Cornwall is braced for the first big influx of visitors as millions of cars hit the road over Easter, with many making the drive to Cornwall.

For those heading to Cornwall, or are lucky enough to live here already, the weather on Good Friday is expected to be showery in places, although Easter Saturday through to bank holiday Monday promises to be sunny.

The RAC has forecast that four million motorists will be travelling on Good Friday and around 4.5 million on Easter Sunday.

The AA said today is likely to be the busiest day on the roads.

According to Trafficmaster, the top five busiest stretches of road are likely to be:

:: A303 westbound through Hampshire, Wiltshire and Somerset

:: M1 from junction 6A (M25 interchange) to junction 13 east of Milton Keynes, and from junction 23A in Leicestershire to junction 32 south of Rotherham

:: M5 from junction 15 north of Bristol towards junction 31 (Exeter)

:: M6 through the West Midlands (from junction 4A) and northwards towards Lancashire (junction 21A)

:: M25 all sections, especially both ways around junctions 14-17 around Heathrow Airport

Highways England, formerly the Highways Agency, said more than 550 miles of roadworks will be lifted over Easter on England's motorways and major A roads.

The agency aims to complete or lift 209 sets of roadworks by tomorrow, with restrictions lifted from 6am until the end of Easter Monday.

For safety reasons lane restrictions or temporary speed limits will remain at 69 locations.

As is usual during bank holiday periods, there is a large programme of engineering work on the railways with a number of major routes affected.

Virgin is "strongly recommending" that passengers do not travel between Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Network Rail (NR) route managing director Martin Frobisher said of the Watford project: "There is never a good time to carry out this type of work but we have liaised closely with the train operators to plan for it to take place at a quieter time on the railway."

Other disrupted areas due to engineering work include lines running through Reading and some services from Paddington.

The pressure will be on NR to ensure its big engineering programme finishes on time. Last Christmas there was travel chaos in north London after work at King's Cross and at Paddington stations overran.

Gatwick Airport is handling around 480,000 passengers between Good Friday and Easter Monday - around 11% up on last Easter.

Holiday organisation Abta said around 1.8 million Britons are set to head overseas over the Easter weekend, with Spain and its islands the most popular spots.

Florida is the favourite long-haul destination, while city-break tourists are heading for Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, Rome, Barcelona and New York.

Among the ski resorts for late-season winter sports fans are Zermatt in Switzerland, Val d'Isere and Tignes in France, Obergurgl in Austria, and Cervinia in Italy.

Nearly 400,000 are leaving from Heathrow airport over the weekend, 153,000 from Stansted, 125,000 from Manchester, 70,000 from Luton, 64,000 from Edinburgh, and 51,000 from Birmingham.

Around 85,000 will leave with Channel Tunnel high-speed train company Eurostar.

Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer said: "Holidaymakers are flocking to the eurozone to take advantage of the cheaper euro, while UK breaks have also proved popular, with low fuel prices boosting travel around the country."