{"id":283183,"date":"2026-05-25T00:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/283183\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T00:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:38:08","slug":"gas-prices-push-some-fort-myers-locals-to-skip-memorial-day-travel-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/283183\/","title":{"rendered":"Gas prices push some Fort Myers locals to skip Memorial Day travel | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Gas prices are impacting Memorial Day weekend travel plans for some people in Southwest Florida.<\/p>\n<p>WINK News visited a gas station off Daniels Parkway in Fort Myers to see how drivers are responding to current fuel costs. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/record-45-million-americans-expected-to-travel-this-memorial-day-weekend\/article_8cafc6ed-5391-4a03-9624-b4341fd69f57.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">AAA says around 45 million people will travel<\/a> at least 50 miles for Memorial Day weekend.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We still are going to come down regardless,&#8221; Brett Munhall said.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/news\/lee\/swfl-commuters-hope-for-relief-as-lawmakers-push-for-cuts\/article_e0f4b646-0cb9-4103-a535-bda53092c93c.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">SWFL commuters hope for relief as lawmakers push for cuts<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Some travelers say the gas prices aren&#8217;t stopping their plans, while others who live locally say they&#8217;re staying home.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I used to go out and travel, but now you can&#8217;t even do that no more,&#8221; said Cassandra Williams, who lives in Immokalee. &#8220;So this Memorial weekend, I&#8217;m staying home, and I&#8217;m relaxing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"vlcsnap-2026-05-24-20h08m09s279.png\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>AAA says 87% of travelers are driving to their destination this weekend. <a href=\"https:\/\/gasprices.aaa.com\/?state=FL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The national average for gas prices currently sits at around $4.50, while in Lee County, the average is around $4.35.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jim Brant lives in Fort Myers and says these prices have kept him from going to see his son in St Petersburg.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The gas prices are kind of going up and down and up and down, it&#8217;s really tough for people to make ends meet right now, having to make some tough choices and prioritize their finances, and I think we&#8217;re all affected by that,&#8221; Brant said.<\/p>\n<p>Kim Hornbeck says the gas prices haven&#8217;t stopped her from her extensive travel plans.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/news\/state\/florida-democrats-urge-desantis-to-suspend-gas-tax-amid-iran-war\/article_dde77449-a89d-4570-b39e-4be0176fe72f.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Florida Democrats urge DeSantis to suspend gas tax amid Iran war<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We started out in Melbourne, Palm Bay,&#8221; Hornbeck said. &#8220;We headed over to Bradenton to see my son, and from there we went to Lauderdale and circled all the way back up to Palm Bay.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She plans to make it work despite the costs.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"gas generic 2\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re just gonna make it work and suck it up this time,&#8221; Hornbeck said.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re headed home on Monday, AAA says the best time to hit the road is before 10 a.m. to avoid congestion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Gas prices are impacting Memorial Day weekend travel plans for some people in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,897,356,1521],"class_list":["post-283183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-fort-myers","tag-lee-county","tag-southwest-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}