to have fun under the sun! The Drummonds, for example, always celebrate in style with red, white, and blue at Ree’s famous 4th of July party. But even if cookouts and parades aren’t your thing, there are countless other ways to ring in Independence Day! So, cue up your patriotic playlist and honor the USA with a day full of 4th of July festivities. Read on for plenty of thrilling ideas for the whole family!
Here, you’ll find something for everyone, whether that means feasting on your favorite grilling recipes, spending the day on the water, or breaking out the sparklers. If you need to cool down from the heat, try having a water balloon fight, or heading indoors for some creative 4th of July crafts. Of course, there are also tons of food-related activities like making s’mores, packing a picnic, or decorating a flag cake.
Looking to turn your Independence Day celebration into a full weekend? Plan a road trip to a national monument or spend the night camping under the stars. It’s a great way to reconnect with your loved ones and the land that you love. No matter how you celebrate, don’t forget to take fun photos of your 4th of July festivities and pair them with some clever 4th of July Instagram captions!
For more fun 4th of July ideas:
Drivers warned about common car issues ahead of busy July 4 travel
72.2 million people are expected to travel over the Independence Day holiday period, according to a new forecast from AAA. The travel window spans from Saturday, June 28, to Sunday, July 6, making it one of the busiest summer stretches in years. AAA predicts 61.6 million Americans will drive to their destinations representing a 2.2% increase over last year and the highest number of July 4th road travelers ever recorded. The Transportation Security Administration issued a warning over a probable “heavy rush of traffic” at airports across the US this weekend. The worst travel hours are likely to be between noon and 9 p.m. on July 2, noon to 7p.m on July 4, and noon to 6pm on July 6. For those renting cars, July 3 is expected to be the busiest day to pick up vehicles.
If you’re planning a big getaway for the holiday period, you’ll need to get organized if you want to make sure you have a stress-free journey with minimal traffic
Expect the roads to be busy in the coming days (Image: Getty Images/EyeEm )
A record-breaking 72.2 million people are expected to travel over the Independence Day holiday period this year, according to a new forecast from AAA. The travel window spans from Saturday, June 28, to Sunday, July 6, and includes two full weekends, making it one of the busiest summer stretches in years.
Both land and air travel is anticipated to be busy, as the Transportation Security Administration issued a warning over a probable “heavy rush of traffic” at airports across the US this weekend. TSA expects to screen more than 18.5 million travelers at the nation’s airports during the upcoming Fourth of July holiday period.
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For drivers, the AAA projection marks a rise of 1.7 million travelers compared to last year and a staggering 7 million more than in 2019, signaling strong post-pandemic demand for summer getaways. “Summertime is one of the busiest travel seasons of the year, and July 4th is one of the most popular times to get away,” said Stacey Barber, Vice President of AAA Travel, said in a news release.
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She continued: “We’re seeing strong demand for road trips and air travel, especially with the holiday falling on a Friday.”
AAA predicts 61.6 million Americans will drive to their destinations representing a 2.2% increase over last year and the highest number of July 4th road travelers ever recorded. A further 5.84 million will travel by air for the holiday period.
Drivers are advised to schedule routine vehicle maintenance and pack an emergency kit ahead of time.
Last year alone, the agency responded to nearly 700,000 roadside calls during the holiday week for issues like flat tires, dead batteries, lockouts, and fuel shortages.
Setting off early should help you beat the traffic (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto )
For those renting cars, July 3 is expected to be the busiest day to pick up vehicles, according to AAA’s partner Hertz.
SUVs and midsize sedans are in highest demand, and some of the top destinations based on early bookings include Orlando, Denver, Boston, Oahu, and Seattle.
Cruises, beach trips, and fireworks are fueling most travel plans. Alaska cruises are in peak season, while Florida and Hawaii continue to attract sun-seekers. New York City and Boston are once again top choices for those wanting to see iconic fireworks shows.
Meanwhile, transportation analytics firm INRIX warns that peak congestion is likely to hit on Wednesday, July 2, and Sunday, July 6.
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Drivers should hit the road early in the morning and avoid traveling during afternoon hours when roads will be most crowded.
The worst travel hours are likely to be between noon and 9 p.m. on July 2, noon to 7 p.m. on July 4, and noon to 6 p.m. on July 6. The best time to start your journey is likely to be before 10 a.m. most days.
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Planning a July 4th trip? These US states face the worst storm delays
Stormy weather can play a major spoilsport for Americans traveling for July Fourth festivities, as the United States is gearing up for the busiest week of air travel on Independence Day in 15 years. Florida remained among the locations under watch as of Wednesday, due to heavy showers and thunderstorms. On Tuesday, airports in New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C., witnessed major chaos after ground stops were issued up and down the Eastern Seaboard. United Airlines is expecting to fly over six million passengers, which is roughly 500,000 more than the 2024 estimates. 72.2 million people are expected to travel domestically in the US, between June 28 to July 6.
On Tuesday, airports in New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C., witnessed major chaos after ground stops were issued up and down the Eastern Seaboard. However, the skies have mostly cleared now.
Fourth July travel delays: What to know?
Travelers have faced issues on the East Coast for the past several days. Recently, a video featured several passengers sitting on the floor at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport due to severe storms, per the outlet.
The weather department stated that a flood watch remains in place for Norfolk, Virginia, on Wednesday after the area witnessed heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours.
While the northern plains are expected to witness heavy thunderstorms and rains have been predicted for Florida, most of the remaining areas in the country have been predicted to witness clear skies, making fireworks possible come July Fourth.
Also read: Watch. Woman’s hilarious take on ‘rich people stuff’ goes viral, netizens say ‘I needed that reminder’
300,000 flights expected this week: FAA
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) earlier informed that the country is bracing itself for a busy holiday schedule, with as many as 300,000 flights expected throughout the week, according to the outlet.
This includes 49,784 scheduled flights for Wednesday, 51,284 on Thursday and 35,066 on Friday, when people will celebrate Independence Day.
Post that, the number of flights will again jump to 42,866 scheduled flights for Saturday, 47,966 on Sunday as well as 50,128 on Monday.
During this year’s July 4 celebrations, the Transportation Security Administration expects over 18.5 million people to travel by air and pass through various airport security checkpoints in the country. The projection is for the July 1-7 period, with the highest passenger volume (2.9 million) expected on July 6.
Between June 27 and July 7, United Airlines is expecting to fly over six million passengers, which is roughly 500,000 more than the 2024 estimates.
Out of these, June 27 and July 3 have been predicted to be the busiest days of travel, with the airline planning to onboard 580,000 passengers each day.
FAQs:
1. Is July 4 a federal holiday?
Yes, the Fourth of July is a federal holiday, according to the US Office of Personnel Management.
2. How many Americans are expected to travel this Independence Day?
The American Automobile Association (AAA) predicted that 72.2 million people are expected to travel domestically in the US, between June 28 to July 6.
3. How many people are expected to travel by car this weekend?
AAA estimates show that 61.6 million people are planning to travel by car this time.
What is Manchester United’s transfer strategy? Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Bruno Fernandes
Fernandes took a bit of time mulling over the Al Hilal offer after United head coach Ruben Amorim said in Hong Kong on Friday he thought his captain would stay at the club. Fernandes wanted to talk it through with his family as, after all, the sums being offered were truly staggering and could not just be dismissed out of hand. The initial approach – and as a guide – was to go for younger, hungry players, who can improve.
The 30-year-old wanted to talk it through with his family as, after all, the sums being offered were truly staggering and could not just be dismissed out of hand.
At this point last week, many at United thought Fernandes would go. Now we know he won’t.
Lost amid his assertions about Fernandes, Amorim said something else that resonated.
Knowing nailing him down on individuals and specifics would be impossible, I asked Amorim if he knew what he wanted his squad to look like when pre-season training began at the start of July.
“Yes,” he said. “I have a clear idea what we want.
“As you know, we are bit limited and can’t do it all in one summer. But there is a clear picture for what we want.”
The initial approach – and as a guide it still holds – was to go for younger, hungry players, who can improve.
That is the basis on which 20-year-old Denmark international Patrick Dorgu arrived in a £25m deal from Serie A outfit Lecce in February to address the problematic left wing-back berth. It was the same with 18-year-old Arsenal central defender Ayden Heaven.
Both players made promising contributions, albeit in a struggling team.
However, some issues are so urgently in need of addressing, no time for development is available.
And, what Amorim wanted, as an absolute priority, was to reinforce his attack.
Time and again towards the end of the Premier League season, the United boss had lamented his side’s ability to make the most of the chances they were creating.
Newark Airport: United Airlines flight delays continue due to shortage of air traffic controllers in New Jersey
The FAA implemented a Ground Delay Program on Sunday. Flights were delayed an average of almost four hours Sunday evening, the FAA said. The US needs more than 3,000 new air traffic controllers to reach adequate staffing, a union says. A walk-off by Newark controllers last week, according to United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, contributed to the delays. The FAA has cited staffing as the cause of delays, but has not commented officially on the nature of the staffing problems at Newark Airport. The delays are just the latest in a decade of delays and cancellations at the US air traffic control facility, an official says. the delays are due to a nationwide air traffic controller shortage and technology failures, the Department of Transportation says. The U.S. needs a new, “state-of-the-art” system, but it might take three to four years, the secretary of transportation says. President Donald Trump “is fully on board” with the plan to replace the systems, he adds.
For years, the shortage of certified air traffic controllers in the US has led to flight disruptions and headaches for travelers across the country, most recently at busy Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where staffing issues have led to major delays for an unparalleled seventh day in a row.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday implemented a Ground Delay Program and flights were delayed an average of almost four hours Sunday evening, according to an advisory from the FAA.
Multiple accumulating factors seem to have caused the massive delays, including the nationwide air traffic controller shortage; a walk-off by Newark air traffic controllers last week, according to United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby; the closure of a runway for “rehabilitation work;” and technology failures caused by outdated equipment, according to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.
The control facility responsible for traffic at Newark has been “chronically understaffed for years,” Kirby said in a Friday message addressing the delays.
One flyer, Geraldine Wallace, told CNN Sunday she is anxious about the staffing shortage after her flight was delayed for almost three hours.
“I hope it can be resolved,” she said.
Since last Monday, the FAA has cited staffing as the cause of delays, but has not commented officially on the nature of the staffing problems at Newark Airport.
Here’s more on what we know about the historic delays.
Technical failures
Just outside of New York City, Newark is typically a bustling airport, ranked the 14th busiest airport in the country in 2024, according to the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. It’s a major hub for United Airlines, which on Sunday delayed 232 flights and canceled 35 more, according to the tracking website FlightAware, leaving passengers with the option to reschedule.
Kirby, the United Airlines CEO, also said the airport’s issues seem to stem in part from technology failures.
On multiple instances in the past week, “technology that FAA air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed – resulting in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delayed and canceled flights and worst of all, thousands of customers with disrupted travel plans,” Kirby said.
Transportation secretary Duffy tied the technology failures to an outdated technology system used across the air traffic control facility at a Friday news conference. He pledged to implement a new, “state-of-the-art” system at air traffic control facilities across the country that would be the “envy of the world” – but said it might take three to four years.
The system used to manage air traffic at Newark is “incredibly old,” Duffy said.
“We use floppy disks. We use copper wires,” he said. “The system that we’re using is not effective to control the traffic that we have in the airspace today.”
He said the existing system is safe, but that its age results in the delays and cancellations now plaguing passengers.
President Donald Trump “is fully on board” with the plan to replace the systems, Duffy added. He called on Congress to “give us the resources” needed to upgrade the technology.
“We’re going to do this, rebuild a brand-new system, as we’re having airplanes take off and land,” he said. “We can do it – we’re America – but it’s going to take some time.”
Yearslong staffing shortage
The technology failures are compounded by the nationwide air traffic controller staffing shortage. Additionally, according to United CEO Kirby, “over 20% of the FAA controllers for EWR (Newark Liberty International Airport) walked off the job.”
The US needs more than 3,000 new air traffic controllers to reach adequate staffing, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, a union representing 10,800 professional controllers.
“Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it’s now clear – and the FAA tells us – that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead,” Kirby said.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents 55,000 flight attendants, called on all airlines operating out of Newark to cut planned flights due to the staffing shortage.
“We support every effort to secure the funding necessary to staff up and provide the resources that are a decade overdue for our air traffic controllers to be able to do their jobs,” Sara Nelson, international president of AFA-CWA, said in a statement.
The new staffing-related delays are just the latest development in problems plaguing the Newark airport as a busy summer travel season is fast approaching. Last July, the FAA relocated a key control facility responsible for Newark air traffic from Long Island to Philadelphia in hopes of enticing new hires to join the understaffed facility.
A CNN analysis of FAA airspace advisories shows at least 14 straight days of FAA-imposed delays for flights to or from Newark. The airport is also in the middle of a runway rehabilitation project that is regularly closing one of its main runways until mid-June.
Nationwide staffing is at its lowest point in nearly 30 years, Nick Daniels, president of the controllers union, testified before Congress in March.
The most recent data from the FAA shows across all airport towers and terminal approach facilities nationwide, only about 70% of staffing targets were filled by fully certified controllers as of September 2023. When controllers in training are included, that rose to about 79%.
Despite various initiatives to pick up the pace of hiring and increasing the starting salary for Academy trainees by 30%, hiring and retaining air traffic controllers is tough due to strict certification requirements and burnout due to long hours and the stressful nature of the job, in addition to outside factors like the economy and government shutdowns.
In one attempt to reduce the shortage, a new incentives program will offer bonuses to students who successfully complete their training at the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, bonuses to new graduates training at hard-to-staff or high-cost-of-living programs, and 20% yearly bonuses to controllers who are eligible for retirement but stay on the job.
“The controllers here are committed to finding the solutions, but that only happens when we all sit down and work together,” Daniels said at the Friday news conference.
How bad is it?
Over a third of inbound and outbound flights at Newark were delayed Sunday, and more than 10% were canceled.
Wallace, a passenger whose flight was delayed while heading home to Canada, told CNN her outgoing flight from Newark was originally scheduled for 2:15 p.m. ET but was pushed until 5 p.m. ET.
Air traffic controllers “have the most critical job for our safety,” she said. “And so if they are understaffed and the people that are covering are going to be overtired, they’re doing longer shifts, as a flyer, that’s making me feel very nervous, actually.”
Her partner, Mark Wallace, said Sunday he was more worried about equipment failures than the staffing shortage.
“As concerning as the manpower issue is, according to news reports, the equipment that they’re using out of Philadelphia is antiquated,” he said. “That gives me probably even more concern.”
Another traveler, Michael Tassone, said he was “scrambling” to get home after his flight out of Newark was delayed multiple times before ultimately being rescheduled.
“There’s been a lot of scary news around air accidents this year, so hearing something like that is scary, but it’s not something you think about all the time when you book flights,” he told CNN Sunday. “You just trust that these airlines have everything under control, but I guess that’s now something you need to plan for.”
The decades-old staffing problem has experienced renewed public scrutiny after a series of collisions and near misses in the skies, including the January 29 midair collision of American Airlines Flight 5342 with a Black Hawk helicopter, which killed 67 people.
“We have a team up there right now. They’re doing an ongoing investigation into the technology, the interruption itself,” FAA Acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau said during a Thursday news conference announcing the Trump administration’s latest incentives to hire new air traffic controllers.
“At the end of the day, we need to make sure the controllers have the proper equipment and that they’re obviously appropriately staffed,” Rocheleau said.
The FAA is using delays to slow the number of flights so the system remains safe, according to Rocheleau.
“We saw a tragic accident,” Daniels said Friday. “No one wanted to see that tragic accident, and leaving it without action will leave it a tragedy.”
“Now we’re taking the action to turn it from a tragedy into a moment of progress that can honor the lives that were lost,” he said.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/some-face-challenges-returning-from-busy-fourth-of-july-travel/