Drive time b/w Disney & Universal (Palm Springs ? also)

[CrabbyPatty]

Just fine-tuning our August trip to Disney - we arrive Saturday, planned to do Universal Studios on Sunday, then Disney for the next three days. We are staying at the Ramada Maingate in Anaheim.

Checked the maps today and realized that Universal Studios is about a 45 minute drive from Anaheim - or up to 1 hr. and 50 minutes with traffic! What's the traffic like on a Sunday morning, or more importantly, on a Sunday late afternoon/early evening when we will be driving back to the Disney area?

How much drive time should we allow? If it's crazy, we could potentially do Disney Saturday-Wednesday, then stay the last night closer to Universal Studios, especially since we're leaving the next day to drive up the coast to San Simeon.

I'd appreciate any input you may have on traffic. Thanks!

 

[hsmamato2]

wondering this too

 

[jdb in AZ]

Sundays are usually lighter traffic than the week-day commute , unless there's a wreck on the freeway, then all bets are off.

 

[ludari]

Sundays are usually lighter traffic than the week-day commute , unless there's a wreck on the freeway, then all bets are off.

I concur. Depending on what type of driver you are I think you should make the trip from your hotel to Universal in 30-45 minutes on Sunday morning.

 

[CrabbyPatty]

Thanks for the info - that sounds pretty do-able. If I drive, I think we'll get there in 30 minutes. If my DH drives - that's the 45 minute trip! I have a bit of a lead foot ...

On a related note - I'm heading off to Palm Springs on the Friday we arrive (my DD and I are coming in one day before the rest of our party of 7) and spending the night with some relatives. Then we'll head back into LA on Saturday morning to pick up the other 5 travelers at LAX.

In looking again at Google maps, I see while the actual mileage is about 125 miles, it could take anywhere from 2-1/2 to 4-1/2 hours of drive time! How much less crazy is Saturday traffic than weekday traffic? Just trying to get a feeling for how early we need to leave Palm Springs. Thanks again!

 

[StageTek]

How much less crazy is Saturday traffic than weekday traffic? Just trying to get a feeling for how early we need to leave Palm Springs. Thanks again!

Straight across the board, anywhere in Southern California, the traffic is lighter on weekends than weekdays. People in this part of the country commute by car and often live 30, 40 and even 60 miles from their work. The big exception is the Sunday evening return from Las Vegas - and Palm Springs. Friday's are typically the worst of all - people doing their normal commute in addition to people leaving the area going to Vegas and Palm Springs.

So anywhere you will be traveling on Saturday there will be less traffic than on a weekday. The traffic near LAX is always bad.

I wish the drive time was "lead-foot" dependent. I have one. When I drive from DLR to Hollywood at night I can do it is 25 minutes. It's the traffic that stretches the drive to 50/75 minutes.

 

[DVCRocks]

How much time do you think we should allow to commute between Disneyland and Universal on a Monday during the summer?

 

[StageTek]

How much time do you think we should allow to commute between Disneyland and Universal on a Monday during the summer?

Allow one hour. Could be 90 minutes. Could be 40.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

It took us 72 minutes on a weekday morning to US Hollywood. Going back to Anaheim was just a hair over an hour that evening about 11pm.

Left our hotel near DL at 9am.
I was really wishing we had just done the Universal Studios Hollywood and Hollywood part of the trip first and stayed near Universal before moving to Anaheim for the DL part.

I was really tired of the long commutes since we had 2 trips into the Hollywood area this trip - I haven't had to do them in nearly 6 years.

We were in Hollywood the day of the Cars 2 premier. Not fun, not fun at all.......