We were going to fly into Orange County, but flight is quite abit more. How long of a drive would it be from LAX to Anaheim? Miles doesn't mean a whole lot if the traffic is bad! Thanks

Approximately 35 miles and 40-? minutes of driving time <http://tinyurl.com/29fwz8>.

What time of day and day of week do you hope to arrive and leave? That makes a huge difference.

I am no expert but here is our experience from two years ago:

We arrived at LAX at 3 or 4 pm on a weekday, got our rental car and went to dinner with friends in Marina del Rey. The drive was fine at 7 pm or so. Still very crowded but moving. It took us about an hour.

We drove back on a weekday, midmorning, smooth sailing.

It depends entirely on when you arrive. Rush hour is kind of brutal

Have you looked at either Long Beach or Ontario airports?

In the whole LA basin during rush hours, you will hit traffic near both airports. However, if coming in mid-day or on weekend should be about 30-40 mins no traffic. By the way, coming from John Wayne/OC airport is still about 15 mins at least with no traffic. If you do LAX, be sure to take the 105-East from LAX and avoid the 405 stretch near the airport if possible. Not sure where you're flying from, but Jet Blue goes to LongBeach which is a breeze getting in and out of.

Forty minutes of DRIVING Time in light traffic, Double that at peak rush hour (before 9:am and 3pm to 6pm). Worst time can be Thursday evening!

Long Beach, about half that amount of time. When I go to Disneyland from my home in Long Beach, I allow about an hour to drive there, park and take the shuttle into the park.

Thanks for all your input. Sorry I didn't give enough info! We will be flying out of Utah, planning to spend 3 days @ Disneyland, then to the beach, probably Hermosa Beach. Want to spend at least 3 days relaxing on the beach. Any other suggestions, we have 2 boys ages 13 & 18. We went to Laguna Beach last time, loved it, but hotels have terribly high rates! Would it be better to fly into Long Beach and back out of LAX?

With the nuber of people in your car you will be able to use the restricted carpool lanes. While they will be crownded at the dreaded rush hours, they do save some time.

Long Beach airport is a lot more manageable, in terms of baggage retrieval, renting a car, and getting onto the freeway.

From Hermosa to LAX is shorter, probably 30 minutes (surface streets all the way) but your check in and return will take longer (most of the rental cars are off site). So it's really a tossup on the return, but if you have a choice to fly into LGB, I would do that.

It looks like the airfare went up @ Long Beach and LAX. We could probably fly into John Wayne airport for the same $$. Would that be a better choice? Then we would fly out of LAX. Thanks

John Wayne is much closer to Anaheim than LAX - but neither of them is at Disney's doorstep.

Are you renting a car? If so, figure out the cost for a one-way rental from John Wayne to LAX and also renting/returning to LAX and add that to your total.

Go for whichever one is cheaper - a heads up though, even if you have to pay a fee for a one-way drop off, John Wayne still might have a cheaper daily rate. But try different rental car companies to find one without a penaly.

I would think about flying into and out of the same airport as it is usually cheaper than innto one and out of another. LAX is the farthest from Disney and OC but as others have mentioned you can use the carpool lanes which help some in traffic. If you are driving in non rush hour times you can drive in any lane and it moves along. I definitely would like Long Beach or JOhn Wayne over LAX but sometimes LAX just works the best and if you plan for it, it can go okay. Have fun!!