Hotels on I-5? When to leave DLR?

[PinkBudgie]

We will be arriving on Sunday and leaving on Friday. We live in the north bay and we just started wondering, "What were we thinking driving home on Friday?" If we leave Anaheim in the morning we will hit the horrible traffic in the East Bay just at rush hour on a Friday. So, we started thinking, what if we went to DLR Friday for part of the day and then drove to a hotel on 5 to spend the night. Then we could leave Sat morning, much better for traffic.

Is there a hotel on 5 that anyone recommends? 5 goes through the middle of nowhere and it is really hard to search for places. I found one that is called Best Western Apricot Inn which seems descent.

Also what time should we leave DLR on Friday to avoid the LA traffic and get to the Grape Vine before rush hour?

Or, I suppose we could see if CCI has an extra day available and just stay in Anaheim one more day. But they might be booked by now. I haven't checked. We are open to other ideas.

 

[Lissame]

My parents recently stayed at the Holiday Inn in Santa Nella on their drive down. They drove straight through on their way home, but left on a Sat in the am, so that will be a little different than a Friday.

 

[disneychrista]

My parents recently stayed at the Holiday Inn in Santa Nella on their drive down.

We stayed there on the way home our last trip. I highly recommend it. Clean, comfrontable, quiet and yummy cinnamon rolls and other hot foods for breakfast included.

 

[PinkBudgie]

That was actually the other place I was looking at. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express by DLR once and really liked it.

 

[reynmagsmom]

The Holiday Inn in Santa Nella is our go to hotel for our drive down every trip... great hotel, we love it!!!

 

[BELLEDOZER]

The Best Western Andersons's is an older, but well maintained hotel that we stayed at on our way down to the mouse Feb/09. Their continental breakfast was decent, and we enjoyed staying there.

 

[LavenderPeach]

Uh, hello! You could come stay here on friday night if you want to. Of course, we're leaving early saturday to drive up north but we could all drive up together. Don't you want to sit in the backseat of our car and entertain DS for awhile?

This thread caught my attention though (before i realized it was you posting) because i keep thinking it would be nice to drive up part of the way on friday and then the rest of the way on saturday. What i really want to do is drive up the 101 and take a little road trip on the way up. I was even thinking about leaving friday. But not sure if there is an inexpensive hotel along that route at this time of year, on a friday that isn't scary.

Anyway, let me know if you want to stay here. It's free!

 

[PinkBudgie]

Uh, hello! You could come stay here on friday night if you want to. Of course, we're leaving early saturday to drive up north but we could all drive up together. Don't you want to sit in the backseat of our car and entertain DS for awhile?

This thread caught my attention though (before i realized it was you posting) because i keep thinking it would be nice to drive up part of the way on friday and then the rest of the way on saturday. What i really want to do is drive up the 101 and take a little road trip on the way up. I was even thinking about leaving friday. But not sure if there is an inexpensive hotel along that route at this time of year, on a friday that isn't scary.

Anyway, let me know if you want to stay here. It's free!

Hello! I thought about that. We did that last year. But you are the wrong direction! All that does is add an extra hour to the trip on Saturday! Not to mention the 10 different freeways you have to take to get there. It hurts my brain to concentrate so much on freeway exits! I was thinking to get part way home would help make the trip not so long. However, I'd love to sit in the back seat and entertain DN.

I checked and Santa Nella is 5 hours north of DLR. Has anyone just dropped in or is it cheaper to make an internet reservation? Also not sure if we would arrive late. When is the best time to leave DLR?

 

[reynmagsmom]

Hello! I thought about that. We did that last year. But you are the wrong direction! All that does is add an extra hour to the trip on Saturday! Not to mention the 10 different freeways you have to take to get there. It hurts my brain to concentrate so much on freeway exits! I was thinking to get part way home would help make the trip not so long. However, I'd love to sit in the back seat and entertain DN.

I checked and Santa Nella is 5 hours north of DLR. Has anyone just dropped in or is it cheaper to make an internet reservation? Also not sure if we would arrive late. When is the best time to leave DLR?

Pink check roomsavers.com they have some really good walkin coupons we have used a few times with no issues without ressies....

 

[disneychrista]

Has anyone just dropped in or is it cheaper to make an internet reservation? Also not sure if we would arrive late. When is the best time to leave DLR?

We just "dropped in." We did not plan to need to stay over. My car needed repair while we were there and they promised it by noon and it ended up being closer to 3pm by the time we got the car and after 4pm by the time we actually ended up leaving anaheim. I think it was after 10pm by the time we hit Santa Nella (with a dinner stop).

But if you KNOW you are going to be stopping, it is likely cheaper if you have the room booked in advance. When you should leave depends on when you want to arrive, if you want to do last minute shopping in DTD or something. I would add about 6 hours to the time you want to arrive and that is when you should leave.

 

[LavenderPeach]

Hello! I thought about that. We did that last year. But you are the wrong direction! All that does is add an extra hour to the trip on Saturday! Not to mention the 10 different freeways you have to take to get there. It hurts my brain to concentrate so much on freeway exits! I was thinking to get part way home would help make the trip not so long. However, I'd love to sit in the back seat and entertain DN.

I checked and Santa Nella is 5 hours north of DLR. Has anyone just dropped in or is it cheaper to make an internet reservation? Also not sure if we would arrive late. When is the best time to leave DLR?

Yes, but how can you resist 9 hours with your favorite nephew! And he will only listen to one cd right now - a disney cd - so that means 9 straight hours of hearing the same disney music over and over again! Doesn't that sound like fun? It would be like your vacation never ended!

Being a friday, i think i would try to leave DLR by noon. The traffic gets bad early on fridays. I don't have a lot of experience with driving through LA during that time but just basing it on the traffic i see on the 91 on friday afternoons.

 

[PinkBudgie]

Pink check roomsavers.com they have some really good walkin coupons we have used a few times with no issues without ressies....

Thanks, that hotel isn't there, but it is a good site to add to my travel collection.

We just "dropped in." We did not plan to need to stay over. My car needed repair while we were there and they promised it by noon and it ended up being closer to 3pm by the time we got the car and after 4pm by the time we actually ended up leaving anaheim. I think it was after 10pm by the time we hit Santa Nella (with a dinner stop).

But if you KNOW you are going to be stopping, it is likely cheaper if you have the room booked in advance. When you should leave depends on when you want to arrive, if you want to do last minute shopping in DTD or something. I would add about 6 hours to the time you want to arrive and that is when you should leave.

Yes, 5 hours was probably optomistic on a Friday.

Yes, but how can you resist 9 hours with your favorite nephew! And he will only listen to one cd right now - a disney cd - so that means 9 straight hours of hearing the same disney music over and over again! Doesn't that sound like fun? It would be like your vacation never ended!

Being a friday, i think i would try to leave DLR by noon. The traffic gets bad early on fridays. I don't have a lot of experience with driving through LA during that time but just basing it on the traffic i see on the 91 on friday afternoons.

Yes, it does sound like fun. Sitting in the back seat and not having to worry about how to get where we are going sounds fine to me. But I'm the navigator and I think DH would be lost if I didn't direct him. Besides, I'll see DN on Wed.

Maybe if we left at noon that would be a good time to drive straight through to home and hopefully arrive in the east bay after rush hour.

 

[PrincessIM]

We stopped in Santa Nella and stayed at the Holiday Inn after hearing about it on these boards. It was a great little place to stay. The kids enjoyed the outdoor pool and it got us into DL around noon. We had a little problem with ants in our first room but the staff was really great and moved us to another room where everything was fine. We had pre booked and I think we paid around $95 with all the taxes.

I couldn't find it on the RoomSavers website either prior to our trip but you if you are planning on walking in, you can find the roomsavers magazine at one of the many reststops along the way and I did see a coupon in there. It was around $75 for a king bed and extra if you needed two beds.

 

[reynmagsmom]

http://www.roomsaver.com/hotels/california/santa-nella/sort/rate/
The Holiday Inn is right here at botton of the page every year for the last 9 years we have used a coupon from here and worked out great!!!

 

[PinkBudgie]

http://www.roomsaver.com/hotels/california/santa-nella/sort/rate/
The Holiday Inn is right here at botton of the page every year for the last 9 years we have used a coupon from here and worked out great!!!

Oh thank you thank you thank you! I totally missed that before.
I printed it out and will take it with us. Then we can decide later if we want to stop or keep going.

 

[reynmagsmom]

You are very welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!! have a great trip! only 34 more days for us!!!!