Diane Perry and her children are going to grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving. However, instead of traveling over the river and through the woods, they will drive from Londonderry to Logan International Airport and then fly to Sarasota, Fla.

It’s a variation on the classic song that pulls much harder on Perry’s purse.

“I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t for the fact that my mother is so old and she hasn’t met my youngest yet,” she said. “It’s not getting any cheaper, and I’d hate to think that finances kept (Sarah) from ever meeting her grandmother.”

Regardless of the high price of travel, AAA estimates that 38.7 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more this holiday weekend. Historically, Thanksgiving is the holiday with the greatest number of travelers, no matter how expensive it is, public affairs spokesman Pat Moody said.

“There is a lot of tradition and family gatherings that are going to happen — regardless of gas prices,” he said.

That’s somewhat the case for Steve Rodrick of Hampstead. He said he can’t afford to go anywhere for the holidays on his teaching salary. But he’s still going to experience the high cost of travel because his son, Jonathan, is driving home from college in Maryland.

Jonathan Rodrick is making the 625-mile drive in a pickup truck, and his father estimates gas for the trip will cost between $250 and $450, depending on where his son stops to fill up, he said.

If Jonathan had booked a flight back when they first started talking about it, Steve Rodrick said, it would have cost him $144.

“But now they won’t take that,” he said. “There’s been a jump up in tickets because of fuel prices.”

Overall, the cost of flights is down an average of 7 percent from last year, Moody said. So are rates at some hotels and for all rental cars, he said.

Nevertheless, the Travel Industry Association conducted an Internet survey over four days in October and found 80 percent of travelers will go by car, Moody said.

Casey Quirk, 39, of North Andover, her husband and two children will drive to their home on Cape Cod for the holidays. They usually take two cars, for the sake of convenience, but gas prices this year mean the family will travel in one vehicle.

“When the price of gas goes up, we only take one,” Quirk said.

Prices also are affecting Darcy Rubino, 34, and her family this Thanksgiving.

They will celebrate the holiday in their North Andover home. Rubino said she and her husband typically travel both to Haverhill and Wilmington to see both sides of their family. But with three young children and the price of gas near, or more than, $3 a gallon, it’s hard enough to keep up with the money needed for her husband’s commute and her daily errands.

Rubino put $15 worth of gas into her minivan at Haffner’s in North Andover yesterday and said she hoped that would get her through the week.

“We’re staying home,” Rubino said. “With the price of gas, I can’t afford it.”

The survey found 12.1 percent — 4.7 million Americans — will travel by plane for the holiday. Lisa Neukuckatz, her husband and two teenagers stay in North Andover for Thanksgiving — and they won’t be flying next month when they travel at Christmastime.

The family plans to drive 200-plus miles to go skiing in Quebec. Neukuckatz said they thought it would be cheaper than flying. She said she thinks gas prices are making flying even more expensive than driving.

“I used to be able to fill this for under $20,” Neukuckatz said, as she filled up her Hyundai Santa Fe. The pump flashed $37.21.

Quite a few travelers are happy to let someone else do the driving. The travel industry’s survey found 2.8 million travelers will go by train or bus.

Greyhound considers the Friday before Thanksgiving to the Tuesday after the holiday as its Thanksgiving holiday travel time. Spokesman Dustin Clark said last year the bus line carried 700,000 passengers during that time period and is prepared to do the same, or more, this year.

During Christmas, the travel period is longer and Greyhound carries even more people, he said.

With the way everything adds up, Sonja Martin of Windham is content to stay put this holiday season.

Martin shopped last week for extra Thanksgiving decorations, hoping that with a real “fall in New England feel” in the house, her relatives would be glad they traveled to Windham, she said.

Martin said she feels badly that visiting relatives will spend $3 a gallon — or more — for gas. And that’s just too much, she said.

Her husband, William, wants to drive to Chicago to be a part of his first nephew’s first Christmas.

“I just bought him a pillow that says, ‘On Dasher, on Dancer, MasterCard and Visa,’” she said. “It’s a joke, but also a clue — (traveling) just isn’t on the agenda this year.”

It is on the agenda for the MacDonald family — regardless of the price of gas. Frank and Nina MacDonald celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last month and the whole family is traveling to Vermont this week to celebrate.

The four MacDonald sons and their families will travel from Andover, North Andover, Methuen and Kingston to West Dover, Vt.

The trip has been planned for months — 20 people in a rented ski chalet.

“This was kind of, money didn’t really mean anything, once-in-a-lifetime thing,” said Jim MacDonald of Methuen. “We’re all going to be there.”

Staff writer Courtney Paquette contributed to this report.



The cost of getting there

The Eagle-Tribune calculated the cost of traveling to grandmother’s house in New York City via car, train, plane and bus. It’s a 462-mile round trip from Lawrence, Mass., and a 472-mile round trip from Salem, N.H. Gas prices are based on $3.01 a gallon, for a car that gets 25 miles per gallon. When traveling by public transportation, the price of gas to drive to the pickup area was included.



Lawrence to New York City

Car: $55.72

Bus (from Lowell to Port Authority): $121

Train (from Haverhill to Penn Station): $118

Plane (from Logan to LaGuardia): $319



From Salem, N.H., to New York City

Car: $57

Bus (from Manchester to Port Authority): $163

Train (from Manchester to Penn Station): $118

Plane (from Manchester to LaGuardia): $339 (From Manchester-Boston Regional Airport)

Ticket prices as of last week from Greyhound, Amtrak and Delta.