We will be in San Diego in mid September and was thinking about driving to Universal Studios in LA. It looks to be about a two hour drive but I have heard numerous horror stories about California traffic. Does it make a difference if you leave San Diego at like 6am? Any suggestions?
Update:Forgot to mention, this will be on a Saturday
Copyright © 2024 Q2A.ES - All rights reserved.
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
EDIT: Saturday at 6:00 is probably a good time. OC will get busy around 9:00 when the malls start to open. There is no Northbound traffic in San Diego, most is southbound on weekends with people heading TO San Diego. LA is always busy. Lots of people heading out of town or doing shopping on Saturday morning
___________________________________________
Time will make a big difference, but 6 AM will make it worse.
First, I am assuming you are talking about a weekday. The weekend traffic patterns will be slightly different. Weekends mean no San Diego commute but OC and LA have traffic all the time, everyday; less commercial traffic but more people out and about for the weekend.
LA freeways can be a mess. One accident and you will lose an hour of your life. You have to pad all your travel times to accommodate traffic accidents.
Orange County traffic can be bad as well and if you leave at 6:00 AM you will catch the San Diego Northbound commute as well as the Orange County commute (you don't want to be in the OC at 7:00 am)
A better time would be to leave San Diego around 8:30, that gets you to OC around 9:30 AM, and LA around 10:15-10:45. You'll miss most of the morning commute.
An alternative would be leave REAL early like 4:00 AM
The good news is that you can take the car pool lane starting in Orange County most of the way.
BTW when you get to Orange County tune to KNX 1070 for trafffic reports every few minutes. If there is an accident, you will know if a lane is closed and which side of the highway to merge to.
Also, September is the best weather month of the year. It's really the peak of summer and the tourist have started to go home so things are less crowded. Good choce.
September is also football season and the Chargers have two home games: Sept 16 (home opener) and Sep 23 against the Titans and the Falcons. Single game tickets just went on sale this week
http://www.chargers.com/
Traffic To San Diego
Located in Southern California, not definately not the Mexico edge, San Diego could be the oldest area in California, established in 1769 and if you wish to know a city with a stunning natural elegance and a nice environment, with mild temperatures and lots of sunshine with hotelbye you must start. In San Diego you are able to visit: museums, gardens, Spanish Colonial type structure found in Balboa Park, the entire world famous San Diego Zoo, and the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. SeaWorld San Diego is one of many city's main attractions, especially for families. It is situated along the waterfront in Mission Bay. For a lot of American's SeaWorld has been quite a long time family tradition, having been with us because the 1960s. Among the shows would be the assortment of reveals offering monster whales, sea lions, dolphins, and different sea life. You can find all kinds of rides from roller coasters crashing in to water, to more sedate carnival type rides for tots. SeaWorld can be an aquarium that enables for up close talks about sharks and other sea animals that may be observed via an fat canal, along side feel tanks, and shut activities with dolphins and people of tidal pools.
If you want to visit the popular Hollywood then you definitely need to create a visit to Los Angeles and this hotelbye is the place to start. In Hollywood you might find landmarks such as the Walk of Fame (stars on the sidewalk), the Hollywood Sign, the Hollywood Bowl and more. Los Angeles can also be a area for the whole family since this place is your home to several world-famous amusement parks like Universal Studios, Disneyland and much more. In Los Angeles you can also came to take pleasure from the warm climate and beaches therefore regardless of your pursuits, Los Angeles makes the right getaway.
I recommend taking the 710 south to the 405 south. The 5 frwy is always congested, no matter what time of the day it is. However, traffic is unpredictable no matter what freeway you take.