My flight back home leaves from San Diego (only nonstop I could find), and I'm staying in downtown LA (Sheraton). Any area residents/veteran travelers got a guess as to what time I should leave the hotel Friday morning in order to be pulling into the rent car place at the SD airport by noon?
I used to live in Long Beach (I escaped) and travel to Newport Beach routinely. I'd allow 1 hr 40 min to be on the safe side. That time of day the only traffic back-ups (assuming no accidents) would be where I-5 meets the I-405 right at Irvine. If it happens to be raining(doubtful) at considerable time. They go crazier in the rain.
It is about a 2 hour drive from LA to SD. I would proably allow 1 1/2 hours for traffic. So about 3.5 hours would be close to right. You could do that drive in less time depending on how fast you drive and time of day. There will always be pockets of heavy traffic up and down that stretch of I-5. You want to leave at 8 AM to get you to SD by noon. I know that seems like a lot of time to spare, but it is too difficult to tell when there will be something out there that is going to cause a traffic delay.
Ignatius, SportsICT is right. Sorry. I was thinking about the drive from Long Beach down to San Diego. Hook Em.
nothing more stressful than being in stuck in traffic when trying to get to the airport for a flight. Leave yourself plenty of time unless you enjoy stress and drama. I recall being a mere 5 miles from LAX with 2 hours left before my flight and just barely making it. The lack of control one feels in bumper to bumper gridlock when you absolutely have to be somewhere drives me to insanity.
wow. I would leave early. 730 ish. Just to be extra careful. Once you get past the above-mentioned 5/405, you can anticipated another slowdown around the 78 in Oceanside, and another at the 5/805 in Del Mar. After that, it's easy. On second thought...Nine AM should put you at the rent car place by noon.
