Driving to Disneyland

[Disneylovers2000]

Hi there fellow Canucks! We hale from the Edmonton area and we are wondering if anyone has ever driven down the coast to Anaheim? I have been doing a bit of research on driving this for July 2013. I was thinking it will take about 4 days to get there but I could be off on my calculations. If you have done the trip, my questions for you are this:
How much was your fuel bill?
Where did you stop along the way?
What hotels did you stay at along the way?
How long did it actually take you to get there?
We are leaving on July 20 and hoping to get to our reservations in Anaheim by July 25 with one nights stay in LA before hand (the 24th).
Thanks for all of your help if you can!!

 

[albertagirl]

We are from Edmonton too. We have driven to Disneyland for the last 2 Christmas-New Year periods. We don't drive down the coast though. We take the I-15. Do you want some info on this route?

 

[DisneyFairytale]

Hi there fellow Canucks! We hale from the Edmonton area and we are wondering if anyone has ever driven down the coast to Anaheim? I have been doing a bit of research on driving this for July 2013. I was thinking it will take about 4 days to get there but I could be off on my calculations. If you have done the trip, my questions for you are this:
How much was your fuel bill?
Where did you stop along the way?
What hotels did you stay at along the way?
How long did it actually take you to get there?
We are leaving on July 20 and hoping to get to our reservations in Anaheim by July 25 with one nights stay in LA before hand (the 24th).
Thanks for all of your help if you can!!

We are in Calgary, and we drive to DCA all the time(3-4 times a year). If you have never driven down the coast, I recommend that you do, its beautiful. It is a lot longer to go down that route tho.

It's a straight 30 hours to Disneyland driving thru the coast vs 22 hours if you drive thru Vegas. We drive a Ford Focus when we go and our bill driving thru Vegas for gas is about $180.00(double that to get the full gas bill to also come back).
Where did we stay? nowhere because we keep on driving. We take turns to drive and sleep.

 

[Disneylovers2000]

Thank you for the replies! We have decided to drive the coast on the way down, making stops in Woodburn Oregon for shopping at the outlet mall, Florence Oregon to do some sandboarding, drive through the redwood forest, Alcatraz in San Francisco, Stops in Monteray, Big Sur and Santa Barbara, then stop at Santa Monica pier, off to Universal than 7 days in Anaheim! We will drive the I-15 on the way home! I would love any info you have Albertagirl for that route for sure! Thanks so much!!

 

[minnie mum]

Do you belong to CAA? If so, you can do an online trip tik- plug in your route and it will give you maps of your route as well as mileage and driving times so you can calculate stopping points. Clicking and dragging allows you to modify any portion of the default route given. The CAA travel books make it easy to find hotels, restaurants, and gas close to the highway exits.

As for the cost of gas- go to gasbuddy.com. Give them the route and the make, model and year of your vehicle and it will give you the estimated round trip amount of gas needed and cost. It can also tell you where the cheapest gas is along the route and even recommend places where you should fill up.

 

[Disneylovers2000]

Thanks for the help minnie mum! Much appreciated. Unfortunately we are not AMA members, even though they keep sending me a ton of propaganda in the mail each week!!
Thank you so much for the gas buddy website, it is fantastic and will come in ultra handy on the road!

 

[Disneylovers2000]

Sooo, we have changed up the plans a little and have now decided to save a few bucks and tent it on the way down! I am a little unsure of this but, every disney trip should be an adventure right!!!! We are still taking the route from above and will hotel in Kamloops BC then tent right until we get to LA for Universal Studios. Then we are booked in a hotel in Anaheim for 7 days. After that, we will take the more direct route home and hopefully will only tent it for 2 nights (or hotel, depending how cranky we all are!!). Anyone have experience with tenting it down the coast to Anaheim?? If so, PLEASE share!
Thanks so much!

 

[sechelt]

We drove part of the coast in 2010 but details have faded a bit. I do remember taking I-5 from DL for the first part of California then we headed over to the Coast and Redwoods. I can't remember exactly where we made the turn west but I know that we spent our first night in Sacramento. Our second night was in Brookings, Oregon at the Ocean Suites. They were basic, clean, and a fraction of the surrounding hotels. From there we pushed through to Vancouver, B.C. because we were expected for our grandson's birthday party. I wouldn't want to do that again. On the way we saw the Redwoods, Roosevelt Elk, beaches, Sea Lion Caves and lots of beautiful scenery. We didn't have near enough time to do everything we wanted because the road in many places is narrow and winding. You have to go much slower than the freeways. If you're able to spend a little extra time on your way down, it will be worth it, especially since you'll be following the 101 all the way through California.

Just as an FYI, on our way down to DL that same trip, we followed Hwy 97 from the Interior of B.C. (Kelowna). It goes all the way into California and connects with I-5 at Weed. Just west of Wenatchee, Wa. is a cute little Bavarian town called Leavenworth. Even the McDonald's looks like it belongs in Germany. Crater Lake in southern Oregon is just off Hwy 97 and very worth the stop, if you have the time. There are campsites there too. Also cool to see the windmill farms through southern Oregon and northern California. Wish I could remember all the different places we stopped but my memory is dim.

Also, there's a campground just North of Disneyland. We tented there a while back and it really wasn't so bad. Get's pretty hot in the summer though and little to no shade.

Enjoy your vacation. Road trips are awesome and create so many memories.

 

[ykmom]

You don't need to be a member of AMA or CAA to use the online trip tix. It's a great tool for planning.

 

[Carina]

We have driven Vancover to DL 2 times. the 2nd time 2006 we actually went all the way to San Diego and back up.

We sort of tent ( shoved all our stuff in a tiny tent including the middle seat)slept in the van - there are 5 of us but we have a bed we put in the van for travelling.

It's kind of hard to explain but basically we take out the Captians seats from the middle and move the back bench seat forward to the middle before we leave home. Giving us seating for 5 and a huge amount of space in the back. In that space we put a home made bed. All of our luggage fits under the bed ( and I pack A LOT) and all the bedding lays flat on the bed so we can still see out the back window while driving.

When we get to the campground the bench seat comes out of the middle and gets put in the small tent, as does all our luggage. The 2 girls sleep on the bed. Mom and dad sleep in the middle of the Van with our heads behind the driver and Passenger seats, and our feet underneath the girls 'bunk'. Our son sleeps across the driver and passenger seat on a pice of plywood that has 2 small pieces of 2x4 screwed to it. Those 2x4 set into the driver and passenger seats to level out his bed ( because van seats are not flat.) that piece of wood flips over ( 2x4's upwards) and slides under the foamy on the bunk bed when we are travelling.

The whole process takes about 20 mins to set up and tear down.

We did not take the coast on either trip, we just bombed down the I-5 but our fuel bill ( for a loaded to the brim minivan with gas in the $3. - $3.50 a gallon range) cost $300 return You will spend a LOT more going Alberta to BC than BC to SoCal.

You will really want to research which RV parks allow tenters as MANY do not.

 

[mamaCta]

We are in the North Peace area of BC and we are driving down this summer. We are driving a diesel pickup and pulling an RV, so I can't help you with the costs.

There are KOA camgrounds all over the place with lots of amenities for tenters. I would look for those.
If you are heading through Kamloops you can get to Vancouver or even Seattle in 2 days. I read in another thread that it can take up to 4 days to drive on the coast, but only 2 if you take the I-5.
Your other option is to head south through AB into Montana and head west further south. Two years ago we went from Astoria OR through to Spokane WA, and then across Montana to get to Edmonton.

 

[Disneylovers2000]

Thank you everyone for all of your valuable advice! I truly appreciate you taking the time to respond to my queries!