Summer holidays: Travel warning as record numbers get away

The M4 around Newport is predicted to be the busiest stretch

Holidaymakers have been warned about motorway delays with record numbers set to get away on Friday.

Schools in Wales and England break up and nearly 19 million leisure trips are predicted on UK roads until Monday.

The RAC encouraged people to start journeys either early in the morning or later at night to avoid delays.

In Wales, the M4 eastbound between J30 Cardiff East and J24 The Coldra, Newport, is expected to be the busiest, with 26 minute delays mid-afternoon.

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With so many travelling, Thomas Scarrott, director of Vale Holiday Parks in Aberystwyth, was positive about the overall impact for the tourism industry.

"It's looking really good, we are never going to return to the levels that we experienced last year after the lockdown that was really unprecedented," he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

"Now people can travel abroad and do other things so we won't be as busy. But still we are gearing up for what hopefully will be a very busy summer."

Record numbers are set to be on UK roads over the coming days

He predicted a busy A48 near Carmarthen, where motorists branch off towards Pembrokeshire or Ceredigion.

"There is always a bottleneck there on weekends and I think the same there from about tea time this evening," he added.

"It'll pretty much be like that every weekend from now until the end of September."

The RAC's prediction that UK drivers are planning 18.82 million separate leisure trips between Friday and Monday is the highest number since it started tracking summer getaway numbers in 2014.

Numbers on the roads are forecast to peak on Saturday with 4.62 million trips. Friday and Sunday will not be far behind, with about 4.29 million expected on each day.

'Frantic Friday'

It is also set to cost - RAC Fuel Watch data shows the price of filling a 55-litre family car with petrol costs £30 more this summer than last, and £42 more than in 2020.

The situation with diesel is even more severe, with the cost of a tank up £34 compared to last year and £44 more than a year earlier.

RAC Breakdown spokesman Rod Dennis said the summer getaway is expected "to begin with a bang as a potentially record-breaking number of drivers take to the roads this coming weekend - and that's despite the unbelievably high cost of fuel.

"With school terms in England and Wales finishing this week and millions of people ready for a well-earned break, we anticipate a 'frantic Friday' followed by a woeful weekend on major roads across the country, with traffic and congestion likely peaking on Saturday."