I'm trying to plan an upcoming family trip to Galveston, and I have a question about the route. Google Maps recommends that we take HWY 71 to I-10 to I-45 on the drip down. However, if I reverse the direction and ask for the best route from Galveston back home, it recommends that we take I-45 to HWY 290! I assume that this is somewhat of an anomaly, but I still wonder -- on the trip down, should we consider taking HWY 290 instead of HWY 71? I have no questions for the trip back -- we're taking a slight detour through Luling to get BBQ at City Market.
Don't take 290. The Houston contingent will know better than me, but the one thing I would look at is depending on the time of day, you should exit I-10 at the Sam Houston tollway and take that around to 45. I've taken that road before with zero traffic, while I-10, 610 and 45 downtown are a mess.
We'll probably hit Houston at around 11 AM, but I'm still more than happy to take the tollway if that makes sense.
yeah the fastest way no doubt will be 71 to I-10 to Beltway 8 (a toll road) to 45. the lights leaving Austin on 290, plus the 3 or so small towns that you go through, plus the mess getting into Houston should be enough to keep you off of it. 71 only has a few lights leaving town, and 3 lights in Bastrop, and it is smooth sailing after that. I also never would have thought Luling a "slight detour", but for City Market it is worth it. Just make sure you are not coming back on a Sunday since they are closed.
DO NOT take 290!!! If the nightmare of traffic does not get you then going through downtown (I10 to I45) or the Galleria (I10-I610-I45) will. I live near the convergence of I10 and 290 to 610 and will always take SH71 to 10 to get home. As mentioned earlier, take Beltway 8 and aviod going through Houston. The Beltway will have far less traffic and save you at least 30 minutes.
I don't think the detour through Luling will add more than 30-45 minutes to our drive home. Basically, we'll take I-10 all the way to Hwy 183 instead of Hwy 71. I've never eaten at City Market, and I'm not going to get "that close" without giving it a shot. It will be on a Monday, so they'll be open. Thanks . . .
Have driven from Austin to Galveston about 20 times. The drive absolutely sux balls. 71 to I-10 to Beltway 8 to I-45 is definitely the fastest way to go.
i'll add a caveat to that last post if you have a toll tag/ez tag/texas tag/whatever they call it now. go 71 to i-10 and when you get to katy, take the 99/grand parkway exit and head south for about 5 miles. take the westpark tollway east to beltway 8 (no toll booths so you have to have a tag), then take that to 45. you will avoid almost all congestion if you do that.
Just curious . . . what's so bad about the drive? I've been to Galveston several times, and I don't recall the drive being bad. (I just don't remember how I got there!) No toll tag, so I can't take CaptainEd's detour.
what's wrong with that drive is that it's about an hour too long. i think most people making it are used to either houston to galveston or houston to austin. you know what drive REALLY sucks? austin to lake charles, for the purpose of gamblings.
I think it depends on where in Austin you're leaving from. The wife and I live in Cedar Park, so we take 290. Even when we were living in north Austin, we would take 290.
We're near 2222 & Mopac. I can usually get to I-35 and Ben White in about the same time as I can get to I-35 and 2222. It all depends on how long it takes me to cross the river . . . and I have my methods.
if you're at 2222 and mopac, take 2222 to airport, then take airport to 71; then follow the directions from above from there....I've never taken the exit in Katy over to the toll; interesting..
Another caveat -- beware the Nasa Road 1 / Baybrook Mall area. We went down to Galveston a couple of weeks ago and it took about 45 minutes to go 15 miles through a construction zone there. Check traffic before you go. If that area looks bad, you can carry on the Beltway one exit past 45 South to Highway 3. Take it down to League City and get back on the freeway there.
Jimmy, from your house I'd take 290 E to Highway 95 in Elgin, S. to Bastrop & then on East from there. If I was trying to get on the OTHER side of Houston (as I did a bunch of times when I was going back & forth to / from Boremont) then 290 all the way is my preferred method. What you're looking to do is essentially undercut as much of the madness you can.
How about this route (leaving at 3pm tomorrow): Austin to Altair via HW-71 Altair to Gerken Rd via HW-90, then Gerken Rd to Fairchilds-Long Point Rd to Brumbelow Rd to 1462. 1462 to HW 6 all the way in to Galveston. If you use Google Maps, you can now drag and drop the route line and this looks to be the shortest "country" route. This would be only 214 miles and would seem to avoid Houston. Thoughts?
That's probably not a bad route, Lazy Engineer, especially if they fire up the construction on I-45 around Clear Lake. Don't mess with 6 west of Alvin though -- way too many stoplights over there. By the way, I think that was one of the only escape routes out of H-Town during the Rita Runaway Scrape.
be sure to check out any contruction closings to i-10 etcThe Link Last time I went to seabrook we got screwed by this, definitely know whats going on because it can be a nightmare. I
i've made this trip plenty of times.. 71 east I-10 east 610 south 45 south all the way down construction around clear lake/ league city can be a bit of a pain but its eased up a little as they widened that part of 45 again.
