Good way to break up the drive to DL?

[tbone lg]

Driving down from the Bay Area with the kids for the first time. We have flown in the past. Any tips for a stop once in LA? Leaving the Bay Area around 10am and will probably be in LA around 3. Anyplace worth stopping?

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Id honestly just get to Anaheim. You'll be hitting afternoon traffic if you don't get through LA by 3 or so.

 

[annadette]

Same advice here - we drive over 30 hours to DL and our only goal is to just get there as quickly and safely as possible - the fun starts at DL! We did get caught in LA traffic at 3:30 pm on a friday and it was not a nice experience - so we were just happy to check in at our hotel after that! By the time you reach LA, you are so close you could almost smell the churros!

 

[DLR29]

Kettleman City! There's an In-n-Out. Other than that, I agree with the previous posters. I drive that all the time (school in LA, home in the bay) and it's just way better to go straight.

 

[Nonsuch]

Driving down from the Bay Area with the kids for the first time. We have flown in the past. Any tips for a stop once in LA? Leaving the Bay Area around 10am and will probably be in LA around 3. Anyplace worth stopping?

I like to stop at Harris Ranch.
The restaurant is very large, so there there is only a short wait even on the busiest days.

A real time traffic app is very helpful dealing with LA rush hour. Highway 5 is generally not the best route.

 

[BayAreaMom]

Kettleman City! There's an In-n-Out. Other than that, I agree with the previous posters. I drive that all the time (school in LA, home in the bay) and it's just way better to go straight.

I agree- there is absolutely no where nice to stop unless you want fast food. That InNOut is pretty slow though, and I'm usually in too much of a hurry to wait for food.

Can you leave earlier? It would really be awful to get stuck in LA traffic. The exception would be if you are not going to do anything / the parks that same day. We have APs so our mission is to get there as early as possible to get to the parks.

We have done the drive from Burlingame 4 times since last June, and just did it 1/26 & 29. We try to leave Bgame at 6am, and we don't hit ANY LA traffic because we go through the worst of it post- morning commute time.

 

[larina]

Kettleman City! There's an In-n-Out. Other than that, I agree with the previous posters. I drive that all the time (school in LA, home in the bay) and it's just way better to go straight.

Yes, just stop to eat, stretch and use the restroom. No need to break up that trip!!!

I like to stop at Harris Ranch.
The restaurant is very large, so there there is only a short wait even on the busiest days.

Harris Ranch is pricey, save that money for the parks (or Napa Rose if you want a nice dinner like that!!!), and that area smells horrible. We stopped to eat there once, but how can you eat in that stench (we could clearly smell the cattle yard INSIDE the restaurant)? We close our windows, shut the vents and get through that area as quickly as we possibly can!

Oh, and are you taking 5 or 101?

 

[larina]

I agree- there is absolutely no where nice to stop unless you want fast food. That InNOut is pretty slow though, and I'm usually in too much of a hurry to wait for food.

Can you leave earlier? It would really be awful to get stuck in LA traffic. The exception would be if you are not going to do anything / the parks that same day. We have APs so our mission is to get there as early as possible to get to the parks.

We have done the drive from Burlingame 4 times since last June, and just did it 1/26 & 29. We try to leave Bgame at 6am, and we don't hit ANY LA traffic because we go through the worst of it post- morning commute time.

The advantage to In and Out being slow is that you are out of the car for a minute. The fast food on 5 is never very good, we've found. Maybe somebody knows a good place though...

Leaving earlier would be good, if that works for you, but maybe you have time constraints. I like to leave as early as we can (we drive from Sacramento), for traffic reasons.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

We do that drive with our kids and we like to do it straight through, with a short lunch stop earlier on 5. I also agree with leaving earlier if you can.

 

[Nox54]

We drive straight through from the bay area, as well, with a quick stop for lunch on the way.

 

[Heymy]

I agree with PPs, drive and don't stop until you have to My kids are so use to the drive at this point, we're not sure how they'll react to their first plane ride to DLR. Do you have a DVD player...this saves our sanity. And don't count on them sleeping...mine rarely do and definitely not at the same time. For us, we try to make it to the Grapevine but have been known to stop at Kettleman City if DH is starving.

As for leaving at 10, we had to do that once and it was miserable for our family. The girls were restless and hungry. At least when we leave in the morning (usually around 5 or 6), they are somewhat sleepy and accept the car. And the fact that we hit the nastiest traffic ever....don't think we got to the resort until 5.

Good luck and have a great time!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

We drive straight through from the bay area, as well, with a quick stop for lunch on the way.

We drive straight through too from Modesto, but our stop is usually breakfast because we leave at the crack of dawn. We are usually in LA by lunch time!

 

[23bw]

Delete dup post

 

[23bw]

Agree with others that it's best you keep stops to a minimum. We make at most 1 stop from the Bay Area to Anaheim. Leaving the earlier the better.

When our kids were young (under 5) we had to make numerous stops along I-5 and even in downtown LA for bathroom and food breaks. We would leave the bay area at 9am and won't get to Anaheim until 6pm.

If you don't mind a longer road trip, one of the better stops would be Harris Ranch in Coalinga. They have the fine dining restaurant which is pricey or you can eat at the cheaper cafe which is still pretty good. Expect to spend 1.5 - 2 hours at Harris.

Closer to LA, we stop in Valencia if we must. Lost of fast food and family type restaurants here. And it's easy to get back onto the freeway.

 

[pixiewings71]

I suggest leaving earlier. You really don't want to hit LA traffic if you can avoid it. We like to stop in Lost Hills, the Love's there is very clean, the bathrooms are nice and it's a nice big place to walk around a bit in before you get back in the car. Gas prices are also quite reasonable at the Love's. We generally just grab fast food if we get hungry, there are plenty of places to stop for that, or there's Anderson's Pea Soup or Denny's in Santa Nella, that's much earlier than Lost Hills tho, Lost Hills is just about halfway.

 

[94bruin]

Kettleman City! There's an In-n-Out. Other than that, I agree with the previous posters. I drive that all the time (school in LA, home in the bay) and it's just way better to go straight.

Agreed. This was our go-to stop when we were in college.

However, now we'll try to make it as far as we can before we need to fill up on gas/bathroom break.

Last time we made it over to Valencia, just past Magic Mountain. There is an In-N-Out there. If you want to fill up before the grapevine, there is also an In-N-Out right before.

 

[tiggerjay]

We did that drive many times, although we try to leave either super early in the morning (3am) or late at night (10pm) and drive basically straight through. On some cases we'll stop at the Disney Soda Fountain in Hollywood. It is a bit out of the way, but not too much, and can be a fun break. Although once I hit So Cal, I just want to rush straight to the parks.

 

[SilentFeline]

There's a truck stop on Dennis McCarthy Dr. in Lebec, CA just before the grapevine that has a gas station and lots of fast food restaurants, which include In-n-Out Burger, Chipotle (that's where my boyfriend and I went last time), and Subway. We're from San Jose and like to stop there to stretch our legs and grab a quick bite to eat. There's also a pretty decent bathroom if you walk inside the building that has the shop. It's located right next to a restaurant called The Iron Skillet (at least I think that's what it was called). The restroom has always been clean any time I've used it.

I agree with what other posters have said about leaving earlier if you can. I don't know what city you live in, but we left a little bit past 9 AM for our trip earlier this month and didn't get to DLR until almost 5. Try to leave before 8 AM if possible. The earlier the better.

 

[LisainCalifornia]

After years of doing this exact drive--(my inlaws live in Los Angeles), I agree with everyone else saying to leave earlier. You will be SO glad you did, and so sorry if you don't. (been there and done that!)

We actually leave around 5:45 am, and are in the L.A. area around noon-1:00ish. Leaving much later means we will be stuck in that horrendous stop and go traffic that southern california is famous for. It has taken us an hour to move 10 miles if we leave too late, so that is the best alarm clock available.

The kids just want to get there--especially when they are going to disneyland.

 

[Nox54]

After years of doing this exact drive--(my inlaws live in Los Angeles), I agree with everyone else saying to leave earlier. You will be SO glad you did, and so sorry if you don't. (been there and done that!)

We actually leave around 5:45 am, and are in the L.A. area around noon-1:00ish. Leaving much later means we will be stuck in that horrendous stop and go traffic that southern california is famous for. It has taken us an hour to move 10 miles if we leave too late, so that is the best alarm clock available.

The kids just want to get there--especially when they are going to disneyland.

I am totally sharing this post with DH and our friend who went with us last time. They complained, a lot, about me insisting we be out the door by 6:30 am