coming from I5 N to Disneyland (Sacramento, Anaheim: hotel, movies, parks)

[lvhuskies]

Please help! I will be driving to Disneyland next Wednesday w/ my husband and twin 7 yr olds. I need to know what times to miss rush hour traffic. We are driving straight to our hotel, located .5 miles from the park itself and it literally right off of I5. We are starting just outside of Redding; google say it's around 9 hours driving time. But I'm wondering if I left super early in the morning, could I miss the traffic?

Any help would be appreciated!
Thank you.
Sarah

[killer2021]

I would try to plan it out so you arrive anywhere from 3-4am in the morning. There will be no traffic.

If you arrive anywhere from 6am - 9am you'll get stuck in traffic. Also it seems like there is constant traffic during the evening and day.

Not to mention the parks open at 8am so you can put your stuff in the hotel and go straight to the park.

[Charles]

Traffic is likely to be really bad after about 2 or 230 heading south on the 5 near downtown LA and south. If you can hit the Newhall Pass by 1PM, then you'll hit some traffic but not as bad as if you hit it after 2 PM.

Check out Sigalert.com - Personalized Traffic Reports around 1, 2, and 3 PM to see what it is like.

If you can leave at 4AM, and stop once or twice for 15-20 minutes you probably won't do much better.

When we travel with our kids we are loaded with two laptops with tons of movies, sweets, books, and MP3 players.

Another thing we do is use the McDonalds Trip Planner which shows where all the McDonalds with Playlands and Playplaces are along the route. Write those addresses down and when the kids start going nuts, you can plug those into your GPS and pull over and let them de-energize.

[bhcompy]

I would leave at night and make it a redeye trip. By the time you get to the LA area, you'll hit traffic somewhere in the LA basin.

[BlackShoe]

Traffic in the LA/OC area starts to build as early as 5am and stays busy until 10.At 2pm it start to get busy again and stays that way until around 8.Quite frankly,unless you arrive at midday or in the evening,traffic will be tedious.Redding to Anaheim is a tick under 600 miles,and 9 hours is very optimistic.With small children,several stops will be required for bathroom visits,meals,and gas,and that does not take into consideration traffic delays.The 5 goes through Sacramento,and their traffic can be awful too,so keep that in mind.Would plan on a 11,or if things are bad,a 12 hour trip.If you make it in 10,you will have been fortunate.Good luck.