Driving Tips from DLR to Santa Monica and San Diego?

[sunb75]

My daughter and I are at DLR now and want to make a trip to Santa Monica tomorrow (Saturday) and back to Anaheim. Then, on Sunday, we are driving to San Diego for a few days.
Will the traffic be super crazy? Any navigation tips?
THANKS

 

[bcla]

You can never predict Southern California traffic even on a weekend. On our last Disneyland trip we went from our hotel in Anaheim to the Getty Center (a lot of the same freeways you would take to Santa Monica) on a Sunday and it took almost 2 hours.

 

[my*gracie*girl]

I think you should prepare for super crazy and then be pleased if it is not. We had a horrible drive from Santa Monica (where they closed the beach right as we drove up because of lightening!!!!!) back to DLR on our July trip last year. Horrible! If it isn't bad, then you can just feel pleased! Ha!

 

[bethbuchall]

We drove from San Diego to Anaheim a couple of Sundays ago. I've never experienced California traffic before. It was very congested and slow for a while. The thing that scared me the most in the beginning were the motorcycles. They drive up the lane lines between cars fast! It totally freaked me out the first few times they came up on me, but I did eventually get used to it. Overall, I didn't find it horrible, but we were barely moving for miles. I was relaxed about it, but my husband was getting annoyed. Fortunately, I was the driver.

 

[heybets30]

In any CA traffic, our rules are - go to the bathroom BEFORE getting in the car - like right before, make sure you have a fresh cool drink with you, a snack, full tank of gas. It took us over 2 hours to get between Universal Hollywood and Disneyland - 40 miles on more than one occasion. If your daughter is younger, make sure she has something with which to keep her occupied in the car. Even if she's older, she may want a book, guidebook, something to whittle away the time. And, if you make it there in reasonable time, just be pleasantly surprised, and don't expect it to be like that on the drive back

There is nothing quite like seeing seriously a major highway, with 10 lanes of traffic, completely at a standstill. Unbelievable. I thought Chicagoland had traffic issues!! It always makes me less stressed driving on our highways when I get back.

Also, make sure you bring a phone charger - my iPhone nav helped reroute us a few times around 2 big accidents. Phone would've been dead, though, if I didn't have the charger plugged into the phone the whole drive.

 

[Purrkins]

If driving to San Diego, leave super early in the morning or after dinner on Sunday. Should be OK driving around 7PM, and you'll still have light for your drive almost the entire way.

 

[SecretPoohLove]

So on a Saturday at noon in November how long would the drive take from San Diego to Anaheim? We have to get the Rundisney packet by 4 pm I think

 

[pjlla]

This is depressing. I leave for San Diego on Thursday night and will be driving from there to Anaheim Sunday late afternoon.... possibly as early as 3pm or as late as 5pm (whenever the conference ends). The thought of sitting in traffic for hours is really giving me pains! I have 9pm WOC Dessert party reservations and I do NOT have my park tickets yet..... I have vouchers that require that I stop at the ticket window first PLUS I had planned to go to my hotel, check in, and park there. Now I'm worried about possibly being late!!

ETA: I just looked at the conference schedule. The last speaker is at 3pm and exhibit halls close at 3pm and the grand prize drawing is at 4pm. Wondering if DD would be willing to skip the last speaker so that we can be on the road by 3pm. .............P

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

I think the biggest problem with Southern California traffic is that it's extremely unpredictable, and when it's bad the congestion stretches for miles. Sometimes you leave 3 hours in advance and it only takes 45 minutes, and you wonder why you left so early. So the next time, you allow for an hour and end up getting there an hour and a half late.

There is some traffic on weekends near popular hang out areas since people are obviously going out on weekends, but I never found weekends as bad as weekday rush hour, fortunately, with the big exception of major events, especially sporting events. You need to know if there are any games going on: Dodgers , Angels, LA Rams games (this is a new problem, lol), Lakers, Clippers, Padres, and maybe NHL games also as well as college football (USC, UCLA).


The other major problem is traffic accidents, though you can't predict that obviously, you just have to look at Google Maps/Waze, and/or Sigalert:
http://www.sigalert.com/Map.asp?lat=33.984259&lon=-118.223015&z=2

Also road construction. I remember one time I was driving home to Orange County from LA at 3 AM, and they had shut down I-5 and diverting all traffic off the highway. Took like 4 hours. There was also a stretch along I-5 in between OC and LA that I felt like was under construction for 5 years.

 

[Purrkins]

Google Maps is pretty damn accurate in alerting you to traffic delays and offering reroutes. Won't make cars go away but will let you know what's coming up ahead and offer alternative routes if one becomes quicker.

 

[pjlla]

I just downloaded Waze on my new phone so hopefully between that and Google Maps I can avoid the worst of it! Thanks.....P

 

[bethbuchall]

Waze worked really well for us on our cross country drive (as long as I had service...)