Flying to Disneyland

Four different available airports

SNA (aka Orange County or John Wayne) Closest at 12 miles, but often the most expensive

LBG, Long Beach, 14 miles-- tiny but nice, often lower priced on a par with LAX

LAX, big, crowded, at 35 miles the farthest away, often the cheapest flights in

ONT, Ontario, 35 miles away, not as crowded and you can sometimes find good deals

Check your airfare on all the airports with different available airlines. You might be surprised at the differences. Flying into SNA would cost us about $338, but LGB was $217.

HTH!
 
For our first trip, in 1998, we flew into LAX. Every year since, we've flown in to SNA (Santa Ana, John Wayne Airport). It's much more convenient, less crowded and just works for us. Hope that helps.
 
While deciding what airport to go to, if you're not renting a car and are going to use a shuttle, be sure to price out the shuttles from each airport. I'd do that before searching for airfare, so you can easily and quickly know the whole cost. (if you have a Ding or some other airfare that might run out you want to go fast)

I once flew us into ONT b/c the fare was cheaper, but the shuttle cost was so much more expensive than if we had flown into SNA that when I finally added it all up, we would have done better to go into SNA.
 

We chose to fly into SNA the last 2 years, because it is much closer than LAX. It was more expensive, but the difference in price was minimal. It is a nice, small airport that isn't crowded, and easy to get around in.::yes::
 
Don't forget Burbank! Small airport, and it was about a 30 minute drive to DL. But it was cheap, and the lines weren't long at all for anything. We had planned on renting a car anyway though, so driving from there was no big deal.
 
We usually fly into LAX on Frontier. Its not that nice but if you just get off get your luggage and find your bus its easy.
 
I also agree with LGB. I love the rental car location, about 50 feet outside the main doors. Its about a 30 minute drive but it's impossible to get lost going to DL. Just drive out of the airport, keep going straight and turn right when you see DL. No highways/freeways to deal with or get stuck on.
 
We flew into LAX last year and it was a little overwhelming and a bit of a shuttle ride, but worth the money we saved in airfare since it happened to be the cheapest airport to fly into at the time. This time we're flying into John Wayne (SNA), which I've heard is the best because it's closest. However, it is more expensive. We originally planned to fly into Long Beach, but Alaska allowed us to exchange our tickets to John Wayne because they changed our flight times into Long Beach. I definitely recommend John Wayne if you don't mind paying the extra.
 
long beach is best

burbank not too bad

SNA if you like to pay extra
 
I have only used LAX and SNA, perfer SNA hands down. I was going to try LBG this time but the flight times just didn't work out for me.
 
Love SNA. Hate Burbank. The traffic to Burbank was horrible and we were flying out on a Sat. morning, no rush hour or anything, we missed our flight because we misjudged how long it would take to get there. It took a lot longer than we thought to go back and forth to Burbank, the freeways are not as nice as where I am from and sometimes were down to two lanes. It was very frustating. We almost flew into LGB and I would go that route next time we fly. Can you fly Jet Blue? They have really good rates for us from Utah to Cal, but I don't know anything about Minnesota.
 
I love SNA! Our flights on Alaska Air would have been about $25 each cheaper to LAX than to SNA, but that was pretty much offset with the higher shuttle cost (if we had taken a shuttle). So between cost, convenience and time savings, I picked SNA.

And while I felt comfortable with driving from SNA to Disneyland, I wouldn't have driven to/from LAX. The rental cars at SNA were just across a walkway, so that was convenient, too.
 


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