Lemo

My husband, myself and three kids have booked a whale watching excursion with Monterey Bay Whale Watch in Monterey. We are going on a Thursday morning and the trip starts at 10:00 am. It is now occurring to me that we may hit traffic and have difficulties. Can anyone give me some guidance? Should I try to switch to a weekend or at least do the Thursday whale watch at 1:30pm instead? Also, what is the best route?

SAB

It is at least a two hour drive to Monterey which means you will be leaving SF at rush hour--the good news is that traffic is slightly lighter leaving SF for the Penninsula these days than visa versa, the bad news is that you will hit traffic the closer you get to San Jose. If you switch to 1:30 what time do you intend to drive back? Weekend traffic is better. The quickest route is 280 to 17 to 1.

MonicaRichards

Is that the quickest? Because I would think it would be 280-101-156-1. Now that 101 is wider through Morgan Hill. There can be awful traffic along 1 around Capitola.

SAB

Depends on time of day and day, but 101 still gets backed up and 156 is two lanes. I alternate between the two routes and even thought I prefer 280, 85, 101, 156 to 1; I do find that 17 to 1 is slightly faster.

StuDudley

Switch to 1:30. Too much can go wrong with getting there. What happens if you arrive at 10:30?

You don't have any deadline getting back, and if you leave Monterey after about 5:30, you might miss the commute traffic. My best time to Monterey has been 2 hrs with top speed all the way on a Sat morning with no traffic. There's a very little chance you can make it by 10:00, park the car, muster 5 people, find the boat, unless you leave before 6:30 or so and only have "regular" commute traffic to worry about and don't miss any turnoffs.

Stu Dudley

nyvisitor

I looked at a map to check out all the highway numbers given to Lemo and I'm wondering if they apply to our trip. We will be leaving Palo Alto on Monday morning and plan to be in Salinas around 10 AM when the National Steinbeck Center opens. Should we go 280-85-17-1-183 or 280-85-101-156-101? This looks like the lottery! And maybe it is when you consider traffic unknowns.

MonicaRichards

At 10:00 you shouldn't hit commute traffic on either route so it's your choice. There's probably only about 10 minutes difference anyway. As far as return traffic, you won't hit it until around the 101/280 merge in San Jose. So if you leave Monterey after 5:30 it will be close to 7:00 when you hit San Jose and traffic will be clearing.

easytraveler

nyvisitor: Your route is very simple. If you are going to be staying near 101, take that all the way to Salinas.

If you are staying near 280, then take 280 to 101 and that'll get you to Salinas.

Lemo: I'd suggest 101-156-1. 156 is two lanes, but it's only seven miles long. You can usually negotiate from the inland route to the coastal route in less than 10 minutes via 156; it's the shortest cut over to the coast. 17 on the other hand is a long, curving road. I live near 17 and don't particularly like speeding along at 80 mph dashing around all those curves with all the other mountain residents.