Tips for driving from Seattle to DL?

[SplashMo]

We are considering driving from Seattle to DL and I was wondering if folks drove straight through or stoped for the night. Also where do you like to stop and do you stop to see anything on the way? Or eat anywhere fun. Do you go down the coast or straight down 5?

 

[JacksGirlz]

If you take PCH (Hwy 101) it will take markedly longer to get there as you have to slow down to 25-30mph through all the small towns you pass through. I think it's personal preference, as well as how much time you want to spend on travel, if you want to drive straight through or break the trip up. If you have small kids they may not tolerate the car ride for prolonged stretches. The Redwoods in northern California are beautiful.

 

[lk2500]

We are considering driving from Seattle to DL and I was wondering if folks drove straight through or stoped for the night. Also where do you like to stop and do you stop to see anything on the way? Or eat anywhere fun. Do you go down the coast or straight down 5?

I've never done it but if I recall correctly a few people I know who did took 2 days to drive down there, stopping somewhere in Northern Cali for the night.

 

[lwilkison]

We are considering driving from Seattle to DL and I was wondering if folks drove straight through or stoped for the night. Also where do you like to stop and do you stop to see anything on the way? Or eat anywhere fun. Do you go down the coast or straight down 5?

Before we had our DD (now 4 years old) my DH and I drove from Vancouver Island to DLR and camped there (when they had the campground which is now DTD)...we stopped and stayed a night in Petalluma just outside of SF in a KOA and loved our stay there and got to visit SF as well. We have driven the coast and the inland highway and both ways have pluses and minuses. The coast is amazing and the redwoods you drive through are (almost ) as beautiful as our trees up here.

The coast will give you an eclectic view with breathtaking coast line.

The inland highway takes less time BUT it can get monotonous...and boring. We ended up pulling into a rest stop one night because we were so dog tired and we woke up in morning in the shadow of a mountain with birds singing...really kinda awesome

We also go by the motto that the journey is just as great as the getting there...have a great trip

 

[purplecrush]

We are in Portland and we drive to San Francisco (around 10 hours) and stay the night. That way we can see a little bit of San Fran, plus the kids like to get out of the car lol. Then we leave early and drive the rest of the 8-ish hours to Disneyland. We take I-5

 

[Karenann*]

Wenatchee to Anaheim via I5. 2 drivers non stop except gas up and bathroom breaks and breakfast. 2 moms 6 kids under 7yrs and 19 hours. AAAhhhhh to be young again!

 

[AuntieKels]

2 years ago we did a road trip from Seattle to Disneyland. We wanted to make the drive part of our trip (hubs has never seen the whole west coast before) so we spent a lot of time doing extras. It's up to you how much time you want to spend on the drive but here's what we did:

We left Seattle for Portland after work in the evening to get a head start

Day 1: Portland to Tillamook {loved the cheese samples and icecream!}
Tillamook to Cannon Beach {must stop at Moe's for chowder!}
Drive 101 to the Redwood Forest {camping night!}
Day 2: Redwoods to San Francisco {we took I-5}
Day 3: Half day in San Fran then off to Disneyland!
Day 4: DISNEYLAND!
Day 5: DISNEYLAND! {leaving after fireworks for LA}
Day 6: LA with friends
Day 7: LA with friends
Day 8: LA to Medford, OR {driving almost nonstop on I-5}
Day 9: Medford to Seattle

If we had to do it again I think we would have A) left Portland earlier on the first morning - the 101 takes forever but is beautiful B) we wouldn't have camped so we could have spent more time exploring instead of setting up shop for just one night C) I would have spent more time in San Fran D) I would have spent less time in LA - other that visiting DH's friend, it was not that exciting to me.

If you're thinking about taking I-5 straight down, I would recomend checking out or downloading some audio book from the library.

I hope that helps!

 

[interstate70s]

Our family has driven from Seattle to DL twice and are going to again this fall. The first time we thought we 'd pop over to the coast to see the redwoods on the way back. It was beautiful but it added a whole day to our drive back. I wouldn't do 101 again on a disneyland trip, I don 't regret doing it., but next time I want to do the redwoods and coast on a seperate trip.
I5 is not the most intersting stretch of road I've been on. Our usual routine is to leave at 5am drive to somewhere around Sacramento find a inexpensive hotel with a pool for the kids. Day 2 is shorter if we push the first day we have time day 2 to be in the parks. All my friends think I 'm crazy for driving and its not much cheaper if Jet Blue is running specials to Long Beach but my husband I prefer not dealing with shuttles, airports, flight times and love not having to worry about how much I 'm bringing... or buying.

 

[ociana]

We have done the drive down I5 from Salem, OR a few times and the drive down 101 from Eureka, CA a few times. I really like the I5 drive and have learned to find the little treasures to stop at along the way. There is a great little shop in Williams, CA (just north of Sacramento) called something like Grunzellas. It's ice cream, deli, olives and more...along with clean toilets.

Find the fun places to stop along the way and it matters less which way you drive. For us, the ability to have a nice straight road is better than 101's curvy and stop/go drive.

 

[Carolynleanne]

We've done the drive from Vancouver to Anaheim about 5 times now... We always do it over 2 or 3 days. Usually with a stop in Oregon and one in northern California. Usually take the I-5

 

[specialks]

We did the drive last October. Make note that it is not something to do in the winter (I guess there's a couple of passes that get shut down occasionally and are a bit treacherous). We chose to take our time and started out after work one evening and drove to south of Portland. Then we enjoyed the pool at the hotel and headed to Grants Pass, OR. Then we headed west to the 101. Hwy 199 was slow going. We drove along the 101 and visited the redwoods. We started loosing light fast as the hwy 199 took is 1 hr longer then planned. We ended the day at Santa Rosa. The next day we headed to SF and visited family for dinner in San Jose. From there we headed to I5 and stayed in Coalinga. The checked in around noon at the GCH the next day. Then into the parks!!

If you want to hurry it up, lots of people I've heard from do the drive in 2 days with a stop in Redding.

 

[MangoChef]

I just got back Saturday (I live in Tacoma). We went to the Red Woods on the way down. And up I-5 on the way back. It took us four days to get down there and two (with a stop in Redding) on the way back up. We have a 10, 8 and 3 year old so we made many stops. and rest stops to keep from cracking up to much.

 

[Bungle]

We have done the drive from Portland to DL many times. We usually take two days. We could do it in one swift drive with two adults but I feel like we are safer drivers if we stop and get some sleep, a shower and some food in us.

 

[chrissiecutie]

OP- we like to drive straight through on the way to Disney and then take our time on our drive back.

We always leave after dinner on Friday night, around 7pm or so. Since we visit family in SoCal first, we don't usually make a beeline straight for DLR. But we typically arrive at our family's home in Pasadena around 4pm. We do stop along the way for rest stops & food. But it's I5 all the way, the drive down is all about speed!

For our drive back, we LOVE stopping in Santa Barbara. It's about 90 mins or so from DLR. We also like stopping in Redding. There's the very cool Sundial Bridge and a great botanical garden/animal thing called Turtle Bay, it's awesome! http://www.turtlebay.org/sundialbridge

We've also stopped and done some fishing at Lake Shasta. We like to rent lake front cabins and rent a boat for the day from here http://www.shastalakevacations.com/

Grants Pass is also a good stop. Sorry, but it's been a couple years since we went that way, so I don't have any good links for you.

Don't forget there's also the Redwood National Forest & Klamath Falls if you take a more scenic route. We are hoping to drive that way this year, but budget wise, it just might not happen.

OP- I'm sorry but I didn't see who would be travelling with you?? We have a 7 year old and he's made this trip several times. We've found that its MUCH easier on him to leave after dinner. He takes a shower, gets in his PJ's, pops in a Disney movie in the car, has his blanket & stuffed animal and is good to go! He typically falls asleep around 10pm (he's super excited so it does take awhile for sleep to happen!) and then he wakes up around 6 or 7am the next morning. After another 8 or 9 hours, we are there! So as far as he's concerned it only takes 8 or 9 hours....but we all know differently!

We have driven straight through both ways and I do NOT recommend this! You are SO tired from you're trip that the long drive home is just too much! If you want to end your vacay with a car full of CRANKY, then this will surely do it!

 

[Here4mydisneyfix]

Hey there, I have another take on driving for ya! We are seattlelites too and drove down to Disney 2 years ago with a 5 year old, a 3 year old and an 8 month old. lol (yeah, we are just crazy like that!) Anywhoo...we left our first day at night time hoping our kids would sleep through most of the driving...ummm yeah, NO. We DID stop, but not until we got into Redding. The husband and I were both incredibly frazzled by that point though and the kids were bored, exhausted and miserable. We just stayed in Redding for one night and then the jaunt to Disney was relatively short the next day. It worked well(ish) I guess. The drive was not so fun (as can be imagined with 3 little kids!!) but also not too terribly hellacious either. Just really not such a great start to something that is supposed to be amazingly fun, for sure!! I would definitely avoid driving again at all costs for future trips. Wastes soooo much time on a boring (nothing pretty to look at) drive and adds extra stress that ya honestly just don't need before getting to Disneyland!!! A couple months ago, we went again and we flew, SO, sooooo much better, times about a million!! 2.5 hours versus 22 hours is definitely worth the extra expense (if there is any), however, in this particular case, we got cheap tickets by purchasing early, and because of gas, it actually would have cost MORE to drive!! The hubs and I are going alone again here in Sep-Oct and we got a SLAMMIN deal on flights through JetBlue! Only $69 each way!! We found it to cost over $500 to drive down before, so if we were bringing our whole family this time, it would only cost $552 to fly, $52 extra is TOTALLY worth saving 20 hours of travel time AND the obligatory added stress ANY day! lol So yea, while driving is doable, take it from a Dis-er who's experienced both first hand. I would HIGHLY recommend checking out jetblue or even other airlines through Priceline or Hotwire for inexpensive flights instead. Your trip will be SO much better!!

 

[chrissiecutie]

Hey there, I have another take on driving for ya! We are seattlelites too and drove down to Disney 2 years ago with a 5 year old, a 3 year old and an 8 month old. lol (yeah, we are just crazy like that!) Anywhoo...we left our first day at night time hoping our kids would sleep through most of the driving...ummm yeah, NO. We DID stop, but not until we got into Redding. The husband and I were both incredibly frazzled by that point though and the kids were bored, exhausted and miserable. We just stayed in Redding for one night and then the jaunt to Disney was relatively short the next day. It worked well(ish) I guess. The drive was not so fun (as can be imagined with 3 little kids!!) but also not too terribly hellacious either. Just really not such a great start to something that is supposed to be amazingly fun, for sure!! I would definitely avoid driving again at all costs for future trips. Wastes soooo much time on a boring (nothing pretty to look at) drive and adds extra stress that ya honestly just don't need before getting to Disneyland!!! A couple months ago, we went again and we flew, SO, sooooo much better, times about a million!! 2.5 hours versus 22 hours is definitely worth the extra expense (if there is any), however, in this particular case, we got cheap tickets by purchasing early, and because of gas, it actually would have cost MORE to drive!! The hubs and I are going alone again here in Sep-Oct and we got a SLAMMIN deal on flights through JetBlue! Only $69 each way!! We found it to cost over $500 to drive down before, so if we were bringing our whole family this time, it would only cost $552 to fly, $52 extra is TOTALLY worth saving 20 hours of travel time AND the obligatory added stress ANY day! lol So yea, while driving is doable, take it from a Dis-er who's experienced both first hand. I would HIGHLY recommend checking out jetblue or even other airlines through Priceline or Hotwire for inexpensive flights instead. Your trip will be SO much better!!

I totally understand where you're coming from! We seem to always have the flying vs. driving debate in our house....and it really comes down to cost every single time for us.

Since our trips are NOT all about Disney, we are usually in SoCal for 10 days to 2 weeks. Renting a car always factors into our cost when flying. So even though we only have to buy 3 plane tickets, we have the added expense of car rental. In the end, it usually comes out to be "a wash". Personally, flying is WAY more stressful for my family then driving. Funny how each family is so different huh. So if money is about the same, we will always choose to drive rather then fly. Of course if I had 3 kiddos, I would probably fly too!

Another tip is to try giving your kids melatonin. I've mentioned it on another thread here (I think it was the flying vs driving debate thread) and it works great. It's a natural herbal supplement that aids in sleeping. I've been given the ok from my child's MD to use when needed but definitely check with your MD if it's something you might be interested in. I've only given it a few times to DS, once was Christmas Eve and another time on our drive to CA. Basically when his excitement would keep him up all night and prolong falling asleep.
DH also uses it more regularly in the place of a prescribed sleeping pill and for him, it works wonderfully.

 

[profa]

We just got back and had an awesome time. We took 11 days. Left Thurs AM and went straight to San Fran. Two nights there and then left for anaheim Sat morning and drove down the coast.
We were going to do the redwoods but couldn't fit in that and San Fran. So that will be a shorter drive next time and hit some of the oregon coast. Repeating a trip I did as a kid.

Anyway, we were in Anaheim 5 nights and then hit Las Vegas on the way back - 28/nt at the excalibur and fun times in the pool. Then to Boise to Dh's brother's house and then to Tri Cities for a dh's cousin's wedding and back to seattle on Sunday.
It was nice to do a loop. The kids did great.
We have 8, 7 and 4 yr old. No problems.
I have friends who left over the weekend and they drive straight there but have 3 adult drivers.
Each kid got a car desk thing, a new book and a new movie. If you have any other questions. I am happy to help.

 

[Here4mydisneyfix]

Since our trips are NOT all about Disney

GASP! I cannot believe you just said that! That's a disgrace to all things Disney!! Walt would be so ashamed.

Bwhahahaha, I am totally kidding!

I get the rental car thing, that can be pricey if you want to go to lots of other places for sure! We have family we visit in Cali sometimes, so yea, having your vehicle can be handy! Thanks for the tips on the melatonin, that's interesting, I will have to look into that!

 

[SplashMo]

Thanks for all of the tips and thoughts! We have myself, DW, DD17, DS14 and DS9.

 

[MICKEYFIL]

Before we had our DD (now 4 years old) my DH and I drove from Vancouver Island to DLR and camped there (when they had the campground which is now DTD)...we stopped and stayed a night in Petalluma just outside of SF in a KOA and loved our stay there and got to visit SF as well.

You are lucky that you stopped. As a kid we drove three times from Vancouver Island to Disneyland with a father who was determined to get there as fast as possible. My neck is still kinked from sleeping in the backseat.