LA to SF: Rented car vs Amtrak train (Los Angeles, San Francisco: car rental, best cities)

[Jose Clua]

Hi there,

I am going to travel with my wife and 2 kids (5 and 7 years old) from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

We are coming from Brazil and will arrive at LAX on July 30, we will rent a car to stay a couple days in LA and then we need to go to San Francisco where I will work for 3 months.

For the LA to SF trip we are looking at 2 options:

A) Drop the rented car at Santa Barbara and take the Amtrak Coast Starlight train from Santa Barbara to Oakland. The train would cost $168 for the 4 of us.

B) Drive all the way from LA to SF. The car rental would cost us $140 extra dollars plus the extra expenses with gas and tolls.

With plan B we would be tempted to stop at some nice city to visit and rest so we would probably spend $100 extra for a night in a hotel, although we could go straight if we want to save money.

We are on a tight budget so the cost really matters to us.

Here are some questions:

1) Which plan would you recommend? A or B?

2) How much would we spend with gas and tolls from LA to SF?

3) What are the best cities to stop by in that road trip?

Thanks!

[V8 Vega]

With the train you can sit back and watch the passing scene instead of driving.

[Csonka]

Train is nicer

[RosieSD]

If the cost is a primary driver, have you looked into flying?

For example, Southwest Airlines is currently showing a $70 one way fare on July 30 between LA and Oakland.

[HDL]

The Southwest fare is per person and with 4 people traveling it would be $280, unless there is a lower fare for the 2 children. The OP states that it is $168 for all 4 to travel on the train. Therefore it is cheaper to go on the train and from what friends have told me, it is a very nice way to travel up or down the coast.

If saving money is that important to the OP, stick with the train. They can always check out various parts of CA during the 3 months he is working in the SF bay area, either on the weekends or before they head back home to Brazil. Enjoy your trip and time in CA !

Originally Posted by RosieSD

No toll roads between LA and SF.

Will this be your only trip to California? If so, I'd be tempted to drive, especially with young kids, so that you can stop when you want or need to and experience a bit more of California than you can from the train.

If you don't care about that, are only going one way, and want the cheapest option, you might want to compare airfares between LA area airports and Bay area airports.

For example, Southwest Airlines is currently showing a $70 one way fare on July 30 between LA and Oakland. That's almost half the cost of the train, and you won't have to pay a drop off fee to leave your rental in Santa Barbara. https://www.southwest.com

[RosieSD]

Originally Posted by HDL

The Southwest fare is per person and with 4 people traveling it would be $280, unless there is a lower fare for the 2 children. The OP states that it is $168 for all 4 to travel on the train. Therefore it is cheaper to go on the train and from what friends have told me, it is a very nice way to travel up or down the coast.

If saving money is that important to the OP, stick with the train. They can always check out various parts of CA during the 3 months he is working in the SF bay area, either on the weekends or before they head back home to Brazil. Enjoy your trip and time in CA !

Thanks for catching that HDL -- obviously I didn't read carefully enough.

[NW4me]

The train would be more fun, of course. Just don't assume it will be on time.
Amtrak trains can run hours late (this has happened to me).

[dvxhd]

I don't know what your agenda in LA entails, but you could potentially save money by not renting a car and using public transportation while in town. Keep in mind a lot of hotels do charge for parking. The trains serve a number of tourist areas, and if you're up for it, buses cover most of the rest (just keep in mind there are multiple systems you can't see on a single map, including DASH, Metro, Big Blue Bus, Metrolink, etc., and different providers mean no fare transfer options). On top of that, you could rent a car on your way out of LA from a location not at LAX, which would be much cheaper.

In terms of tolls, unless I'm mistaken, I don't believe there are any on the route you mentioned.

You won't really need to stop and spend the night between LA and Oakland, unless you just really want to. If there's some reason you want to see Santa Barbara (which you mentioned specifically), there's a town that looks interesting, though I haven't yet been, called Solvang in the area. I don't think there's nonstop service via Amtrak to Oakland from Union Station, so if your only reason to go to Santa Barbara is that, you could consider the transfer option. You can also check out Greyhound as a cheap option if you don't mind a bus, and they go directly to San Francisco.

[Jose Clua]

Thanks all for the great insight and advice.

We decided to rent the car, even though it will be more expensive I think with the kids it will be less exhaustive for them.

Sometimes we try to go many places in a short amount of time and all they wanted is to stay at the hotel sleeping and swimming in the pool...

I just tried to purchase our Amtrak tickets today but the web site crashes in the last step of the process. After feeling all the info, including credit card number, etc. I see an "Almost Done" message, a loading spinner and then the screen gets blank without any message. And the transaction is not done. I've tried 3 times and it crashed 3 times. My internet connection is stable because all other sites are working normally.

It is scary how a big company such as Amtrak has a buggy web site like that. I've send them a complain message, let's wait to see what happens. So frustrating...

[Jose Clua]

Originally Posted by Jose Clua

I just tried to purchase our Amtrak tickets today but the web site crashes in the last step of the process. After feeling all the info, including credit card number, etc. I see an "Almost Done" message, a loading spinner and then the screen gets blank without any message. And the transaction is not done. I've tried 3 times and it crashed 3 times. My internet connection is stable because all other sites are working normally.

It is scary how a big company such as Amtrak has a buggy web site like that. I've send them a complain message, let's wait to see what happens. So frustrating...

Just to clarify, the issue was that my bank has a security system that blocks payment from computers that are not registered, and you need to enter a security token, but in all computers the output is just a blank screen...

Anyway I got our Amtrak tickets now! Can't wait to get in that train

Thanks for helping me decide