Traveling from Austin, TX to San Diego - Best Routes? (Los Angeles: how much, legally)

[deadcoder]

Hello everyone,
We are traveling to San Diego in the 1st week of January from Austin, TX. Party of two where I'm only the single driver. My only concern is the weather around that time.

Can someone please advice the best route considering the weather throughout our route? I can use any number of days (2 to 4).

Some good tourist spots or scenic drive would be wonderful

Initially our plan was:

Austin - Amarillo - 1st day
Amarillo - Flagstaff - 2nd day
Flagstaff - San Diego - 3rd day

So that I can travel several parts of route 66 and some of the historic spots along the way. But I'm not sure about weather as I heard Flagstaff sometime gets snow.

Here are some other options we are also thinking about:

1. • Austin - Amarillo
   • Amarillo - Sedona
   • Sedona - San Diego
2. • Austin - El Paso
   • El Paso - Sedona
   • Sedona - San Diego
3. • Austin - Amarillo
   • Amarillo - Flagstaff
   • Flagstaff - San Diego (via LA)

I think this one will be the safest one?

Austin - El Paso
El Paso - San Diego

Which one(from the list or outside of this list) gives the best scenic drive with less chance of severe weather condition? Any information would be really helpful.



Thanks in advance.

[malcorub16]

Oh man, I do San Diego to San Antonio and back every year to visit family, not the funnest drive in the world. Without going out of your way as you plan to do, there is no real scenic route across the Southwest. It is a pretty uneventful drive with the exception of the Texas Hill Country which I find quite nice. The nice part is that you can legally drive 85 MPH between the Hill Country and El Paso being that the road is straight and flat.

I can say that if you come the direct route which is IH 10 ("The 10" in SoCal speak) and then after Tucson IH 8, you can knock that out in less than 1 day if you are up driving 20-21 hours straight, but it can be done. Otherwise you canl do it in two days of 10 hours of driving like we do.

Good luck, drive safe, and if you do take the longer scenic route have fun!

[oddstray]

Flagstaff, and even Sedona, are waaaay out of your way from Austin to San Diego.

Flagstaff, in particular, is at altitude = possible brutal winter conditions. Strike it off your route, IMO, at this time of year. Doesn't matter how much scenic value it offers, balanced against the weather.

Sedona ... I don't know for certain how much that might be affected by winter. Do investigate that. However, if you're looking for a scenic route, Sedona certainly offers that.

(One trip, we found ourselves in Flagstaff on a snowy/icy New Years Eve late evening. There was "no room at the inn" in Flagstaff. For survival purposes, we decided to get ourselves down off that "Mogollon Rim". We followed the snow plow part way down to the Phoenix area. It was at night, so Sedona would not have offered us any value added.)

[seain dublin]

Originally Posted by oddstray

Flagstaff, and even Sedona, are waaaay out of your way from Austin to San Diego.

Flagstaff, in particular, is at altitude = possible brutal winter conditions. Strike it off your route, IMO, at this time of year. Doesn't matter how much scenic value it offers, balanced against the weather.

Sedona ... I don't know for certain how much that might be affected by winter. Do investigate that. However, if you're looking for a scenic route, Sedona certainly offers that.

(One trip, we found ourselves in Flagstaff on a snowy/icy New Years Eve late evening. There was "no room at the inn" in Flagstaff. For survival purposes, we decided to get ourselves down off that "Mogollon Rim". We followed the snow plow part way down to the Phoenix area. It was at night, so Sedona would not have offered us any value added.)

Agree, you need to stay south going through Phoenix into San Diego.

[deadcoder]

Originally Posted by malcorub16

Oh man, I do San Diego to San Antonio and back every year to visit family, not the funnest drive in the world. Without going out of your way as you plan to do, there is no real scenic route across the Southwest. It is a pretty uneventful drive with the exception of the Texas Hill Country which I find quite nice. The nice part is that you can legally drive 85 MPH between the Hill Country and El Paso being that the road is straight and flat.

I can say that if you come the direct route which is IH 10 ("The 10" in SoCal speak) and then after Tucson IH 8, you can knock that out in less than 1 day if you are up driving 20-21 hours straight, but it can be done. Otherwise you canl do it in two days of 10 hours of driving like we do.

Good luck, drive safe, and if you do take the longer scenic route have fun!

Thanks malcorub16, yes, it's a very boring route

Originally Posted by oddstray

Flagstaff, and even Sedona, are waaaay out of your way from Austin to San Diego.

Flagstaff, in particular, is at altitude = possible brutal winter conditions. Strike it off your route, IMO, at this time of year. Doesn't matter how much scenic value it offers, balanced against the weather.

Sedona ... I don't know for certain how much that might be affected by winter. Do investigate that. However, if you're looking for a scenic route, Sedona certainly offers that.

(One trip, we found ourselves in Flagstaff on a snowy/icy New Years Eve late evening. There was "no room at the inn" in Flagstaff. For survival purposes, we decided to get ourselves down off that "Mogollon Rim". We followed the snow plow part way down to the Phoenix area. It was at night, so Sedona would not have offered us any value added.)

Thanks oddstray for the info, I didn't know Flagstaff gets that much severe weather condition!!!

Flagstaff, and even Sedona, are waaaay out of your way from Austin to San Diego.

Yes, it's too far but since I have time, I was thinking to add Sedona and add one day driving time to get a better scenic drive. But as you already mentioned about the possible weather condition, I don't think it will be good idea to add Sedona/Flagstaff.

[nmnita]

Even though the drive would be a more pleasant one via 40 I wouldn't consider it in January. I would do the southern route as suggested, going through Tucsan and into San Diego.

[oddstray]

For scenic value, Tucson has a lot to offer. And since it's winter, the temps won't be uncomfortably high. Saguaro National Park, and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, to name just a couple.

[Cardiff Kook]

a little over a year ago I drove through Amarillo towards Flagstaff. That night in Amarillo, the weather was reporting that Flagstaff was going to get a half a foot of snow so we had to get off I-40 and head south towards Payson. We stayed in Payson the next night and then continued south through Phoenix and picked up I-10 and took that clear to SD. Would have loved to drive through flagstaff but it wasn't in the cards for us this time of year

[deadcoder]

Thanks a lot everyone for your inputs. I dropped the idea about going through Sedona or Flagstaff. I will use safest & also the shortest one (through Tucson, I-10 all the way).

[malcorub16]

Originally Posted by deadcoder

Thanks a lot everyone for your inputs. I dropped the idea about going through Sedona or Flagstaff. I will use safest & also the shortest one (through Tucson, I-10 all the way).

Don't forget to turn on IH-8 between Phoenix and Tucson otherwise you will end up in Los Angeles, unless that is what you want. .

Once you are in San Diego, you can always visit the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and Flagstaff during a 3-4 day weekend. It is an incredibly beautiful part of the country.

The other scenic part of the drive to San Diego is of course coming through San Diego County's mountains directly to the East...who knows, you may get some snow up there also in January.