Santa Monica Pier to DL

[Goldys4]

We will be doing a day trip to DL on our vacation in July. We are staying at the Shore Hotel at the Santa Monica Pier. We thought we'd rent a car since we'll be doing the Warner Brothers studio tour on a different day as well, but the idea of driving in that crazy traffic has me spooked. I've looked at google maps and it seems to be about an hour and 15 min to get there if driving, but is that really the case? How much would a car service or Lyft be? We'll be going on a Wednesday to DL if that makes a difference. Our Warner Brothers day is Tuesday (any insight on transportation there from the Pier would be appreciated too!)

 

[ParkHopper1]

There is a Fare Estimator on Uber.com if you wanna look up rates. I have Ubered from SM down to DL several times...travel time all depends wildly on time of day and traffic.

I am all over SoCal for business and play and just Uber everywhere. Have not rented car in ages and that trip is a typical haul for a rideshare. Rideshare has just become really dang convenient.

 

[midnight star]

That sounds about right. Without traffic it will be around 45-50 minutes. Price out the car and fares from ride share programs. Ride shares are convenient but they can get pricey when you have a lot of driving to do and you go during peak times.

 

[MATTERHORN]

Yep, depends on time of day!! I'd either go super super early if it's a weekday, or wait until rush hour is over, but that would seriously cut into your day there!

 

[ktlm]

We were just there last week and the traffic was awful. We stayed at DLR, and we moved to the Hilton up by Universal. We had moved from DLR to a hotel near Newport beach for 2 nights before Universal. We got lucky on our drive between Newport Beach and the Hilton and Universal and did not hit too much traffic and it only took about an hour.

Our arrival day at the Hilton we drove down to the Santa Monica Pier after checking in. It is only about 20 miles away, but the drive was an hour each way.

I would also expect it to be an hour each way from the Santa Monica pier to Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers is about the same distance from the Pier as the Universal area. Warner Brothers was only 3 miles and 10 minutes away from our hotel at Universal.

Depending on traffic, it could wind up taking 2 hours for you to get from the Santa Monica Pier to Disneyland. It is about 45 miles. If there is not much traffic you are probably looking at about an hour. We drove from the Griffith Observatory to John Wayne Airport which is also about 45 miles on our departure day-- we left Observatory at 1:30 pm as we had a 5:15 flight, and it took us just over two hours to get to the airport. We didn't expect it to take that long as we weren't driving in rush hour.

How many days are you staying in the Santa Monica area? Have you thought about maybe moving hotels for some of your days to places closer to what you plan to do? We found the Santa Monica pier area a little rough for our tastes as opposed to the other areas where we have stayed in California (both beach and otherwise). I've heard the Shore hotel is really nice though.

 

[LizzyS]

We did that drive back in February and that timing sounds about right if you're not doing it at rush hour. We found the drive to not be that bad, but we didn't attempt at rush hour and it was Sunday around 11 am.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

It really depends on what day and what time. I live just south of Santa Monica, and I ubered to Disneyland at 4 AM this Friday morning (dead car battery - boo) and it cost $43 and took about 40 minutes. Early in the morning, there is not much traffic and you can get down to Anaheim in under an hour. And then getting back... if you wait until very late in the evening after fireworks, it won't take much time (probably another hour drive), but prices will probably be surging, so a more expensive ride for sure. Depending on how many people are in your party, it might be a reasonable price per person.

If you leave early in the morning before 6 AM on a weekday from Santa Monica to Anaheim, traffic will be minimal. Traffic from LA to Anaheim isn't very bad in the morning on the weekends, either. And then headed back, you want to wait until after the rush hour traffic on the weekdays (7 PM or later).