Drive to San Diego

[bowne90]

Does anyone know how the drive is from Anaheim to San Diego on the weekends? Is it better or worse than the weekdays? How much time should we allow?

 

[perlster]

It could take up to twice as long on a weekday if you drive during commuter hours. The route is simple as you take the 5 South either all the way to your destination, or you may switch to the 805 South when you get close to San Diego. Without any stops, you should spend less than two hours on the freeway.

 

[bowne90]

Thanks...We are planning on doing the drive on Saturday or Sunday and am hoping for less traffic.

 

[ScooterL]

If you go south on Saturday, you need to leave the Disneyland area by 10:00 (and earlier is better!), otherwise you run into a lot of traffic on I5 with lots of other people going south to San Diego or Mexico for the weekend. If you go back to Orange County from San Diego on Sunday afternoon you can run into the same kind of thing, though I don't really know how bad it is these days. It used to be you had to leave San Diego by noon, otherwise don't bother leaving until 7:00, but I don't know if it's still like that.

 

[bowne90]

That sounds promising. We hope to get to San Diego between 9 & 10 am.

 

[lcasa]

If you go south on Saturday, you need to leave the Disneyland area by 10:00 (and earlier is better!), otherwise you run into a lot of traffic on I5 with lots of other people going south to San Diego or Mexico for the weekend. If you go back to Orange County from San Diego on Sunday afternoon you can run into the same kind of thing, though I don't really know how bad it is these days. It used to be you had to leave San Diego by noon, otherwise don't bother leaving until 7:00, but I don't know if it's still like that.

It is still like that - especially if they have the immigration checkpoint on the 5 open it can be very slow going.
Avoid the weekend of July 23rd as well - Comicon floods the city. Can take 4 hours for that drive.

 

[grumpyvet]

I have done the drive in as long as 4 hours and as short as 1 hour 20 minutes!! The last was Sunday night around 7PM. Oh, this is leaving DL and driving to almost downtown.

I do speed like a native (80).

Early in the morning on a Saturday, my guess would be 1.5 hours to 2, if you will drive FAST!!! Traffic reallys slows in Del Mar during race season.

Have fun

 

[ScooterL]

That sounds promising. We hope to get to San Diego between 9 & 10 am.

Not sure where you're going in San Diego, but if you're headed more towards downtown (e.g. Sea World or Zoo), then if you leave Anaheim by 8:00 you should easily be in San Diego by 10:00 on a Saturday or Sunday morning.