Disney to LAX (and other traffic questions)

[BostonJP]

I'm flying into LAX for a long weekend in September and will be staying on Disney property my last evening in California, before departing at noon on a Tuesday. I have been led to believe that Los Angeles freeways are usually parking lots and so trying to develop my best strategy for getting back to LAX before my flight (and returning a rental car at Enterprise).

I would like to be at least in the security line by 10:30 AM. Here in Boston, I would just leave after the worst part of rush hour (traffic lightens quite a bit at exactly 9 AM), but is that even an option in Los Angeles? To get from Anaheim to Enterprise to the airport by 10:30, what time would I need to leave the hotel?

On a side note, how bad is traffic on a Saturday? I land before 3 PM and want to try to visit the beach before dinner in Riverside but I don't know if this is feasible.

 

[tayalltheway]

LA traffic is essentially impossible to predict. It might be terribly backed up and it might be fine. I would always give yourself at least 2 hours to get from Anaheim to your first destination in LA (so 2 hours before you needed to be at Enterprise). That basically has you driving right at rush hour as well, so maybe tack on another half-hour just in case? You could also plan on leaving that early, but then pull up Waze or some other traffic app before you head out and check if traffic is actually bad. Worst-case scenario is that you're already up and ready to go and then find out you can actually afford to kill an hour or so at DTD.

Traffic on a Saturday might be lighter, but it also might be bad. Real-time info is always your friend when it comes to SoCal traffic, so you might need to adjust your plans at the spur of the moment. Going to Riverside is mostly the 91, which is one of those freeways that can sometimes be absolutely heinous.

 

[figment_jii]

I don't have any specific traffic information for you, but I would start keeping an eye on the real-time traffic information from places like Sigalert to get a sense of how traffic is flowing on a given freeway at a given time.

 

[BostonJP]

Excellent info, thanks for your replies!! Right now (10 AM Pacific time) per Google maps it looks like moderate traffic and I can get from the hotel to the airport in less than one hour. I will play it by ear, and perhaps I can leave super early and find one last fun thing to do near the airport before the very long flight home.

 

[SMD]

Is this the Tuesday after Labor Day or the Tuesday that one of the Jewish Holidays falls on? If so, I'd suggest leaving no later than 8am due to the probable increase in security lines. (This will also slightly depend on which terminal you're trying to get to.) Otherwise, if you leave between 8:30 - 8:45 you should be able to get to your rental counter by 10am. Of course, one accident that shuts down a lane or a back up at the rental car can add a lot of time very easily.

As far as the beach, of you just want to see the beach I'd recommend stopping by Dockweiler. Riverside is in the opposite direction of the coast, but from LAX you could just take Imperial to the beach and that would be the closest one.

 

[BostonJP]

Is this the Tuesday after Labor Day or the Tuesday that one of the Jewish Holidays falls on?

Good question - it's the latter, September 15. My day in DL and DCA is the 14th; that day and my flight fall on the last day of Rosh Hashanah. I know next to nothing about Southern California's Jewish population but you expect it to busy on the highway that morning? Do you think the parks will be busy as well? (while the primary purpose of my trip is to see family, the impetus for choosing that specific weekend was because I expected it to be light crowds at Disney!)

 

[SMD]

LAUSD schools are closed on the 14th. Only a small percentage of students observe the holiday. The reason I asked as it pertains to LAX is that I know a lot of people fly home for high holidays and when they fall on week days the early morning security lines tend to be long. It don't expect it to be that bad at 10:30, but there can still be after effects. Are you checking a bag? The problem with 10:30 is you're going to hit traffic no matter what. You could leave really early, like 7am and then you'll likely end up with 3 1/2 hours in the terminal. But this is rush hour and LAX and if you leave at 9am, things can and do happen to make the drive take a long time. If you do go early, look for stuff to do around LAX. I'll recommend a Randy's Donuts stop.

 

[BostonJP]

Yikes, I hope the LAUSD day off doesn't have much of an impact on crowds (touringplans has both parks at 2/10 that day).

Thanks for the info though, this is very helpful!

 

[MommyJKM]

As a former Southern California resident, you cannot predict traffic but you should always give yourself double the time that Google Maps or Mapquest suggests.

LAX is also a large airport. If you want to be IN SECURITY by 10:30am - returned car, checked luggage - you need to leave Anaheim at 7am in my opinion.

 

[BostonJP]

LAX is also a large airport. If you want to be IN SECURITY by 10:30am - returned car, checked luggage - you need to leave Anaheim at 7am in my opinion.

Holy heck, I was thinking about leaving the hotel at 8 based on the first few responses. This would of course put me in the worst part of rush hour but I wanted to avoid boring the kids to tears for hours in a terminal before a full day of air travel.

 

[mrkyyyle]

I think 7am is a bit early to leave (coming from someone who lives right by DLR and regularly flies out of LAX) in rush hour you can usually bank on about 1-1.5 hours from DLR to LAX (this would be in the 6am-10am time frame or so). Knowing that the car rental spots are off site will obviously add a bit of time (maybe 20-30 minutes to get the car dropped and be dropped off at the terminal). Being a Tuesday morning I don't know that airport traffic (security lines) would be especially bad. I'd probably plan on leaving around 8-830, check Waze or something around 730 am to see if there are any accidents etc that will impact the drive time.

 

[MommyJKM]

I think 7am is a bit early to leave (coming from someone who lives right by DLR and regularly flies out of LAX) in rush hour you can usually bank on about 1-1.5 hours from DLR to LAX (this would be in the 6am-10am time frame or so). Knowing that the car rental spots are off site will obviously add a bit of time (maybe 20-30 minutes to get the car dropped and be dropped off at the terminal). Being a Tuesday morning I don't know that airport traffic (security lines) would be especially bad. I'd probably plan on leaving around 8-830, check Waze or something around 730 am to see if there are any accidents etc that will impact the drive time.

I don't know...90 minute drive, have to drop off car off site (20mins), get kids and luggage on shuttle to terminal (25mins), wait in line to check in bags (15mins), wait in security line (15mins) ...

Listen, I've been known to happily be that last person boarding the plane, but when we fly with kids out of LAX or SNA, I HATE being rushed and stressed. That was why I said give yourself 3 hours. Also, traffic could be worse since Monday was the holiday and everyone is going back to work.

Just my 2 cents ;-)

 

[SMD]

Wouldn't they be less bored in the terminal after a 50 min to 1 hour drive than after sitting in stop and go traffic for 90 minutes or more? It would also depend if you're planning to do breakfast in the room or actually planning a sit down before you leave? If it's a sit down, then I'd just leave a little earlier and have breakfast before dropping of the car.