Question on travel time:
We will be spending 9 days in Anaheim (first half)/San Francisco in Aug. We will be flying in/out of ONT. Our return flight is out of ONT at 5PM on a Sunday. How early would we have to leave SF (we are staying in Union Square) to make it to ONT at least by 3 PM? Or do you recommend leaving on Sat night itself and spending the night at a hotel enroute?

Thanks!

you are thinking of driving from San Francisco to catch a flight our of Ontario???

That is pretty unreasonable. What if there is a wreck on the Grapevine, or a road closure or any number of other things. Drop your car in Northern California and fly to Ontario. I'd look for a noon-ish flight.

oh - and if you insist on driving it, definitely go down the day before.

jandee - janisj has it right....fly down if you can. If not go down on Saturday. Under the BEST of circumstances you're looking at at least an 8 hour drive. You might consider leaving 99 or I-5 at Bakersfield and taking Highway 58 to 395 and thence to I-15 to the ONT area rather than I-5 and I-10. Or take the 210 east from I-5 to the ONT area. Lots of hotels near ONT or in Pasadena en route.

I would agree you absolutely should get to LA Area the Day before. You might enjoy staying in Pasadena and spending Sat. evening and part of Sunday looking around there. There are many hotels in the Ontario Area if you prefer to stay there.

Thanks, I needed to find if it was reasonable to drive the same day. For obvious monetary reasons, it is not possible to fly from SFO to ONT. I will go down the previous day then. Thanks!

If there are just one or two of you, might not be much more to fly Southwest Airlines Oakland to Ontario.

That fare runs around $70 to $80 per person on the internet. Figure a tank of gas at $60 and a day of car rental at $40 and you're just about there.

Actually it is 4 of us, so with a rental drop off fee, it will cost us over $400.

Any suggestions on stopping at a halfway point? That way we can start from SF late Sat evening and drive for 4-5 hours.

Thanks

I'd look around for a different car rental (unless you have pre-paid for the car - hopefully not)

That is a huge drop off fee for pick up in LA/Anaheim and drop off in Ontario. I've done that exact same thing several times - though always on a corporate or gov't rate so not sure what it would be for a leisure traveler.

If you must drive - I'd stay over in Pasadena. A nice place . . . . .

I meant the airfare for 4 ppl (340) plus drop off fee (80) > $400.

I will look into Pasadena but I was hoping for something in 4 -5 hour distance. Thanks

Gas, food and overnight lodging for 4 people could come close to $400, so you are not going to save much money driving over flying unless you drive to LA without staying overnight.

Most people who drive to LA from SF with an overnight stop usually take to costal route, stopping overnight in places such as Carmel, Big Sur, Cambria, Santa Barbara. Those who take the I-5 inland route do so without an overnight as they are trying to get to LA quickly. There are very few interesting places stop on I-5 let alone spend the night.

You could drive to Bakersfield (nothing there, but okay to sleep), then to Ontario in the morning. 4-1/2 hours to Bakersfield, then 2-1/2 to Ontario.

If you decide on Bakersfield, the Doubletree there is OK and you can probably get a room for 2 adults and 2 kids for a reasonable amount i.e. amount $120 or so.

Thanks for the Bakersfield idea. That sounds good.

SAB: I will have to spend anyway on food and lodging. My flight is on Sunday and regardless of whether I drive or fly I have to stay somewhere on Sat night and we also have to eat! Flying has an extra cost of 4 air tickets and drop off fee. Gas even at $4.50 will not equal that cost.

We decided to stay for the night in SF as we could get tickets for the Alcatraz cruise only for the last night of our stay. And I am really glad we did - Alcatraz cruise/tour was great. We left SF at 7 AM in the morning and reached ONT at about 1 PM. Very easy drive and plenty of time to return the car and have lunch. We had to sit in the airport for 4 hours though . My kids were complaining that we could have let them have couple more hours of sleep! But I just wanted to let anyone who planned to do the same, that it is very doable.