As the staging post between Canberra and the coast gets ready for the tourism block to lift at the beginning of June, everybody seems to have a smile.

There is relief that the town may finally have survived the double-whammy of fire and plague.

"It's been nearly seven months of the bushfires and then the COVID-19," said Fiona Mutton of Len Mutton & Co, the clothes shop right on the King's Highway through town.

"The pandemic has meant that Braidwood has been, at times, an absolute ghost town. It's had a significant downturn on our business - incredibly impactful.

"So the easing of travel restrictions means that we will once again see all the Canberrans coming through to the coast.

"They are so good at stopping on their way, having a browse, buying a coffee and supporting local businesses."

Even businesses which don't obviously benefit from casual stoppers and shoppers are smiling at the prospect of the economy ticking up a bit.

Across the road from the clothes shop, Michael Clarke of Braidwood Butchery, said: "The Canberra traffic is a massive part of the Braidwood economy. When the fires were on, the closure of the road just killed the town."

But business people in Braidwood know that they aren't out of the woods yet. Restrictions on numbers in restaurants remain, for example.

In Braidwood Bakery, just down from the butcher's, supervisor John Thomas serves customers separated by the regulation social-distance spacing.

But the sit-down part of the bakery still has the constraint of no more than 10 customers at a time.

Even with the flow of tourists, they won't be able to crowd the place, he says.

"It's a bit difficult with only 10 to be seated in the take-away restaurant area. So we have to monitor that at all times. Until that opens up a bit more, I'm not too sure how much effect it will have. At the moment, we are very limited.

"As winter comes upon us, people want to get out of the weather so hopefully it might open up a bit more."

But trade has picked up as conditions have eased, even if only in people's minds in anticipation of the regulations changing.

"We've noticed an increase in the last couple of weeks," Mr Thomas said.

Some of the increased business on Wednesday came from the Eurobodalla Ulysses motorcycle riding group, out on the open road after being cooped up.

"For the last six weeks, we've been stuck at home and it's been a nightmare so we are all now taking our breaks and coming up the hill," 67-year-old Robert O'Callaghan said as he stood in the crowd of enthusiasts devouring pies and chips.

"We're at Braidwood to enjoy the ride, just to get out and get the air through our hair.

"It's terrific."

The 15 bikes were separated into two groups, one of five and one of 10 to obey the rule that no group must be more than 10 people (even on motorbikes).

"Growing old disgracefully," is their motto, according to Mr O'Callaghan.

He said opening the coast to tourists would benefit visitors and locals in the area who are feeling a very chill economic wind.

"A lot of shops are really struggling because they rely on the Christmas crowd and the Easter crowd and long-weekend crowds to come and buy stuff to keep them going for the winter months."