I will be driving from the San Diego Safari Park in Escondido, CA to the Disneyland resort area. I will be leaving the Safari Park at 5:00pm on a Tuesday - can anyone offer advice as to the best route and what kind of traffic I can expect? Is I15 better than I5? Thanks for the help.

The road outside the Safari Park is Route 78. Turn right, follow the Route 78 signs through Escondido, and it will take you to I-5. I-5 goes right to Disneyland. You will be travelling during rush hour, so expect heavy traffic, especially on the 78 once it becomes a freeway.

You could, upon leaving the Park, take San Pasqual Road to Bear Valley Parkway to I-15N and then get on to the 78W, but the traffic there could be stop and go at that time of day.

Check the traffic conditions in advance on any weekday except friday, at 5 to 6 PM, at this site. That will give you a good idea of what to expect on the tuesday you plan to travel. Grab and slide the image with your cursor to see the entire route.

http://www.sigalert.com/Map.asp?lat=...-118.22335&z=2

Don't leave at 5, have dinner....leave at 6:30

definitely agree w/ clarkgriswold. Why sit in a massive parking lot (the freeway) at 5PM when you'll have pretty much open road at 7PM

It wouldn't be a massive parking lot by the time the OP got to I-5 and they would have by-passed the busiest section in San Diego County. Past Oceanside they'd be going in the opposite direction to the heaviest traffic flow. Having said that, however, if you don't have to leave at 5pm to be at Disneyland by a specific time, then it would be less busy later.

Thanks for the help - what if I left at 3:00-3:30pm? Would that be better?