The reason I was going to return it to SFO is because my son - who has only lived there a short time and therefore could be wrong about this - said it was 'much easier' to get to Lafayette from SFO than OAK. He says from SFO you just get on BART and get off at Lafayette whereas from OAK you have to take the shuttle thing from the terminal to the BART station, and then there is a change of trains to get to the line that goes to Lafayette.

At the beginning of the trip I chose to fly into OAK because car rental prices were literally hundreds lower to pick up a car at OAK than at SFO.

I will look into changing my return drop off to OAK. Google and Mapquest say it should take one hour from Napa to Oakland. So at rush hour would two hours seem like enough?

Isabel: You've made a good choice to take your car back to Oakland Airport.

It sounds like you are not in a hurry to catch a flight but only to get to your son's house in Lafayette, unless he's made arrangements for a special dinner that night and you just HAVE to be in Lafayette by a certain hour.

Rush hour traffic may make it much more than 1 hour from Napa to Oakland Airport. The portion of I-80 between Vallejo and Oakland can be like a logjam. Rush hour traffic probably starts around 2:30pm/3pm rather than 4pm.

It'll take you about 1/2 hour just to get from Napa to Vallejo. Then you're into the logjam between Vallejo and Oakland, with the really, really bad part between Berkeley and Oakland. Past Oakland, you'll probably be no better off because you'll reach that section right at the peak of rush hour traffic.

Most car rental companies give you a grace period of an hour past the rental return time. Please check and see if your rental agency will give you that allowance. This way, if you have to return the car by 6pm, you wouldn't feel panicky if you're late by a little bit.

Taking the shuttle from the Oakland terminal to BART isn't all that bad. Much more preferable than returning the car to SFO. Besides which, have you checked into the drop-off fees if you pick up your car in Oakland and return to San Francisco? The drop off fees may be quite high.

One more thing: if you find yourself in Sonoma and want to get to Oakland Airport, take Highway 37 to cross over from Highway 101 to Interstate 80 in Vallejo and continue on Interstate 80 to Oakland Airport.

Hope this helps a bit.

Thanks easytraveler - that helps. I did just change my car rental so as to return to OAK. Actually saves me money. Unbelievable how different prices can be. A pick up-drop off SFO was going to be close to $500. The OAK-SFO rental was down to $198 and now with OAK-OAK I'm down to $120! Yeah, I'd much rather mess with changing trains a few times than hours of log-jam traffic. And good point to check to see how late I can return the car without any additional fees.

So thank you fodorites - you saved me money and probably a lot of time.

Isabel: you're quite welcome. Now back to your original thread.

nicmic921: apologies for hijacking your thread.