Most Americans refuse to surrender their summer vacation even as travel costs climb to multi-year highs. The pattern reflects what travel researchers have been tracking across a range of surveys this summer: Americans are not abandoning leisure travel so much as restructuring everything around it. Fuel prices play a role, as domestic road trips remain the most popular mode of summer travel, cited by 43% of respondents. Travelers surveyed by Deloitte anticipate spending an average of $4,069 on their longest summer trip, up 17% from 2025. The broader picture that emerges across multiple surveys is of an American traveling public reshaping summer vacation plans, choosing shorter journeys, more affordable destinations, and value-focused hotels instead of automatically abandoning their holidays.