As the first weekend of the summer holidays is approaching, various mobility organisations have warned that heavy traffic could be expected heading towards popular national and international destinations.
Various smaller traffic jams are expected on Friday and Saturday heading south from Belgium, whilst locally, heavier traffic is expected on the E40 towards the coast coming from Brussels, breakdown assistance company Touring warned this week.
"On Sunday, however, traffic will be smooth, meaning the return journey will not be a problem this weekend," the mobility organisation said.
Touring added that this could also mean that traffic is heaving around the ring around Brussels and in the surroundings of Antwerp and Liège.
In France, the main congestion area will be around Paris, where major traffic jams are expected on Saturday, whilst heavy traffic with smaller traffic jams is expected on the Paris - Bordeaux - Spain axis and the Lyon - Orange - Spain route.
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Travelling to the east, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland, travellers may experience heavy traffic with some minor traffic jams on Saturday.
A survey by mobility organisation VAB found that around seven in ten people in Flanders are planning on going on holiday by car this summer, and for families with children, even eight out of ten are planning on avoiding public transport methods.
This means that for the second year in a row, holidays by plane are being exchanged for holidays by car, which could result in major traffic disruption towards popular holiday destinations.
Of the 2,000 people who took part in the survey, a little over half will be staying closer to home: 33% will be staying in Belgium, 11% in the Netherlands and 8% will be vacationing in Germany.
Meanwhile, the other half is planning on driving a little further: 25% will be going to France, 13% to Spain and 8% to Italy (the remaining 2% is planning on going even further).
If travelling abroad to popular holiday destinations in Europe, you can check how busy the routes are expected to be here.
