Sacramento/NorCal Dis'ers: Best time to drive home?

[egritz]

We'll be driving home on a weekday next month, what's the best time to leave Anaheim for the Sacramento/Roseville area to avoid traffic. We shouldn't have to make many stops (1 or 2 short stops probably). It will be a Tuesday, not a holiday weekend.

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

Depends how fast you drive I suppose. I would say morning traffic in Orange County is bad from 8-10 AM, then ~3 PM to like 7:30 or 8 PM.

Maybe if you leave Anaheim around 10 AM you could get home around 4:30 PM or so? Or leave around 2 PM, and get home around 8:30 PM?

 

[Raidermouse]

We leave between 10-11am, the only other choice is before 6am but have never tried that yet. It's LA so there will be some slow downs here and there getting out but it has never been anything unexpected.

 

[lorijohnhill]

I leave either around 11am or between 6-7 pm.

 

[egritz]

Thanks everyone! We'll plan to leave around 10. Hubby doesn't want to get home too late since he has to work the next morning. Hopefully we will get through LA traffic quick enough to beat the Sacramento traffic.

 

[ParkHopper1]

From someone that used to drive up and down the state weekly...10a-2p is your window to get out and through LA with the least amount of traffic. You wanna be north of Downtown LA by 2pm. At 9a you will hit some traffic from DL to LA, but is should not be horrible if you wanna leave earlier.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

We usually try for between 10 AM and 1 PM. My parents and in-laws get up and leave around 5:30 AM and brag about how fast they make it home, but I like to get up and do something fun first before heading home. I'm usually willing to head out at 5:30 AM to get to Disney but not to just go home. Lol.

 

[kirstie101]

We usually try for between 10 AM and 1 PM. My parents and in-laws get up and leave around 5:30 AM and brag about how fast they make it home, but I like to get up and do something fun first before heading home. I'm usually willing to head out at 5:30 AM to get to Disney but not to just go home. Lol.

This is our usual leaving plan to. 10 at the earliest and 1 at the latest.

 

[GatorChris]

Seems like the last few years, even leaving between 11am and 3pm has been pretty busy. We could leave a little earlier and maybe miss the lunch traffic, but if I have an AP, and spending every last minute I can in the parks. That's just the way it is. What's an extra 10-15 minutes in traffic for an extra hour or two in the parks.

 

[Nonsuch]

I also agree with the 11AM to 1PM departure window.
Traffic on 5 can be an issue anytime, due to never-ending construction and just too many cars.

One of many alternate routes: 5N to 91W (carpool ramp), to 605N, to 210W, to 210W (in Pasadena), to 5N
This route makes good use of carpool lanes, but 210 around Pasadena is sometimes as bad as 5.

 

[avalovesminnie]

Any tips for opposite direction? Leaving bay area around 9:30 or 10 to avoid morning traffic. I'm thinking we'd hit the valley around 3 so the start of traffic. Probably use an alternate route, do most people just look and see what looks less clogged? On a Friday if it matters. I need to get to the run Disney expo at DLH by 7:30 which sounds do able but I've been stuck before and our kids need a fair number of stops.

 

[ParkHopper1]

When going southbound, my plan was always to try and be to Downtown LA by 2pm...if not, wait to hit Downtown at 8pm or later. If I had to go through between 2p-8p...I knew to plan on just sitting in traffic.

 

[egritz]

Any tips for opposite direction? Leaving bay area around 9:30 or 10 to avoid morning traffic. I'm thinking we'd hit the valley around 3 so the start of traffic. Probably use an alternate route, do most people just look and see what looks less clogged? On a Friday if it matters. I need to get to the run Disney expo at DLH by 7:30 which sounds do able but I've been stuck before and our kids need a fair number of stops.

Is there any chance of leaving before the Bay Area traffic? Especially if you need several stops/breaks for the kiddos. We took two stops last year on our drive down. I think we left at 5am, arrived in Ahaheim right at 3pm and both stops were appx 1 hr each (for the kids to run around). This was from East of Sacramento.

This trip for us is a quick one so we are leaving our nearly 2 year old with grandparents. Looking forward to a quicker drive with just the 5 year old, aiming for 1 or 2 short stops for food/bathrooms (no more than 20 minutes each). We are unfortunately leaving around 10am on a Saturday though because I won't have time that week to pack before hand, so I will need to pack the morning of. FUN

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

Any tips for opposite direction? Leaving bay area around 9:30 or 10 to avoid morning traffic. I'm thinking we'd hit the valley around 3 so the start of traffic. Probably use an alternate route, do most people just look and see what looks less clogged? On a Friday if it matters. I need to get to the run Disney expo at DLH by 7:30 which sounds do able but I've been stuck before and our kids need a fair number of stops.

If you need to be there by 7:30 PM, I would leave like 7 am. If you get to the LA area after 3 PM, it could literally take you 3 hours to get from the area just north of LA to Anaheim. Imagine the eastbound traffic from SF to Oakland on the Bay Bridge at 5 PM, but doing that for 60 miles.

 

[tlovesdis]

Traffic is bad in the Bay Area and LA no matter when you leave it seems! We left at 5am once from the Bay Area on a Saturday, hit LA around 10:30ish and it was bumper to bumper. Once we left Anaheim on a Sunday at 9am and traffic was bumper to bumper all the way to Valencia!!!

You really just never know! The only time I've never hit traffic was once when we left at midnight! We got to our hotel in Anaheim by 6am!

Now I just go with it. I tried doing an alternate route once and it was just as bad. LA traffic just stinks!

 

[amyg1975]

My husband is the type that he wants to leave Anaheim at 3-4am to head home (Napa). Me, not my favorite, but I do it!

 

[Metalliman98]

We drive down Sunday, leaving 7-8 in the morning, and can usually make it by 1 or 2, even with a few stops. We come back on Fridays and usually leave between 9-11, and aside from a little traffic in LA it's pretty good.

 

[tlovesdis]

My husband is the type that he wants to leave Anaheim at 3-4am to head home (Napa). Me, not my favorite, but I do it!

My ex was the same way! We would leave around 4 or 5am to go home. I would just sleep in the car.

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

Traffic is bad in the Bay Area and LA no matter when you leave it seems! We left at 5am once from the Bay Area on a Saturday, hit LA around 10:30ish and it was bumper to bumper. Once we left Anaheim on a Sunday at 9am and traffic was bumper to bumper all the way to Valencia!!!

You really just never know! The only time I've never hit traffic was once when we left at midnight! We got to our hotel in Anaheim by 6am!

Now I just go with it. I tried doing an alternate route once and it was just as bad. LA traffic just stinks!

Yeah, the problem with Southern California is that there are always accidents everywhere that screw up the traffic throughout the whole region, which causes random traffic at like 2 AM. Also sporting events and the like. Also, like you said, many people don't realize "LA traffic" isn't really just bad in Los Angeles. It extends from Valencia as you mentioned all the way down to Irvine/Newport Beach/Laguna Beach area, which is like 80 miles, and there are no really good shortcuts to get around anything. If you hit Valencia after 3 PM or so, you will be fighting rush hour traffic for 60 miles to get to Disneyland, it's not like you can just go around LA. And, rush hour starts earlier and ends later compared to say San Francisco IMO.

 

[Chemist]

Any tips for opposite direction? Leaving bay area around 9:30 or 10 to avoid morning traffic. I'm thinking we'd hit the valley around 3 so the start of traffic. Probably use an alternate route, do most people just look and see what looks less clogged? On a Friday if it matters. I need to get to the run Disney expo at DLH by 7:30 which sounds do able but I've been stuck before and our kids need a fair number of stops.

Leaving the bay area on a weekday is EASY.
Think about the commutes. Everybody is trying to get INTO SF/Silicon Valley for work. Nobody is trying to commute TO Gilroy/Livermore/Central Valley.

You don't need to wait for rush hour traffic to clear, reverse commute is easy.
I would still aim to leave by 8 am, so as to get to LA as early as possible.