Driving from San Francisco over Thanksgiving weekend

[SFMommy]

We usually fly into SNA from SFO. But since airfares are so expensive over Thanksgiving, we are going to drive.

We really don't have a choice as to when we drive...it has to be the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Any tips or advice? And info on how bad it will be?

Thanks!

 

[Pattil1960]

Traffic will be horrible, and that is not a strong enough description! If you can leave early on Wednesday do it. Last year, it took me two hours to get home from Hayward, I live in San Ramon at just about 680, and that was about 3 in the afternoon.

 

[goooof1]

AND, add more time to your estimates on Sunday for going home, too. Been there, done that.....it is bad! Leave early or late.....that might help a little.

 

[konagal]

I agree, in 2013 we left at 1000 for usually a 4 hour drive and we arrived about 430. The construction all down I 5 in the Los Angles area is now worse. Have you looked at Amtrak?

 

[ParkHopper1]

Wednesday AM down to LA you will be fine. As you get closer to the afternoon or early evening, start tacking on time. Sunday late...well, good luck. I can tell you that coming home one year from Las Vegas on Thanksgiving Sunday evening turned a trip I could do in 8 hours into a 13 hour trip. Traffic sucked on each and every freeway, including 5.

 

[Lain]

We’ve been spending Thanksgivings at Disneyland for the last three years and will again this year. Like you, we always drive because airfare is too expensive and the airports too chaotic during Thanksgiving week. For reference, we live and work in the city.

We always shoot for a half day at work on Wednesdays and drive down immediately afterwards. We pack on Tuesday night and try to have our bags ready by Wednesday morning to leave with us. We do a lot of road trips to Disneyland, and traffic out of the Bay Area always seems to pile up on the 580 by 3 p.m. before a long weekend. Try to leave before 3 p.m. to avoid the worst of the traffic. We’ve left as late as 5 or 6 p.m. on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and it can take upwards of 2 hours to get from SF over the Altamont Pass onto I-5. Once on the 5, traffic is heavier than usual on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but baring an accident it moves. By the time you reach the greater LA area, most of the Thanksgiving traffic has cleared up. The trip from SF to Anaheim usually takes us about 8 hrs. – longer if we make a lot of pit stops (we try to limit them to 2) or there is an accident.

With work, our departure is what it is but leaving on Wednesday gets us to Anaheim in time for Disneyland on Thursday morning.

It’s the trip back up to SF that’s really bad! You figure everyone’s trying to maximize their weekend but have to head home in time for Monday. Three years ago, we decided to squeeze in a few more hours at the park before heading home and left at 12:30 p.m. We ended up stuck on I-5 for 13 hours because of two really bad accidents. As you know, the 5 is just two lanes through the Central Valley and any accident can turn it into a parking lot for hours. We saw cars pulled over for bathroom emergencies!

We leave for home on Saturday afternoon now. If you’re insistent on leaving on Sunday, be on the road as early as you can – definitely before 10 a.m. Even then, you’re probably looking at 8-9+hours.

Good luck!

 

[Malcon10t]

We will be leaving after school on Wed. It will be bad. Not only will we be hitting rush hour traffic, but we will be hitting holiday traffic. Last year on Wed, the traffic was worse coming our direction though.

One secret, be hitting the grapevine by 7pm.

 

[SFMommy]

We’ve been spending Thanksgivings at Disneyland for the last three years and will again this year. Like you, we always drive because airfare is too expensive and the airports too chaotic during Thanksgiving week. For reference, we live and work in the city.

We always shoot for a half day at work on Wednesdays and drive down immediately afterwards. We pack on Tuesday night and try to have our bags ready by Wednesday morning to leave with us. We do a lot of road trips to Disneyland, and traffic out of the Bay Area always seems to pile up on the 580 by 3 p.m. before a long weekend. Try to leave before 3 p.m. to avoid the worst of the traffic. We’ve left as late as 5 or 6 p.m. on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and it can take upwards of 2 hours to get from SF over the Altamont Pass onto I-5. Once on the 5, traffic is heavier than usual on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but baring an accident it moves. By the time you reach the greater LA area, most of the Thanksgiving traffic has cleared up. The trip from SF to Anaheim usually takes us about 8 hrs. – longer if we make a lot of pit stops (we try to limit them to 2) or there is an accident.

With work, our departure is what it is but leaving on Wednesday gets us to Anaheim in time for Disneyland on Thursday morning.

It’s the trip back up to SF that’s really bad! You figure everyone’s trying to maximize their weekend but have to head home in time for Monday. Three years ago, we decided to squeeze in a few more hours at the park before heading home and left at 12:30 p.m. We ended up stuck on I-5 for 13 hours because of two really bad accidents. As you know, the 5 is just two lanes through the Central Valley and any accident can turn it into a parking lot for hours. We saw cars pulled over for bathroom emergencies!

We leave for home on Saturday afternoon now. If you’re insistent on leaving on Sunday, be on the road as early as you can – definitely before 10 a.m. Even then, you’re probably looking at 8-9+hours.

Good luck!

Thank you! Very helpful and makes me feel a little better. We were planning to leave SF at about 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. And skipping our last morning at the parks in order to hit the road by 7:00 a.m. on Sunday.

 

[Lain]

Thank you! Very helpful and makes me feel a little better. We were planning to leave SF at about 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. And skipping our last morning at the parks in order to hit the road by 7:00 a.m. on Sunday.

Sounds good with one hitch. If you leave SF around 9, you should be able to avoid a lot of the traffic in the Bay Area, but it might put you in the afternoon rush hour as you arrive in the LA area. Figure you'll be around LA in about 5.5-6 hrs., about 3 p.m., just when traffic starts getting bad. From our experience, LA traffic is usually bad in both directions -- there's no counterflow.

Just to clarify, the length of our many road trips from SF to Disneyland (all taking the 5) fall in a range: our fastest are was about 6.5 hrs., slow is anything 8 hrs.+. On a Thanksgiving weekend, we guess it would take us about 8 hours with heavier than usual traffic.

 

[algae]

Thank you! Very helpful and makes me feel a little better. We were planning to leave SF at about 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. And skipping our last morning at the parks in order to hit the road by 7:00 a.m. on Sunday.

Oh, if you are able to leave at 9AM, I'd leave earlier like 6AM or so. You'll be able to get into LA around lunch and miss all the bad traffic hours--even for a Holiday.

Going back to SFO is going to be bad all-day Sunday. We've never found a good time to leave LA for the Bay Area and not gotten stuck in LA traffic--morning, noon or night. Maybe we're just very lucky or very unlucky