Driving from San Diego to Disneyland & back?

[kjh]

I have to drive from San Diego to Disneyland on March 30th (Thursday). I will be in San Diego for training that I am hoping gets out by 3, then someone will drop me off at the airport for my car rental then I will be on my way. I am guessing I will be driving at about 4:30 pm on Thursday. How long will the drive take? On April 5th (Wednesday) I have to drive back to San Diego for my flight home. My flight is at 9am and I was planning on leaving at about 4am to make sure that I get to the airport by 7am so I have enough time to return the car and check in. Is 3 hours enough?

 

[iceskatejen]

The drive will take at least 90 minutes and probably longer as you'll be in the midst of the rush hour(s) traffic. My guess would be 2-2 1/2 hours.

 

[dis-happy]

Are you by yourself? If so, no carpool lanes for you. No traffic = a 90 minute drive. The drive up Thurs. night will take you about 2.5 hrs. due to rush hour traffic. No way do you need to leave at 4 am though for your 9 am flight; 5 am will be more than enough time. The drive itself is easy---I-5 the whole way. Fill up your gas tank in Anaheim--there's a stretch where its difficult to find gas, and the other places are a pain to stop. Then you can fill up again near the SAN airport. HTH! BTW, I've done that drive dozens, if not hundreds of times....

 

[kjh]

Are you by yourself? If so, no carpool lanes for you. No traffic = a 90 minute drive. The drive up Thurs. night will take you about 2.5 hrs. due to rush hour traffic. No way do you need to leave at 4 am though for your 9 am flight; 5 am will be more than enough time. The drive itself is easy---I-5 the whole way. Fill up your gas tank in Anaheim--there's a stretch where its difficult to find gas, and the other places are a pain to stop. Then you can fill up again near the SAN airport. HTH! BTW, I've done that drive dozens, if not hundreds of times....

Another forum advised that I should leave DLR no later than 5 and be at the 5/805 by no later than 6:30...this is all greek to me right now (I haven't printed out my mapquest maps and studied them yet). I got a little scared about the traffic on Wed. morning so I thought for sure I will leave by 4, maybe I will leave at 4:30. Also, based on the advice from the other forum I am also thinking of picking up my rental car thursday morning or wednesday night and then driving out right after training that way I'll hoefully be on my way at about 3p.m.

Thanks for the insight...the longest daily commute I have here is 30 minutes, I've driven from LAX to Big Bear and back once but I wasn't alone. And yes, I will be alone this time so I just hope I don't get lost (or end up somewhere I shouldn't be).

 

[Dana_Buckley]

Whether 3pm or 4pm, traffic north on the I-5 will be horrible, it will take about 2.5 hours from the SD Airport to get there. On the way back you will also have traffic, but leaving at 5am should give you enough time.

You won't get lost, you stay on the I-5 all the way from the SD airport to Disneyland.

Have a wonderful time! The drive is worth it, sometimes we drive there and back in the same day!

 

[Syn&Bri'sDaddy]

We left SeaWorld just after closing (5pm; was probably closer to 6pm) a week ago Friday (2/24). We were flying along fine for about 5 miles, and then traffic stopped dead. I believe we were around Carlsbad (~20miles) when it finally took off (still packed, but doing 60mph instead of 10). Apparently there was an accident on the other side, and everyone on my side had to gawk. It took us a good couple of hours to reach our resort in Capistrano Beach (30miles south of DL).

Going from our resort to DL during morning rush (Mon and Wed) took ~45mins, and that was only because we used the carpool lane. It would have taken hours had we been stuck with the regular lanes. How the locals put up with these 20mile backups EVERY day is beyond me.