Las Vegas to Anaheim on Sunday

[wbl2745]

On Sept 30 we'll be driving from Utah to Anaheim, passing through Las Vegas probably late afternoon. We can't get away any earlier. I understand that the traffic from Las Vegas back to LA on Sunday evening is unbelievable. Has anyone made this drive recently? Should we plan on stopping in Las Vegas or Primm for the night and getting an early start the next morning? I guess I've heard horror stories of bumper to bumper traffic the entire distance between LV and LA.

Thanks for any guidance you can offer.

 

[LVdisneyChick]

I have never been stuck on it but usually big holiday weekends like that it gets pretty bad

 

[HydroGuy]

On Sept 30 we'll be driving from Utah to Anaheim, passing through Las Vegas probably late afternoon. We can't get away any earlier. I understand that the traffic from Las Vegas back to LA on Sunday evening is unbelievable. Has anyone made this drive recently? Should we plan on stopping in Las Vegas or Primm for the night and getting an early start the next morning? I guess I've heard horror stories of bumper to bumper traffic the entire distance between LV and LA.

Thanks for any guidance you can offer.

Horror stories are worst case. Unfortunately bumper to bumper is not worst case. It is normal. You will hit heavy traffic.

Have I done it recently? No. Once was enough. Never again will I attempt it.

Your choices are to just to grit it out, leave late on Sunday (10PM?) or stay over in LV and get up early.

Note that the issue with staying til Monday and leaving early (say 6AM) is you may hit SoCal Monday morning traffic.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but that is what you are looking at.

 

[SeanCLV]

That would be a very long boring drive from SLC to Anaheim to do all at once. Being in stand still traffic for the latter half would just make it worse. You can get some good deals on hotels in LV for Sunday night. I would avoid Primm and Jean Hotels, I have heard to many bad reviews. If you din't want to deal with the whole casino atmosphere, there are a couple nice Holiday Inn/ Hampton Inn type places on the southern end of the strip near the South Point and M Casino which are also nice.

You could also check the traffic on google maps or your GPS when you are about an hour outside of Vegas, to see how the traffic looks and make your decision then.

 

[disneydreamerbelle]

Get a hotel and stay. We do the same drive a few times a year from SLC. We did the traffic thing once and will never do it again. We always stay by the airport in LV right off of the 215. It is worth every penny not having to sit in traffic. I also find that we are not overly tired when we get to the park the next day like we are after a marathon day in the car. We do the drive home in one day though. Good luck what ever you choose.

 

[kikiq]

Hydroguy is right, bumper to bumper is the usual state of affairs. Worst case situation is an accident that blocks the freeway between Las Vegas and Barstow.

My DDs drive to Las Vegas at least 3 times a year from SoCal(about 30 minutes south of DLR). My oldest says it flows "better" since they improved the freeway BUT it still is slow and go. They are currently on the road back from Las Vegas (bachelorette party). So I can give you current information on what it would be like. They left later than they wanted around 2:30pm. At 5:00 pm, they are stopping in Baker for a rest room stop. My youngest says that the traffic is heavy and slow. Usually if they leave at noon or before, they can get to Baker in 90 minutes or less. Today it took almost 2 1/2 hours. After Barstow, they expect it to open up a bit but then stack up again when they reach Hwy 91.

If you take hwy 210 to hwy 57 to hwy 5, you might avoid the last bit of bumper to bumper traffic...if you decide to power through

Good luck on your decision. I will add to this info when they finally get home.

Update: Finally spoke to my DDs. It took them 3 1/2 hours to go from Baker to our house which is 30 minutes from Disneyland. My oldest says that it takes her around 2 1/2 hours if she leaves earlier, of course, her tires don't touch the road either.