Driving ?'s from San Diego About This Page:

[Donald_Quackers]

I'm going to be in San Diego in July (20-27) for the Comic Con, and was planning to be there a couple days early to take advantage of the proximity to DL.

I'm staying in the Manchester Grand Hyatt, and was planning to drive up and back a couple of days as opposed to getting a room up there, and was going to stay up there the whole day.

My current plan is to leave the hotel (not get up, but be in the car and out) by 6am to get to Anaheim via I-5, stay there the whole day, then head back. I will be bringing my TomTom along to help guide the way.

Does this sound feasible, or am I just looking for trouble?

[ChristyLeni]

6am is a crappy time for traffic on the 5, your hour and half journey may take more like 3 depending on traffic. If it were me, I'd wait till 8:30 and make it up there for about 10am. The rush hour traffic should be lower by then. If you are set on getting up that early, I would take the PCH, it will take you just as long as the 5 with traffic and it's a beautiful drive. Everyone should drive the Cali coast once. If you are looking for anything else to do between DL and SD let me know, I used to be a local. I can at least tell you where the good eats are as that's really the only thing that matters to me!

[Donald_Quackers]

Thanks! I was hoping that I would be on the other end doing a reverse commute from SD, but it sounds like that's not the case.

Is PCH something like 'Pacific Coastal Highway'?

[w-steele]

What day of the week were you planing on driving up to DL? The other poster is correct if you drive up any day other than Sat or Sun. We live in S.D. and are Premium Annual Passholders to DL and we always drive up on a Sat morning (1 hour 20 minute drive), leaving about 6am and get to DL about 8am after stopping off at the motel that we are going to spend the night at. We then return to S.D. later in the day on Sun. Mon thru Fri if you head north to DL out of S.D. you are looking for extra heavy traffic thru several bad areas. One is Sorrento Valley in the area where I-5 and I-805 intersect and that traffic can continue bad up north to Solana Beach. The other area is further north and that is usually in the area where I-5 and I-405 split off (about 5 miles on either side of this point). If there is going to be more that one in the car, you can use the HOV lanes going thru both of these areas and it will help some but maybe not all that much. Leave at 8:30 and you can figure it will take about 2 hours, maybe 2 1/2 hours worse case. I hope this info is helpful for you.

[Donald_Quackers]

I was originally planning Monday - Tuesday, but might change my plans to Sat-Sun.

I haven't even purchased park tickets yet.

[disney777]

I agree, traffic is a mess on weekdays. It's a long drive in the best of circumstances, but any little accident, and your commute can turn into a nightmare. I live 40 miles away from DL, and I'm lucky to be going against traffic on weekday mornings. It still takes me about 40-50 minutes to get to DL. I either leave the parks before 2:00pm or wait until later in the evening.

[w-steele]

I can tell you that going in July, the crowds will be about the same everyday of the week so, if you haven't made plans as of yet, I would opt for a weekend visit to DL. Your driving will be nicer going both directions. Take the word of someone who does it atleast once every month if not twice and always on a weekend. If you leave San Diego about 6am you can figure on getting to DL sometime around 7:45am. By the time you get parked and on/off the tram and at the maingate, it will be between 8 and 8:15. That is what we do and then we eat breakfast at Carnation Cafe and we always ask for Bob to be our server, he's so cool.

[DopeyGirl]

Originally Posted by w-steele

I can tell you that going in July, the crowds will be about the same everyday of the week so, if you haven't made plans as of yet, I would opt for a weekend visit to DL.

That's what I was thinking as well. If you're plans aren't concrete, the weekend would be better to visit, as far as avoiding the gridlock goes.

[ChristyLeni]

Yeppers, PCH is Pacific Coast Highway and it's a beautiful drive, plus it gets you right up next to those beaches you see in Baywatch! (the ones I wouldn't go near because my entire time in Cali I was pregnant!!) Would it be feasible to take a leisurly drive up there one late afternoon and stay overnite? Then you'd be there when the parks open and you'd get to see some of the rest of California?? Just a thought.

[Donald_Quackers]

After going over my plans, I'm beginning to think about a one night stand in the DL hotel one night. I'm glad I have time to work this out.