How far do you drive to get to Disneyland Resort?

[mybestieismickey]

We only have about a 7 hour drive from southwest Utah, so it's not bad at all. I have considered flying, but Vegas is the nearest airport and that's 2 1/2 hours closer, so we figure we might as well just go the whole way.

A couple of weeks ago I helped a friend move from Baltimore to Utah and we had a 16 hour day. I don't care how lovely the scenery is, that is long day. By the time we made it to the hotel that first night (5 states later), we all hated each other .

I would say for sanity's sake break it up. If you are good distance drivers, do maybe the first 10 or 12 the first day and the rest on the second day. You'll be in much better shape when you actually get there.

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

Live 90 miles away

Have made it in as little as 75 minutes(72 mph shh) and has taken as long as 2.5 hours(TRAFFIC!)

Those making the drive from oregon, why not stop off in san francisco and enjoy the sighst. Makes the trip a little easier.

Me too!

The fastest we've made it from Oxnard to Anaheim was about 55 minutes. Don't ask because I was just the passenger. I don't remember any extreme fastness or I would have been screaming the whole drive.

The longest was about 2.5 hours. Usually on the way home.

 

[disfan07]

we are about 61 miles from our driveway to disneyland.
we usually get there in about a little over an hour
longest its taken is about 2 hours b/c of a car accident.
And i agree with a PP...I-5 is boooorrrring
i cant imagine being on it longer than an hour

I-495 and I-95 was more exciting to drive to baltimore when we lived in virginia..lol

 

[DisneyloverinWA]

We live in Vancouver, WA and we drive 16 hours to get to Disneyland. The drive is not bad at all. Good luck!

 

[Gisele]

We have driven two of our trips and we are at the very top of WA state. And yes, it is a long drive. Especially with 6 kids.

Sorry about the malfunction. Hope you are not left waiting too long.

I know this is off topic, all the same though, wow! 6 kids. I don't even have one. My cats are my children. No husband either, which would explain alot!
Anyway, your road trip must be really quite a bit of fun, as well as perhaps a bit hectic. Partly due to the distance, and partly because of many a road side stop for bathroom breaks, meals, etc.

 

[Gisele]

I have not so far anyway, done any driving from Northern Ca. to So.Ca. because I am still a bit of a cheeken (Reference to POTC) so instead my friend has ended up, again, so far, the designated driver. It is @ 400 miles one way. Not too bad, however, that distance definitely makes me illegible for Disney's great So. Ca. promotions. (Sigh)



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[blabbermouth]

OK. We live in Victoria BC. We just drove down. We took an hour and 1/2 ferry at 7 am and arrived at our overnight stop in Medford, OR at about 6. That was a long way, Oregon is pretty boring. The next day we actually drove all the way down to San Diego - 7:30am to 8:45pm! So that would have probably taken us just under 12 hours to Anaheim? Vroom vroom, we're fast drivers. We stopped once for lunch, and a few times for gas. It was still cheaper for us than flying and I think we would theoretically do it again. But if you think Oregon is boring, try California. San Diego equaled

Read my soon to start trip report for all the exciting details!

 

[fayt19]

Wow, you guys! We're finally back at the airport and are waiting for our red-eye flight. Reading all these lovely messages from my fave online people cheered me up. We're exhausted. We wasted our day eating and watching movies, haa. We saw The Proposal(cute, and who doesn't like Sandra Bullock?) and I saw Up for the second time while my dad saw it for his first. That movie's so cute. Watching it the second time made me realize my fave character, Dug, did not get enough screen time...

Right now, we're pretty much wanting to drive to Disneyland in October. But, maybe after we've been sleeping in our own warm beds for a few months, we'll give the airline another chance. In any case, we'll definitely be discussing the pro's and con's of both! Well, and taking a train, too. That sounds interesting.

Thanks for all your opinions!

 

[fayt19]

We live in Vancouver, WA and we drive 16 hours to get to Disneyland. The drive is not bad at all. Good luck!

Thanks for your response. Do you mind if I pester you about how you like living in Vancouver? We're moving to Ridgefield, and we're so very excited(we currently live in the blazing hot South), but we're still a little worried about actually living there.

 

[Gisele]

Okay...I'm a wuss. It takes us about 5.5 hours from AZ and I think its SOO boring. That said, if a good round-trip deal comes out, DH and I will so be there! Talk about a take-off...get a drink...then land type of flight. Sign me up!

We don't have kids, but I've traveled on buses full of junior highers on that trip to DLR on a coach bus - which is more like 7.5-8 hrs. That is tolerable - but I can't imagine going much further with so many kids!

FWIW, back in 2003 my family took a road trip to visit our relatives in Oregon, Washington, and Montana. That drive from LA up through Northern Cali and then through Oregon is ridiculously painful. At one point we were all hungry and my dad said we would eat at the next place...the next place was a run-down truck stop buffet type place over an hour a way. So we got back in the car and drove another half hour to some fast food joint - all starving, we couldn't wait any longer. And that portion of the trip was about 9 hours.

But I do agree that driving is just easier sometimes -especially with all the regulations and baggage fees lately. No worries about that when you load up your car. I'm the kind of person that will find a way for any last-minute item to fit, if that be the case.

Do you have South West's Ding? For I find at times, what I believe anyway, to be very good fares, real deals, from AZ to Ca. and back.


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[reynmagsmom]

Thanks for your response. Do you mind if I pester you about how you like living in Vancouver? We're moving to Ridgefield, and we're so very excited(we currently live in the blazing hot South), but we're still a little worried about actually living there.

You didnt ask me but I'll respond Ridgefield is very nice, it's about 25 miles north of me and I have been there many times whats nice is you get the small town feel while being close to the big city!!! We love this area, well not so much the rain but if we didn't have all the rain it wouldn't be as beautiful here and as green!!!! Right now it is blazing hot and is expected to continue this way thru Sunday...I think you will love the Pacific Northwest...we tend to be very friendly people!!!

 

[Zeebs]

We just did a trip from LA to Vancouver and we took 3 weeks to do it. Ok it is a bit extreme but we didn't want to drive more than 4 hours a day with the kids.

under 8 hours I might consider it. Anything else I would fly.

I know how I am on a 12 hour flights when I can get up and move around and not have to concentrate on driving, I really don't enjoy it.

Kirsten

 

[50sjayne]

I think we did the last trip in about 15 hours. We took lots of breaks. We took a lot more breaks than usual mostly because I didn't want to test my newly healed back. I tried to stretch every time. This was from Eugene OR. We drive at night (less wear and tear on the car and less boring for sleeping son). Also cooler and less traffic. We never did establish what time we left, I think it was about 3pm and we got to Anaheim way too early, a little after 6 am. We did park dtd and did magic morning though at 7 Awesome.
On the way back we stopped in Sacramento and spent the night. I don't think we left Anaheim till about 11 am which was way too late--we hit afternoon traffic, so the first day that seemed about right. We visited relatives and ate hamburgers at the famous squeeze inn that was great, but the drive back seemed too short. Thinking about it though-- coming through the Siskiyous at night--not worth it, plus it's always really foggy around Roseburg. Oh and there was some nasty fog coming in the way down through the grapevine. We'll probably do the same thing next time. DH really loves his uncle and doesn't get to see him much. I did a trip report which included the drive both ways if you're really interested --the links below.

 

[drag n' fly]

We have always flown to DL due to time constraints but we are seriously thinking of driving down next summer. It is a 22 hour drive from our house which we would break up over 2-3 days. We have drove many times straight through to Vancouver which is 13 hours and even ferried across to Victoria in one day. We have three kids so there would be lots of breaks hence the 2-3 days one way

 

[Lisa345]

We drive from north of Sacramento - about 8 hours. That for me is the cut off for driving. Believe it or not it has taken us almost as long to fly - 1 hour drive to airport, be there 2 hours before flight - 1 1/2 hr to 2 hour flight - shuttle to rental car - line at rental car - drive to Anaheim in traffic.

Driving to DL is not bad unless we hit bad traffic. We have learned to always drive down on a Sunday. We have tried to leave at 5 pm to miss the traffic, but that was an excruciating drive.

I will say the ride home seems to take MUCH longer!

 

[nunzia]

We live in southern New Mexico and it's about 12 hours..and when we lived in Vegas, only 4 hours away, we never went because life was too hectic! We have found the best way to get to DL is the train. Get on the train at 4pm, get to Fullerton at 7am. Perfect and economical. Have you looked into taking the train? I've taken it up the coast from LA to Oakland and it is a beautiful route.

 

[splash5]

Last summer (mid August). We spontaneously decided to make a quick trip (we had deluxe AP's last year). We live in Southern Washington (Longview). The trip took us a total of 17 hours. We left around 8:30 am and drove down to Stockton. (11 hours). We stopped every couple of hours at rest areas or to get food and got out and stretched. It was a long day and by the time we reached Stockton, I didn't care how much we had to pay for a hotel. Turned out to be $89 at a motel on Louise St. The next day, we got up, ate the complimentary breakfast and left around 9:00. We didn't hit much traffic until we were about 20 minutes from DL. We arrived at the parks around 3:00 and were able to check into the room at the DLH. We spent most of that day kicking around the hotel and relaxing and into the parks the next day. It was a good experience - especially in the summer (because of the mountains). I would drive again, if the airfare got to spendy. We have only 3 in our family - myself, DH and DS (15), so we can usually get fairly good deals on airfare.

 

[reynmagsmom]

Last summer (mid August). We spontaneously decided to make a quick trip (we had deluxe AP's last year). We live in Southern Washington (Longview). The trip took us a total of 17 hours. We left around 8:30 am and drove down to Stockton. (11 hours). We stopped every couple of hours at rest areas or to get food and got out and stretched. It was a long day and by the time we reached Stockton, I didn't care how much we had to pay for a hotel. Turned out to be $89 at a motel on Louise St. The next day, we got up, ate the complimentary breakfast and left around 9:00. We didn't hit much traffic until we were about 20 minutes from DL. We arrived at the parks around 3:00 and were able to check into the room at the DLH. We spent most of that day kicking around the hotel and relaxing and into the parks the next day. It was a good experience - especially in the summer (because of the mountains). I would drive again, if the airfare got to spendy. We have only 3 in our family - myself, DH and DS (15), so we can usually get fairly good deals on airfare.

Hey Neighbor.... we are in Kelso... I think I have met only one other Diser from here always cool to see someone close who shares in my love for Disney!!!!

 

[casiland]

Our drive is about 11-13 hours depending on traffic. Usaully we break it up and stay at a hotel half-way. I love rode trips so to me unless I find one heck of a deal on airfare we are driving. The drive is part of the experience for us. We never rush and stop wherever we feel the need.

 

[cashout]

I am driving for my first trip to Disneyland. Mapquest says about 31 hours; but may do a little Route 66 sightseeing along the way. I am planning to leave on a Friday afternoon, and get to Anaheim on Sunday afternoon, so I guess the sightseeing will be very limited.
We usually drive about 23 hours to Disney World.
My wife is flying from Chicago; she thinks that our youngest may have too many issues with being in the car as long as I plan to be.