Driving straight through from Washington(state).

[Mindy71]

Usually we make a stop overnight on the way down & back, but are considering driving straight through this time...at least on the way down. Any tips from those of you who make the trip without overnight stops? Your schedule? When you leave? Any info would be great, as I just don't know if this is for us or not. We will be leaving from Southwest Washington with no little ones.

Thanks!!

 

[sonnyjane]

When will you be making this drive? If it's anytime when there's a remote chance of winter weather, I'll veto your plan right now When we moved from Anacortes to San Diego we were stuck on the OR/CA border for almost two days because of blizzard conditions and road closures in February.

What would be your target arrival time? If you are planning on driving all day, checking into a hotel in Anaheim, then going to the parks the next day, that's one thing. If you are thinking of driving through the night and going to the parks after arriving, then again, I veto your plan What's the point of being at Disneyland if you're too exhausted to really enjoy it?

My husband loves driving and whenever we drive across country (we have moved a lot), he will frequently do 18 hour shifts. I, however, pretty much am over the car after 12 hours max. Frankly, I just don't think it's worth it to drive straight through the night. It's just plain dangerous, and it will leave you exhausted during your vacation.

Just my opinion

 

[Mindy71]

This trip will be in August, so no fear of bad weather. I don't know when we would leave. Our thoughts were sometime on a Saturday afternoon & arriving Sunday afternoon. I'm not so much worried about being too exhausted on the way down because we are always so excited to ge there. The ride back is a totally different story! That ride is never fun & I'm thinking of not driving all the way through on the way back.
I'm just asking for advice from anyone who has done this & what their thoughts are on how to go about it.

 

[stevejanelle]

I have driven from Portland twice. We left around 5-7pm. Trip took much less than the 15 hours 40 minutes mapquest said it would. I love driving at night with the less traffic. I usually go 7-8 mph about posted limit and can make good time (esp in CA). We arrive at DL early-mid morning and can start our vacation. I listen to audio books on my IPOD to keep me alert. Also driving at night limits the bathroom/eating breaks needed (at least for us).

Steve

 

[chrissiecutie]

Usually we make a stop overnight on the way down & back, but are considering driving straight through this time...at least on the way down. Any tips from those of you who make the trip without overnight stops? Your schedule? When you leave? Any info would be great, as I just don't know if this is for us or not. We will be leaving from Southwest Washington with no little ones.

Thanks!!

Mindy- we quite often drive straight through. We are in the Seattle area and this is how we do it...

We eat an early dinner at home and head out about 6 or 6:30pm. I always pack a cooler with food, snacks, breakfast items etc but we do stop for lunch. DH prefers to drive the entire way but I ALWAYS stay awake with him, for safety sake!

We stop for a long lunch, usually at a fast food place that has a play area for DS. Sometimes I will watch DS in the play area while DH takes a power nap. Since you won't have any kiddos with you, I would suggest that you "treat" yourselves to a nice lunch where your food arrives on a actual plate.

We typically arrive in the SoCal area about 4pm.

We have never stopped overnight so always drive straight through. However, I will say that the drive home is awful...you're tired and just want to get home and it seems to take forever, KWIM? So I would suggest to those who haven't made the drive, that maybe you consider driving straight down but on the way home, allow yourselves the luxury of a hotel night. We will probably do it this way next time we drive.

But really, the drive isn't bad. It doesn't get a little boring about 4am to noon. Sacremento area...not a fan.

 

[Mindy71]

Thank you! That is pretty much what we had in mind. We have kids with us, but they are all teens so they aren't needing to stop every hour. They can even help with some of the driving!
I had the same thoughts about the ride home. We never enjoy that!

 

[megsablue]

Usually we make a stop overnight on the way down & back, but are considering driving straight through this time...at least on the way down. Any tips from those of you who make the trip without overnight stops? Your schedule? When you leave? Any info would be great, as I just don't know if this is for us or not. We will be leaving from Southwest Washington with no little ones.

Thanks!!

I've driven this stretch probably 5 times round-trip without stopping overnight, so I totally understand the drive. I find that I like arriving in the late afternoon, so since we're around 24 hours away (we live in Vancouver, BC), we usually leave around 4pm-ish, then stop in Everett for dinner, then continue on. That way, we have time to get settled in, have dinner, relax and have a full night's sleep before hitting the parks bright and early the next morning.

I find that if we leave in the morning, we're both usually exhausted by the evening and one of us has to drive. The other reason we like leaving a little later is because we can 1) Sleep in the morning of our drive 2) We have time to get everything together and 3) Traffic is usually lighter.

I'm not sure if you're taking the 99 or the 5 (probably the 5, I'm guessing) but we have places we like to stop for food/gas and/or a small break. Grant's Pass, Corning, Buttonwillow and the exit right before you head up the Grapevine for In & Out.

My biggest tips would be - pack snacks & drinks (more than you think you'll need! - we drink iced tea by the gallons, so I always make a ton before we go) and also, we listen to audiobooks. We try to find ones that are interesting AND funny, like those by Sarah Vowell, David Sedaris, etc. Your local library may have them on CD, or you can get them through iTunes as well. We also like listening to standup comedy (we have satellite radio, so we just listen to that) as that keeps us awake!

 

[Mindy71]

Sounds great. Thanks for your input. I agree, thank goodness for Sirius!!

 

[reynmagsmom]

I am also in SW WA and I have only done the straight thru once and I was exhausted.... but if you have multiple drivers it should be pretty easy ans aug is a great time to drive it but be warned it gets hot hot!!!

 

[clairabell29]

We did this last August and it worked out great! We left about 7pm and got to DL before noon. We're basically in Olympia. The day we left, I finished all the packing and sent my DH back to bed about 11am. He slept until about 6:30pm. He packed the car up and we were off. He drove all night until about 5am. My 2 young boys slept from 9pm until 8am, which made it an easy drive. I slept from about 10 to about 5am when I took over the driving and my DH slept.

The only bad part of the trip according to my DH is the passes at night. He hates driving less then 5 miles over the speed limit (has been known to do a lot faster then that ) He said they are so curvy and you can't even do the speed limit. We managed to miss rush hour in all the major cities-which was awesome!

We packed all the food and drinks we would need for the trip down and some for while we were at DL. My DH does well on power drinks, so we had quite a few of them. When my boys woke up, we stopped at a McDonald's and got them dressed and fed and were back on our way.

Yes, we did hit DL by noon after checking into our hotel. It was great. No one was over tired. I did send all the boys back to the hotel for a nap around 3pm just so we could stay up until park closing, but we do that every day. I stay in the parks during this time, just enjoying a little "alone" time.

The day of the trip back, we got a hotel room for the night and my DH went to the hotel and slept from about 8pm until 5am. I took both my DS to DL until midnight to let him sleep and wear them out for the trip home. We left the hotel about 5am. We got back home by about 11pm. The day was much longer, a lot more potty stops and cranky boys in the back seat. If we do it again we will definately get a room on the way back home. (On a high note, we did the passes in the day light and my DH got to go much faster then at night )

Enjoy your trip, and don't forget to "decorate" your car for the trip!

 

[Mindy71]

That sounds about perfect & is just about what I had in mind. We are just a little south of you down in Pacific County, so we're looking at about the same drive. I think it's worth it to save around $100 to skip the hotel on the way down.
I agree with the ride home though. Why torture ourselves?! Having to leave is bad enough!
Thanks for your input!

 

[snikelfrizt]

We drive through on the way down but stop on the way back as well..... we leave early in the morning around 3 or 4 am. Get to Anaheim around 4 depending on stops ect. Hang out for the evening and up bright and early for the parks the next day.
Either way I agree driving through is better, spend your 100 bucks on Churros!!!!!!

 

[Mindy71]

Yep, I definately think we will drive straight through at least on the way down.

 

[chrissiecutie]

Clarabell- you are SO right about those curvy passes!

We hit them in the pitch black, pouring rain with major night time construction to boot! It really slowed us down! DH is a speed demon, so it was a "trying" stretch of road to say the least. On top of that, it was about 11pm and DS was STILL awake!

 

[WereObsessed]

Just my 2 cents... I actually think the drive home is better than the drive home.. if you have a couple of teenagers that are willing to drive an hour or so here and there, and you have a large enough car to doze off while you're not driving.. then driving straight through on the way down AND on the way back is more than do-able. Not exactly fun.. but not painful either.

 

[Boo Bear]

I would stay a night at least on the way down. You guys won't want to be exhausted once you get there. I can understand driving straight through on the way back if you want to save some time and cash. When we drove from Ventura to Portland we stopped in Sacramento.

 

[Amommy21]

We live in Seattle and could never do it in a day. We joke about it, but know it will never happen. Leaving at 4pm and arriving the next day is an interesting idea.

We have done the road trip thing twice and both times took 3 days one way and 2 days the other. We just really like to go through the redwood forest and down the coast.

 

[LisainCalifornia]

Usually we make a stop overnight on the way down & back, but are considering driving straight through this time...at least on the way down. Any tips from those of you who make the trip without overnight stops? Your schedule? When you leave? Any info would be great, as I just don't know if this is for us or not. We will be leaving from Southwest Washington with no little ones.

Thanks!!

I have driven from Seattle to San Francisco in one day, but not SW Washington to Anaheim. I think it would be too much to attempt. Have you looked at the gotta getaway flights that Southwest has flying into SNA? You can get these flights for such a low price if you buy early enough.

 

[chrissiecutie]

We live in Seattle and could never do it in a day. We joke about it, but know it will never happen. Leaving at 4pm and arriving the next day is an interesting idea.

We have done the road trip thing twice and both times took 3 days one way and 2 days the other. We just really like to go through the redwood forest and down the coast.

When I was growing up, we took a trip to SoCal every single summer to visit grandparents and Mickey of course! We drove every time and we always stayed one night in a hotel each way. We started the drive from Bothell (about 35 mins from Seattle) about 9am, made lots of stops on the way and usually got to the hotel around 7 or 8 pm. Ugh...it was just awful! THE LONGEST DRIVE EVER!! I seriously have no idea what my parents were thinking! With 3 young kids...it was just painful.

Which is probably why, now that I'm an adult with my own child, we never do the drive this way! As I said earlier, we start about 6pm after eating dinner at home and get to SoCal about 4pm the next day. DS sleeps during the drive and by the time DS wakes up the next morning, we are already in Cali!

For us at least, this is just THE perfect way to do it! However, like I said, the drive home is long...so perhaps next time we drive, we'll consider a hotel stop on the way home.

I have never taken 3 days to drive from Seattle area to SoCal... growing up, 2days was MORE then enough.

 

[purplecrush]

We live in Portland and drive to DLR. I couldnt do it in a day. That would be wonderful, but its just too much driving for us. Last July, we left at 6pm. I thought that was the best idea EVER!! Well it pretty much sucked lol..I hate driving at night. It was a boring drive. I hate driving with Semi's passing me lol. We stayed overnight in San Fran. We had to. Then we wake up and drive to DLR in the morning. Works out perfectly. We all were refreshed and ready for DLR!!

We are doing the same thing in June. Its just too much driving for us, plus this this way, we can enjoy visiting other cities as well