Driving from LAX to Santa Barbara

[gear02]

Californians! Lend me your ears (and advice!)

I'm visiting my friend in SB on July 1st. However, I don't want them to drive to pick me up from LAX and back (3-4 hour drive round trip). So I'm thinking about driving myself in a rental car back and forth.

1) How bad is LA traffic to SB at around 3-4pm?
2) Mapsource tells me to 405 to 101, is this good?
3) Would it be bad to try driving the PCH up to SB (scenic route)?
4) Is traffic bad on Sunday at around 7-8pm?

And for those rental car experts, how is Thrifty rental car?

[BrewMaster]

Californians! Lend me your ears (and advice!)

I'm visiting my friend in SB on July 1st. However, I don't want them to drive to pick me up from LAX and back (3-4 hour drive round trip). So I'm thinking about driving myself in a rental car back and forth.

1) How bad is LA traffic to SB at around 3-4pm?
2) Mapsource tells me to 405 to 101, is this good?
3) Would it be bad to try driving the PCH up to SB (scenic route)?
4) Is traffic bad on Sunday at around 7-8pm?

And for those rental car experts, how is Thrifty rental car?

1) How bad is LA traffic to SB at around 3-4pm?
-depends. on a weekday it's bad most of the day on the 405 from LAX through to 101 (and beyond). Bad as in it will take an hour to go those 10 miles, but it's doable.

2) Mapsource tells me to 405 to 101, is this good?
--yes

3) Would it be bad to try driving the PCH up to SB (scenic route)?
--hell no

4) Is traffic bad on Sunday at around 7-8pm?
--traffic is unpredictable late night on weekends. usually 7-8 pm it's not bad, but you never know around here.

thrifty is often cheapest in OC, but shop around.

[ufcrusher]

As my younger brother is at UCSB, I have done the drive multiple times. I would tell you to try and get an earlier flight, you want to try and make it through LA area around 1pm. This way you see the end of the lunch rush but are going through before the early workers start leaving. I have been stuck in traffic near there at 3pm more times than I care to admit. Especially near UCLA.

As for the drive back, I one time did the trip up and back in 1 day as I didnt want to stay at my brothers since his roommates seemed very.......annoying. I left SB around 5 - 6 hit La somewhere near 8ish and definitely slowed down a bit.

I have hit more traffic in LA at night than I care to admit. Including standing still at that hour. So as Brew said, its a craps shoot.

Cant tell you anything on the rental car...but I can tell you that flying into Long Beach might save you some money.

[DankNstickY]

AVOID THE 405 TO 101. take the 405 to the 10 west to the PCH. sure you'll get some traffic there, but once you get past Topanga Canyon (blvd?, dr?, rd?), it lightens up alot since thats where alot of the cars get off of PCH going northbound. believe me, i do this drive a couple times a week. i get out of school at 10pm on mondays so i take the 405 to 101 since there's no traffic at that time, so i can go 80 or... more ... something i wouldnt be able to on PCH since the cops like to give me tickets there. then on thursday when i get out of school at 4:30pm, i go down pch and avoid the 405 and 101, since i spend about 45 minutes on the bridge that goes from the 10 east to the 405 north. then its another long wait on the 405 and 101.
so i say go PCH. much much nicer drive, and less traffic.

if you take the pch, the freeway will end a few miles after you pass the navy base on your left, and you'll be on Rice Ave in Oxnard (you can stop by and visit me if you want). Just keep going down Rice for about 4 or 5 miles or so and you'll get to the 101. CANT MISS IT. santa barbara is about 45 mins (with light traffic) north of oxnard.

hope that kinda helps.

[gear02]

Thanks guys! I ask about Thrify because THEY ARE CHEAP and suspiciously so. On Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity, Thrify quotes me $15, while ALL the other rental car companies quote me from 25-50. I'm a skeptic and wondering if that was a typo...

The other question I have is this. So my friend lives in SB and has volunteered that she pick me up from LAX and back. However, that's a 3-4 hour drive round trip each time. Me driving is just a one way trip.

If you were in my shoes, would you drive yourself to SB and save your friends from driving so long, or just take the ride as a gift?

[BrewMaster]

I would definately drive it myself. but have you looked into flights directly to SB? Sometimes if you connect in Ontario, John Wayne (OC), or Long Beach as flight to SB is not that much more than a flight to LAX. Not to mention you save the rental car and time and headaches in traffic. Just a thought.

As for Thrifty, the cheap cheap cheap rates are not suspect. We have a salesman who lives in Oregan but comes here every other week. Thrifty's regular rates usually beat our corporate rate with Hertz (not surprising) so this salesman usually uses Thrifty.

[gear02]

My tickets are booked as part of my tickets to KL so I can't change them.

I actually found a SB shuttle that $72 around trip. It's only about $20 more than a rental car (though I suspect taxes and so forth would push the cost of the rental car past $72).

Sweeeeeet!

Anyone in SB?

[BrewMaster]

don't forget you gotta tip the driver too. that is kind of expensive.

[gear02]

don't forget you gotta tip the driver too. that is kind of expensive.

Meh...the way I see it, it's worth the cost to not get my friends drive 2 round trips to LAX and it's also the same as the price of a rental car, which I would just use to drive back and forth to LAX. I would use my friends car the rest of the time anyway. Finally, it's worth it to not have to deal with traffic. I just sit and relax.

Plane tickets cost $300 from LAX to SB. Changing my paper tickets is impossible at the moment. Amtrak is cheap but the trains don't run at the times I need them, plus I can't get to the station from LAX.

I think it's worth it. Sure, it's expensive, but worth it. It doesn't make me like the LA area any more though

And at most I would tip the driver like $5.

[BrewMaster]

sounds like you're well set up. make sure you fasten your seatbelt. those shuttle drivers can get crazy around LA.

[gear02]

sounds like you're well set up. make sure you fasten your seatbelt. those shuttle drivers can get crazy around LA.

hehe...but isn't everyone crazy in LA

[BrewMaster]

hehe...but isn't everyone crazy in LA

true. but shuttle drivers are like the Yodas of crazy. the rest of us are just Padwan learners kind of crazy.

i took a Primetime Shuttle from LAX to UCLA (ont he 405) and the driver rear ended someone when making a tight lane change going too fast. i was laughing, but the driver and the other passsengers didn't find it too funny.

and another time I saw a Primetime Shuttle wreck on the side of the 405 after hitting the retaining wall. I've never taken Primetime Shuttle again. (They are the dark red vans with the white writing.)

[kimchicowboy]

there's a bus that'll take you from LAX to SB. don't know of the name right now. but i KNOW that there is one cuz a friend of mine took it. and i don't think you tip bus drivers. i didn't tip the bus drivers that took me from DC->NY or NY->boston nor did any other passenger.

[gear02]

there's a bus that'll take you from LAX to SB. don't know of the name right now. but i KNOW that there is one cuz a friend of mine took it. and i don't think you tip bus drivers. i didn't tip the bus drivers that took me from DC->NY or NY->boston nor did any other passenger.

I'm taking this:

http://www.santabarbaraairbus.com/lax/index.php

[kimchicowboy]

yup. that's the one.

[A Day]

LA is HELL, theres going to be traffic regardless, anywhere, everywhere, anytime, but usually it gets pretty damn bad after 3pm, and hell no dont take the 1, that makes it so much longer than it needs to be, just stick to the 101 and try to do it as early as possibly, but after 10am of course so you wont hit morning traffic