The average cost of a gallon of self-serve, unleaded regular gasoline in Utah is at $3.24, or 34 cents higher than a year ago.

It apparently is pricey enough to get many would-be vacationers to take a second look at their travel arrangements, but not enough for them to scrap their plans entirely.

"All of our motor homes have been booked up for weeks," said Parnell "Pappy" Powell, the proprietor of Pappy's Motorhome Rentals in Taylorsville. "What we're seeing, though, is when our customers come in, they're only planning on driving a short way" versus the longer road trips that were more common in years past.

AAA Utah is reporting that more than 364,000 Utahns are expected to travel 50 miles or more this upcoming holiday weekend, a 1.6 percent increase over last year. The majority of those Utah travelers - 288,000 - will be using the state's roads and highways, while the rest will be boarding buses, trains and planes.

Regardless of the means of travel, Memorial Day travelers are talking about economizing as the cost of gasoline takes up a greater share of their holiday budgets, said Chris Hoglund, a travel planner and adviser at AAA Utah.

"We've been handing out a lot of booklets listing camping sites in the state," he said, noting that other traveling Utahns probably will be staying in less-expensive hotels and eating in cheaper restaurants to help stretch their holiday dollars.

Dale Haler of Salt Lake City said he has been thinking of going to Bozeman, Mont., over the weekend to visit his sister. Yet he is unsure whether he wants to bear the expense, especially after having taken a short jaunt to Moab a couple of weeks ago.

"It is getting more expensive to travel all the time," the tree trimmer said. "If I go to Montana, about the only way I really know how to cut down on the expense is to go with a bunch of people. That way we we can all help defray one another's cost."

Nationwide, AAA estimates that more than 38 million Americans will travel next Saturday, Sunday and Monday - the first major three-day holiday weekend of the year. The service said 32.1 million will travel by car, 4.4 million by airplane and 1.9 million will hit the vacation trail using some other means of transportation.

AAA Utah is recommending that air travelers, who because of the expected uptick in trips nationally this weekend risk having their luggage mishandled or being stranded in airports or on a tarmac, inform themselves about their rights as passengers and arrive at airports prepared for a delayed flight.

And that means bringing portable entertainment - books, music, video games - and food that can be carried onto a plane and eaten later.

steve@sltrib.com

* $3.24, average cost of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in Utah.

* 3 cents, increase over last week.

* 34 cents, increase over a year ago.

* $3.20, the national average.

* 11 cents, increase in U.S. over last week.