Cathedral City - LAX Driving Time
 

Hi everyone,

I apologize if this is already up on the forum somewhere, but I didn't see anything. I'm flying to Palm SPrings (Cathedral city actually) next weekend to visit family. On Feb 23rd (the Wednesday) I will be leaving Cathedral City to get to LAX in order to catch a flight to Mexico. My flight leaves at 10:25 so I need to be at the airport by 8:25. I'm wondering if people living in the area could let me know what kind of traffic to expect on a Wednesday during that time? What is the best route to avoid traffic? I want to know how long I should leave to get to the airport.

Thanks so much for any advice! If I miss my flight to Mexico, there is not another one that day.

You mean morning -right? If so the traffic will be VERY heavy. Plus that is about 125 miles so even w/o traffic it would be a 2.5 hour drive.

If it was me -- Instead of getting up at 4AM, I'd leave Cathedral City the night before. Have a nice dinner w/ your relatives and then drive to LA. You can priceline an LAX area hotel for next to nothing.

You've picked a tough one. I wouldn't attempt with less than 4 hours travel time. There is no good way to LAX from Cathedral City. But, the 10 to the 15 to the 91 is the worst.
If it is remotely possible, drive to LAX area the night before.

The in-bound rush hour starts very early, I agree it would be much better to return the night before (even if very late) and stay near the airport.

We drove from Palm Springs to LAX four days ago. Our flight left at 12:15 PM and we left PS at 7:20. We got to the airport in 3h 10m, BUT we were able to use the diamond lanes since we were 2. If you can't use the HOV lanes I agree that leaving the night before, and having a decent sleep at LAX, is the only way to go. Assuming you're renting a car (into PSP, out from LAX) then you need to add another half hour or more to go through the return + shuttle yoga, so to be safe for a 2-hour check-in, you'd be looking at 3.5 hours drive + 30-40 min. for rental car return + 2 hrs. for check-in/security, total 6 hours, i.e. leave Cathedral City at 3:30 or 4 AM. Phooey.

Just wanted to say thanks everyone!
We ended up driving into LA and staying in Hollywood for the day/night. It made things a lot less stressful AND I got to see Hollywood!
Cheers

Good choice. Glad it worked out.