Anaheim to LAX

[3angelsmom]

We are heading to SoCal and DL next week and recently moved our trip around. Now, instead do doing DL in the middle and staying at a hotel near LAX the night before, we are spending our last 2 full days at DL. We have a 9:20 flight out of LAX Saturday morning and need to drive from Anaheim, drop off a rental car and check bags. We are a family of 5 who has flown before and are familiar with security, tSA, etc but have never been to LAX. What is traffic like on a Saturday morning and what time would you leave Anaheim? Thanks!

 

[wdwluv]

at disneyland and had a flight that left for the east coast from Lax. After 10days of driving around LA, Santa Monica etc I couldn't take it anymore. I learned to drive in NYC and LA is very different and to me more stressful lol. I returned our rental to Downtown disney alamo/national paid I think only $20extra and took a cab to Lax. It was a flat rate with a coupon from the valet car area at disneyland hotel.(sorry i dont remember price but it was reasonable). The driver had us to Lax quickly and took many different roads to avoid traffic(i feel like I may have still been sitting in traffic(a friday) today.
If you need to return your car to Lax the car rentals are all off site
which adds extra stress of having to wait for buses back to airport. We are planning another trip this august and I plan on doing the same thing this year.

 

[SMD]

We are heading to SoCal and DL next week and recently moved our trip around. Now, instead do doing DL in the middle and staying at a hotel near LAX the night before, we are spending our last 2 full days at DL. We have a 9:20 flight out of LAX Saturday morning and need to drive from Anaheim, drop off a rental car and check bags. We are a family of 5 who has flown before and are familiar with security, tSA, etc but have never been to LAX. What is traffic like on a Saturday morning and what time would you leave Anaheim? Thanks!

I've seen the line at terminal 1 out the door and half way to terminal 2 early on Saturday mornings. I'd probably leave a minimum of 2 1/2 hours early, but depending on your airline and rental company, it should be more like 3 hours.

 

[3angelsmom]

3 hours....that's what I was afraid of. fwiw, we're flying SW and renting from Avis. I supposed DH could return the car while the kids and I check bags, but even so I don't want to cut it too close.

Interesting idea about dropping the car in Anaheim and taking a cab back. DH has driven through several major cities without much trouble, but NYC is the once place we avoid driving in if at all possible. So if wdwluv you can drive in NYC and find LA more stressful, I better think more about our plans. We were planning on 2 days in LA/Santa Monica as well and a rough plan includes the CA Science Center, Page Museum, Griffith Park, etc. as many as time allows. Wasn't sure if we should look at public transportation or try to drive ourselves, as we may only make it to one or two attractions.

I'd appreciate if anyone else reading this could recommend a reasonably priced taxi or car service to LAX that can hold the 5 of us.

 

[TeamSy]

We also decided to return the car once we get to Anaheim and not drive to LAX a few days later.

We drive in NYC all the time, and it's not the driving that bothers us, but the hassle of a rental car in general (we're literally renting one for a few hours to drive from Palm Desert to Anaheim). It's not even worth the cost to keep it.

We settled on Super Shuttle to take us to LAX from Anaheim. We like the the flat rate, and we got a discount through a business account. Even without the discount, it was an inexpensive option. We have an 11:30pm flight and Super Shuttle will be picking us up between 8:35 and 8:50. Not too bad.