The holiday weekend follows Thursday's 50th anniversary of the interstate highway system, which was created when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act on June 29, 1956, AAA noted.

“Vacation travel has changed dramatically in the past 50 years and this will be no more obvious than during this holiday weekend, which is the biggest vacation travel weekend of the summer,” said Robert P. Murray, AAA Southern New England's senior vice president of corporate affairs.

AAA noted that this weekend’s drivers will have a much different travel experience than the highway travelers of 50 years ago.

Today’s highway vacationers will be paying more than $2.90 a gallon for gas compared to 22 cents in 1956, and the national average hotel rate will be $96.08 a night compared to $8.86 in 1956, AAA said.

And Orlando, Fla., has replaced Niagara Falls as the top vacation destination in the U.S., AAA said.

AAA estimates that 34.3 million travelers (80 percent of the total) expect to go by motor vehicle, a 1.3 percent increase from the 33.8 million who drove a year ago. Another 4.6 million plan to travel by airplane, the same number flying last Fourth of July.