Christmas Day travelers dodge crowds on the highways and at the airport
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- This holiday season is shaping up to be one of the busiest for travelers ever, with officials at RDU predicting passenger volume through New Year's Day may break their all-time records.
Despite warnings from travel experts, however, Christmas Day is considered one of the better days to hit the roads or skies during these two weeks.
ABC11 spoke with travelers who said they were happy to have their travels behind them, including Riddhiman Sherlekar -- whose Christmas holiday was anything but restful.
"It was bad," said Sherlekar. "There were people all over the place in the airports."
Sherlekar just returned Monday to Raleigh after a day and a half in transit following a trip to India to visit family and friends. He said in total, he had been traveling for 30 hours when he spoke to ABC11 on Monday evening.
"I'm from Indore," he said. "It's a town in the central part of the country. There are no direct flights to the US, so I flew to Bombay, which is also known as Mumbai. Mumbai to Paris. I took a six-hour layover in Paris and then took a nine-and-a-half-hour flight to Raleigh."
For others, like Shahzeel Kohkar, Christmas travel was a little more low-key.
"We just finished celebrating Christmas, my family," Kohkar said. "Now we're heading out to Wilson to celebrate Christmas with my girlfriend's family."
Shahzeel said the roads this Christmas Day have been a breeze -- despite travel experts predicting more than 115 million drivers in the US would take to the roads for holiday travel this week.
"It's a lot better this year than it's been in years past. Normally we go to either Virginia or D.C. for Christmas, and it's been a lot worse, but this time it's been a lot better," he said.
Jennifer Sorensen picked Christmas Day to move cross-country -- from Washington state to New Bern. She said the trip was seamless,
"It's been great," Sorensen said. "It was busy, flights were full, kids were great."
Sorensen's happy to get some rest in her new home, a sentiment shared by many on this Christmas night.
"I'm just going to bed," Sherlekar said. "I did enough travel even in my home country as well. I traveled to New Delhi and then a couple of other places to meet my friends, so I'm done."
