We are landing in Vegas at 9:00am on a Friday and may be driving to La Mirada, CA for an evening performance. Mapquest says it should take about 4hours 20 min. We'd be spending the night there and heading back to Vegas the next day. Is this a realistic plan?

If by "realistic" you mean "sensible and practical," I would say no unless the performance is by somebody you love, if the performance promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, or if you are young and carefree spirits with nothing else to do.

HTTY

You could do it and given that you could be checked out of the airport and on the road by 10am (if you're plane is not late etc, etc)

The chance that traffic wouldn't be horrible is about 75% (I never trust LA traffic even at reasonable times)

How important is this? Like happytrails said, if it's a once in a lifetime experience, I'd still think about simply because I think driving through the featureless desert might still be more fun than Vegas.

I'm not young, or sensible or practical but definitely a free spirit. Yes, it is someone very special to me that would bring me to that theater. Thanks for the estimate on traffic, etc. I have driven on my own in the middle of the night from Vegas to Lone Pine, so I'm not afraid to drive through the desert.

Get a good map of the LA Freeways (Auto Club of So Cal/Tripl A has a very good one) - and also listen to AM 1070 for traffic updates ever 6? minutes. If you can get the rental car fairly quickly- and average around 75 MPH (probably won't get a ticket doing that) I think you can make it to the greater LA area if 4 hours or even less.

Suggest you take some water with you and hit the rest stops along the freeway when - and hopefully you will be on to La Mirada before the rush hour kicks in - but it is on a Friday and some people do try to get away a bit earlier than normal.

OK --La Mirada is only about 25 miles from LAX. I'd fly into LAX, go to your concert, and then drive on to Vegas the next day.

I've done the drive, and you certainly could do it, but check the cost of flying into LA and out of Vegas and janis j suggests, or into LA going to the concert then flying to Vegas and renting a car from there. There are often cheap flights from LA to Vegas

I think those are good suggestions! Alas I don't have the option of changing our flights - they are locked into Vegas (using Ff miles) and the cost of changing is too steep. Hopefully my GPS will keep me updated with the traffic information.

Why worry about your GPS when you can get it from the best source there is - AM 1070 - traffic every six minutes (from their helicopters) - and they also have news and other info. Again, during the busy times - very six minutes - they give the traffic report - and please - get an old fashioned map - of the LA Freeway system - so you can work around a bit using different freeways/routes if by chance there is an accident on the freeway you are planning to use.

OK Tom, I will definitely tune into that station - thanks so much for the heads up! I'll get some good maps too!

If you can't change your flight . . . you could book a flight from LAS to LAX about 1.5 hours after your arrival. You probably wouldn't have the rental car sorted out and on the road for at least an hour anyway.

If you did fly back and forth from Las Vegas to LA I would look into either Ontario or John Wayne Airports as I think they are easier to get into and out of on a Friday. Both sren't that far from La Mirada.

As you said that you love to drive and you aren't scared of driving through the desert then I must that you should go. And the performance you are already looking forward to so I guess overall it will be a good trip.
Enjoy!

I appreciate the suggestions, but I don't think I would fly to LA, since we'd still need a car from there to get to the theater. I'm only paying $10.50 a day for a car rental from Las Vegas, split two ways between my friend and I. The gas roundtrip will only be around $50. The flight for both of us would be around $300, if I could find a flight time to suit.

It really helps to hear that the driving part is doable. Fingers crossed it all works out!

I'm glad you have decided to follow your heart. Enjoy!

HTTY