driving to San Digeo question

[redsox721]

We will be landing at LAX about 11:00 am next Friday (May 1). We are renting a car and will be driving to San Diego. We plan on driving the coast and hitting up La Jolla Shores, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach on the way. We figure to spend 1/2 hour to an hour at each place. We are staying on Shelter Island. My question is, how bad do you think the traffic will be? How long do you think it will take us to drive this plan? Just a general idea is appreciated. Mainly I want to know since this is our first trip to California. Also we are leaving our house at 4:00 am eastern time and will probably get tired early.

Thanks for your advice and ideas.

 

[Laura22]

We will be landing at LAX about 11:00 am next Friday (May 1). We are renting a car and will be driving to San Diego. We plan on driving the coast and hitting up La Jolla Shores, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach on the way. We figure to spend 1/2 hour to an hour at each place. We are staying on Shelter Island. My question is, how bad do you think the traffic will be? How long do you think it will take us to drive this plan? Just a general idea is appreciated. Mainly I want to know since this is our first trip to California. Also we are leaving our house at 4:00 am eastern time and will probably get tired early.

Thanks for your advice and ideas.

I just did something really similar a few days ago, except we did the more northern beaches (Laguna Beach & Huntington Beach). My sister and I were headed back to LAX to drop off our rental car and stopped for 30 minutes at each of the 2 beaches on the way to the airport. The pacific highway was a lot more slow-going than I expected. Lots of stoplights and slow speed limits. We almost missed the plane.

Maybe it's a little faster further south though. We stayed on I-5 anytime we travelled south of Dana Point.

Oh and I should mention we had the same flight arrival schedule too. My sister and I left NY at 4 a.m. and we arrived in LAX around 11 a.m. But on our arrival day we went straight to Hollywood for a few hours, and then went to Disneyland until midnight (yes - 3 a.m. our time!). We were SO tired!

 

[jaydenhoward87]

depends what fwy u take ..it wont be bad

 

[ScooterL]

We will be landing at LAX about 11:00 am next Friday (May 1). We are renting a car and will be driving to San Diego. We plan on driving the coast and hitting up La Jolla Shores, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach on the way. We figure to spend 1/2 hour to an hour at each place. We are staying on Shelter Island. My question is, how bad do you think the traffic will be? How long do you think it will take us to drive this plan?

Since you're leaving tomorrow I hope this isn't too late a reply!

Traffic on I405/I5 shouldn't be too bad at that point. Where were you planning to start driving on the coast? If you're only visiting the three places you mentioned, those are all close to/in San Diego, and you could stay on I5 most of the way, which will be faster than taking Pacific Coast Highway through the Capistrano/San Clemente area. You'll end up on I5 part of the way anyway, though, since PCH ends at the north end of Camp Pendleton (the big Marine Corps Base) and doesn't start again until you get to Oceanside. PCH will be slow because of all of the traffic lights - there's just a lot of local traffic in the area.

If you just took the freeway it should take ~2.5 hours to get to San Diego from LAX. Not sure what PCH will do to that, but you might want to take the freeway until you get south of Pendleton, and then do PCH from Oceanside or Carlsbad.

Just a warning: finding parking in Pacific Beach can be challenging. If it were me, I'd go to the beach at Torrey Pines instead of Pacific Beach. There's usually parking right along PCH for Torrey Pines.

 

[redsox721]

Since you're leaving tomorrow I hope this isn't too late a reply!

Traffic on I405/I5 shouldn't be too bad at that point. Where were you planning to start driving on the coast? If you're only visiting the three places you mentioned, those are all close to/in San Diego, and you could stay on I5 most of the way, which will be faster than taking Pacific Coast Highway through the Capistrano/San Clemente area. You'll end up on I5 part of the way anyway, though, since PCH ends at the north end of Camp Pendleton (the big Marine Corps Base) and doesn't start again until you get to Oceanside. PCH will be slow because of all of the traffic lights - there's just a lot of local traffic in the area.

If you just took the freeway it should take ~2.5 hours to get to San Diego from LAX. Not sure what PCH will do to that, but you might want to take the freeway until you get south of Pendleton, and then do PCH from Oceanside or Carlsbad.

Just a warning: finding parking in Pacific Beach can be challenging. If it were me, I'd go to the beach at Torrey Pines instead of Pacific Beach. There's usually parking right along PCH for Torrey Pines.

Not to late. I have 45 minutes of work left.

Thanks for the advice. You have been a great help to me with your advice throughout my planning. I even printed some the advice you gave so I don't forget.

Talk to you when we return.