How long would the drive be to Seaworld from Anaheim

[mad hatter fan]

How long would it probably take us to get to SeaWorld from Anaheim for a weekday 9am opening in July? DH likes the idea of not changing hotels (we are trying the Park vue) for our Disneyland trip this July and just having Anaheim be our base. We would be staying almost two weeks and spending 6 days at DLR, a day at Seaworld, a beach day or two, and spending time with family.

Is it doable to just drive down to Seaworld for the day? I am familiar with the drive as this will be our 9th or 10th visit to the area and we had driven to legoland from anaheim before. I just don't know if it was a week day. How bad would the traffic be and about how long would it take? I figure if we try it, we would do it at the beginning of our trip when we are still on MN time.

 

[Pinocchio #1 Fan]

It's doable, but you're gonna have to leave OC by 5:30, absolutely no later than 6:00. That should get you to San Diego ahead of the traffic, and you will have time for a nice breakfast in SD before Sea World opens. I highly recommend this place:
http://thebrokenyolkcafe.com/

You don't want to leave SD until after 7:00, or you will hate the traffic you're sitting in. Good luck- Sea World is a blast!

 

[Camonkeygirl]

The drive usually takes about an hour and a half to two hours, but all it takes is one accident to make it 2+ hours. The good side is that you can get into the car pool lanes as you head down.

 

[candy0730]

We are also planning on driving from DL to SW. Are any of the roads from Anaheim to San Diego toll roads? And how does the carpool lane work? We don't have those where I am from. Thanks!

 

[skiingfast]

We are also planning on driving from DL to SW. Are any of the roads from Anaheim to San Diego toll roads? And how does the carpool lane work? We don't have those where I am from. Thanks!

No toll roads.

If you have 2 or more people in the car you can use the carpool lanes in the center of the road. Just merge all the way to the left, and there are bumps in the road with gaps to merge across in and out of the carpool lane They are sometimes faster, but when traffic is heavy they slow down too, just not as bad.

The bad part about the carpool lane is it doesn't go the whole way. Just from DLR to the southern part of metro LA. This is about a third of the distance. So as mentioned above about weekday traffic, if you are going on a weekday you will wish they went the whole way, or want to avoid the high traffic time periods by drivin early or late.

 

[Mercenary]

Question... so leaving DL at say 8 to 8:30 OK? Maybe get to to sea world by 10 am on a weekday? On the flip side leaving sea word or SD around 7 pm late enough to be back to DL. Resorts at 9?

 

[Carmatts]

Question... so leaving DL at say 8 to 8:30 OK? Maybe get to to sea world by 10 am on a weekday? On the flip side leaving sea word or SD around 7 pm late enough to be back to DL. Resorts at 9?

Anytime after 7 to 7:30, you will hit traffic as soon as you get on the freeway until the 55 Freeway interchange (about 5 miles south of Anaheim.) It usually lightens up after you pass the 55 with sporadic pockets of slowing here and there. There will be a lot of cars on the road, but the 5 has a lot of traffic lanes plus a car pool lane. Use the car pool lane. Most people are driving solo to work this time of day. If you left at 8:30, I would add 20-30 minutes to the commute. Of course if there is an accident, all bets are off.

My guess is leaving SD around 7PM, there would be the tail end of rush hour in SD and then smooth sailing from there. you should be back by 9PM.

 

[Anaheim boy]

Another problem with leaving 8-8:30 from anaheim would be you would end up hitting traffic down SD side most likely going into the city. North of La Jolla around the Wild Animal Park and south it can get pretty bad, so you may add time on that part of your journey and may not get to SW for 10am. Remember you'll have two sets of traffic to deal with, LA and then SD. If you want to be more relaxed and hit the opening, I'd do Pinocchio's way and head down early and catch a nice breakfast before opening.