Driving from Northern Cali... About This Page:

[Laura Jayne]

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything.. apologies if there abvious answers to my questions already on the board.. I skimmed through first but didn't see anything.

My mum and I are planning a short trip to DL in two weeks. She lives in Northern California (Tracy, San Joaquin Valley, Bay Area) and I'm flying in from KY. I have not made the drive to DL since I was 17 (7 years ago) and even then, I slept most of the time.

What I want to know is what to expect as far as time, traffic, and difficulty. Mum has volenteered to drive the whole way except for through the "Grapevine" and she's worried about hitting LA traffic.

So I guess what I want to know is:

**By leaving around 5pm on Friday the 14th of Sept, how much traffic will we encounter? I know they'll be rush hour traffic when we first leave but it should taper off, yes?

**Mapquest shows the directions as basically driving down I-5 the whoel way and the trip taking 5 and a half hours. How long does it typically take you?

**What is the Grapevine and is it really that scary? When do you hit the Grapevine during the trip and how long does it last?

**If, again, we leave at 5pm and it takes Mapquest's estimate of 5 hours and 30 minutes, we'll get to Disney at 10:30pm... do you think we'll hit traffic in the LA area?

Thanks so much for the help!!!

LJ

[duck addict]

The grapevine is freeway (just a big upgrade and downgrade in each direction.) It is freeway and should be no problem.

I have one routing suggestion. I-5 through the middle of LA is one of the worst pieces of freeway ever.

As you enter the LA basin itself take the 405 (San Diego Freeway) which arcs toward the coast (goes by LA airport and Long Beach) . Take the 22 HWY (freeway) aka the Garden Grove Freeway. Exit on Harbor blvd and go North of Harbor Blvd to DL. (It is about 4 miles). The traffic on this route is much easier. (It is about 10 miles shorter, but you could save at LEAST a 1/2 hour driving.)

[snoozin]

I'm always surprised when I hear people concerned about 'the Grapevine.' (and I always start dancing, too.... heard it on the Grapevine... arrgh, I digress!). It's just a wide sweeping freeway pass over a 'mountain' (it's not very big).

Traffic in LA shouldn't be that bad that time of night, although it amazes me that with 9 lanes each way how busy the freeway thru LA can be at any time of day or night.

[aka pastor guy]

For folks who haven't driven it in a long time, their memories of the Grapevine are of a two-lane winding road that ate cars for breakfast & spit them out onto the side of the highway.

Now, as other folks have said, it's 3-4 lanes across the entire way... only problematic if there's snow or mudslides (neither of which is likely AT ALL in September).

My gut feeling is that I-5 wouldn't be too bad at that time of night... but Don (aka Duck) is right - that's one ugly set of freeway interchanges right around downtown. (I just drove this route in July & did those interchanges at 10 am in the morning - yikes.)

The time estimate seems about right... it's 4 hours or so from Fresno to DLR.

[zacksmom_1993]

The route I like to take is I5 South to the 210 East to the 605 South and then back onto the 5 just north of Anaheim. One of the problems with the 5 is that there are no carpool lanes on it through LA County. And, on this route there are carpool lanes the whole way. I've been travelling just that time of night lots of time (leave work a little early on a Friday, and bam! you're in LA at 9:30,) and there still seems to be a lot of traffic. I'd just never risk it on the 5. There's nothing more frustrating than sitting in traffic for 2 hours 25 miles from Disneyland.

It's about the same distance as Don's detour and it's probably 6 his way half dozen mine. But going this way is almost always 6.25 hours of driving on the dot. Considering you have about a 45 minute head start on me, I'd say 5.5 hours is a great guess. Have fun!

[Laura Jayne]

Thanks, everyone! The info and suggestions are very very much appreciated.

The only thing I'll have to worry about now is making sure mom is asleep before I take one of the alternate LA routes that have been suggested above so she won't flip out!

Can't wait... less than two weeks and I'll be there!

LJ

[Laura Jayne]

Hey,

Thanks so much for the alt. routes. We ended up using the second one as it put us back on I5 and our hotel (HoJo) is directly off of the ramp.

On the way home, there was some major traffic on I5 and I think we would have been stuck for ages had it not been for the tips given.

Thanks for making our trip easier!!

LJ