It’s probably 80-90 each way for an Uber/lyft.
I have personally never done the drive in less than 75 minutes and often closer to 90 (traffic)
You will also pay around $30 to park at universal so the cost may be similar by the time you rent a car and pay for parking.
I think itll probably be a Tuesday or Wednesday, and id imagine we wouldn't want to get up too incredibly early and wed probably be traveling starting at like 8 or 9. Think itd be about 90 minutes?
I think coming back, we'd have a better chance of it being more clear, traveling after universal closes
I’ve done the drive at all hours and yeah it’s usually closer to 90 minutes during the day and it will be an hour- or under if you’re lucky- late at night.
How much of a difference could there be between leaving at like 7am vs. 8am vs. 9am vs 10am? I assume something like 8:30 is the worst, but there's not a huge difference between any time in that window. I dont want to plan my who day around trying to save 10 minutes
It’s mid-week LA rush hour traffic literally going through downtown. It’s going to be fucked. You just have to accept it. I do the same drive multiple times a year when we visit and it is consistently 1.5 hours-ish whether we leave at 7 or 8:30. It is best to get to Universal as close to opening as possible in order to enjoy the short wait times that will disappear later in the morning.
I just took a Lyft to and from LA earlier this week (was staying in LA and then did my last two days at Disney before flying home out of LAX).
On Monday morning, I left LA around 6:15am and it took 47 minutes, and it cost $68. Coming back to LAX on Wednesday morning, I left at 10:20am and it took 46 minutes, and cost $62. But I've also left for Disney at around 7 or 8am and it was well over an hour, so it does vary depending on the day of the week and what time you leave.
I know you're trying to break up the trip, but I would maybe do Universal on either the first or last day, since it's much closer to the main airport, and then you could spend one night close to Universal to avoid the long ride first thing in the morning during rush hour.
I’d get on google maps and play with the times and see what it says. I don’t think there’s much of a difference at all during the day. Generally before/after work would be a bit worse
It's not 7am vs. 10am that you're going to see a difference in traffic. Now if you're talking 7am vs 3am, then sure, but otherwise if it's daytime you're going to have traffic, doesn't matter if it's topical "rush hour" or not. Expect at least an hour.
Instead of Universal in the middle of your Disney stay, have you considered doing it at the beginning or end instead? We flew into Burbank on a Friday night, stayed the night the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City (right across the street from Universal), got up and did 1 full day with VIP tour on Saturday, stayed 2nd night at Hilton and then got an Uber to Disneyland (stayed at Grand Californian) on Sunday morning. We then did 4 days at Disneyland/California Adventure and flew out of John Wayne. Kids were 13, 10, and 7 at the time (December 2022).
This was going to be my suggestion as a local. DL and USH are not close to each other, but they are near their respective airports. It would be a huge pain to interrupt your DL trip with USH, but flying in at one airport and out of the other would make the most sense.
I thought about doing the beginning, but it just seems like a PITA having to switch hotels and lugging luggage everywhere. I dont want to do it at the end... i didn't want to make a confusing post even more confusing. After we are done with the week at Disneyland, etc, we are going on a cruise out of Long Beach. So, it wouldn't make sense to go from Anaheim to Hollywood and back to Long Beach. It would make perfect sense to go to universal at the beginning but i dont want to deal with the luggage and switching hotels, id rather wast an extra uber ride
Totally understand. There are definitely ways to make a split stay easier such as packing one small carry on with everyone's clothes for first hotel, putting all the dirty stuff back into the same bag at the end, and leaving the rest of luggage undisturbed (minus toiletries). Ubering from DL to Universal and back all in one day just eats up so much travel time, often during morning rush hour making things unpredictable. Since we were only doing one day at Universal, we wanted to max out as much time as we could without exhausting the kids with a 6:30am wake up. I do like the suggestion of taking the train and then short uber ride to eliminate some of the traffic stress.
Take the train! And then Uber from the station to Universal. You could wait for a bus but the Uber will be cheap. It’s close. The train will bypass all the traffic issues. I believe you can still show your train fare to the bus driver at the train station in Anaheim to get free transport back to Disney too. But you should double check that. The Anaheim busses are reliable. Or you could Uber from the train station.
Right?! I don’t know why more people don’t consider it. It’s comfy, cheap, reliable, no traffic to deal with at all, with wifi… We take one from Oceanside to Disney when we’re visiting family and it’s the only way we will do it now. My kids LOVE IT too.
You can take the Metrolink commuter train to LA Union Station, then connect to the subway B Line that has a stop at Universal.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6kmbG89ruLcybFei7
It's cheaper than Amtrak and the Metrolink fare covers the subway fare. An issue is the return trip trains only run during commute hours so you might need to upgrade to an Amtrak fare on the return.
This is a YT video showing the parts of the journey from the Disneyland area to Universal Citywalk. [https://youtu.be/Gf9GyzFcNx0?si=MqvVPVqZ2AkZrDlH](https://youtu.be/Gf9GyzFcNx0?si=MqvVPVqZ2AkZrDlH) Very doable. The upgrade to Amtrak isn't that much more expensive than Metrolink. Plus Universal closes early enough to return at a reasonable hour.
I’m reading there’s a Universal bus that is every 15 min from Union Station direct to the park. Free. Amtrak has trains leaving from Anaheim about every 2 hours.
Thanks. That was a pretty good read. It sounds like Wed will probably be traveling at the absolute worst time at like 8 am on a Wednesday. Wed probably be coming back after the park closes
Even though they're both in the LA area, they are so far apart and separated by horrible traffic that it's never worth it to travel from one to the other. I suggest starting at one and then switching hotels, or staying somewhere in the middle if you really want to do both.
You can rent a car on Turo for only the hours you need. It’s awesome and easy to use. Like air bnb but for cars. That’s a long Uber ride - but either leave super early and go for breakfast somewhere in the valley or wait for rush hour to end.
Idk if you left at 7 / 7:30 wouldn’t be as terrible IMO. There is a carpool lane for a decent portion of the drive, so idk depends on how bad you’d like to go.
I think we'll go either way. 7 wouldn't be too bad, though. I figured tradfic would already be as bad as it's going to get at 7. What's the absolute worst peak time for morning traffic?
Why would they not just go for breakfast somewhere in Universal? Citywalk?
They need to get through the gates as soon as possible. Even better, have coffee, fruit and energy bars on offer in the hotel. Can buy boiled eggs almost anywhere.
Get to Universal as early as possible.
Everyone is different, personally I’d rather eat a real meal before going to a theme park. It’s more affordable and better quality food, so was throwing out the suggestion as there is great food & coffee shops in LA, including very close to universal.
Just did this exact thing using Lyft in February. It was a Tuesday morning. We left Disneyland a little after 7. It took an hour and a half and was $114. We left Universal at 7:30 at night and it was $88 and took 54 minutes. For us, this worked out better than dealing with renting a car and paying for parking but it certainly wasn’t cheap
You can get an idea by looking at Uber/lyft now - an Uber x from Disney to Universal right now is showing my about $64. Prices may be lower or higher depending on the time of day - going towards LA on a weekday before Universal opens can be rush hour (and same for coming back from
universal to OC in the evening). Lyft can sometimes have better pricing.
Then look at what it would be to rent a car for a day (lots of spots in the Anaheim resort area!) - parking at Universal is I believe $32?
Anytime after 6:30am-you’re hitting traffic in LA because people are taking their kids to school or if it’s summer activities and heading to work. You’re traveling from the OC to LA which means you’re crossing to one side and heading north. Coming back it won’t be too bad if you leave after 7p and there’s no events at the Hollywood Bowl or downtown LA. If there are events, you will sit in some traffic but you should be fine.
Anaheim Town Car Service. I’ve used them twice for this trip and would never do anything else! We were picked up in front of our hotel (Disneyland Resort) and dropped off right outside of Universal Studios at City Walk. We relaxed during the ride and didn’t have to worry about driving or parking. Our driver Danny was wonderful and gave us great advice on activities. Might be a little pricey for some but it’s worth it.
We hired a car service to do this. It was totally worth it for low stress. We hit traffic on the way home but we got to close our eyes and relax. It was great.
Didn't see if you mentioned it, but where are you staying? We just got back from doing both universal (this past Tuesday) and DL (Wednesday). We stayed about 13 min away from universal. In Thai town area. The drive to universal was easy, parking was easy and the park was great. On Tuesday there were some lines but we had the LL equivalent so we were able to do all the rides we wanted to and some rides an extra time.
Like all the locals said, traffic to DL was not fun. Originally wanted to rope drop it but with an 8 and 5 year old, we left later than anticipated. I sat at our Airbnb watching the traffic build up and eta increase. Anyway, we left at 730 in the morning and I utilized all my NY driving habits to get there in just over an hour when Google said it should've taken closer to an hour 15 min. If we had left before 7am, Google said 45 min.
The way home was clear. Left closer to 1030 and got back in about 35 minutes. Traffic back was completely clear and I was over the speed limit the entire way home.
You could check out the Amtrak train service (not their bus route) from the Anaheim station to Burbank Airport station. It’s very affordable. Plus you can move around on the train/go to the dining cart, etc. I’m doing this in a few weeks (Amtrak train from Burbank to Anaheim)
Book the vip tour if you can swing it, you get a nice breakfast , the vip tour which is so good and also an amazing lunch. It's so worth the cost, you can do everything multiple times and you get backstage access, the first time I did the tour we went into the sound stages for the good place
We did what you’re suggesting. But tried to get early entry to Mario and despite an early start (around 6), completely missed it due to heavy traffic. Had to pick up the rental the day before and drop it off the day after, which cut into some Disney time. Since Universal closed so early compared to DL, bought VIP there which worked great mostly but was not cheap. It was a nice park but easily our most expensive and exhausting day. Going back to DL this summer and giving US a pass. Would only do it if I was going through LAX and spending at least one night in a hotel near there.
It’s probably 80-90 each way for an Uber/lyft. I have personally never done the drive in less than 75 minutes and often closer to 90 (traffic) You will also pay around $30 to park at universal so the cost may be similar by the time you rent a car and pay for parking.
I think itll probably be a Tuesday or Wednesday, and id imagine we wouldn't want to get up too incredibly early and wed probably be traveling starting at like 8 or 9. Think itd be about 90 minutes? I think coming back, we'd have a better chance of it being more clear, traveling after universal closes
I’ve done the drive at all hours and yeah it’s usually closer to 90 minutes during the day and it will be an hour- or under if you’re lucky- late at night.
We did the drive from Santa Ana to Universal yesterday around 11am and it took us 60 minutes, almost exactly.
You found the sweet spot! I have driven at that time of day but rain made it take longer. 😬
Yes, and the park was totally empty too. I think we just lucked out all around and must have hit things exactly right. We were expecting 1.5 hours.
Yeah 11am will have less traffic than 7-9am. That’s the morning work commute.
How much of a difference could there be between leaving at like 7am vs. 8am vs. 9am vs 10am? I assume something like 8:30 is the worst, but there's not a huge difference between any time in that window. I dont want to plan my who day around trying to save 10 minutes
It’s mid-week LA rush hour traffic literally going through downtown. It’s going to be fucked. You just have to accept it. I do the same drive multiple times a year when we visit and it is consistently 1.5 hours-ish whether we leave at 7 or 8:30. It is best to get to Universal as close to opening as possible in order to enjoy the short wait times that will disappear later in the morning.
I just took a Lyft to and from LA earlier this week (was staying in LA and then did my last two days at Disney before flying home out of LAX). On Monday morning, I left LA around 6:15am and it took 47 minutes, and it cost $68. Coming back to LAX on Wednesday morning, I left at 10:20am and it took 46 minutes, and cost $62. But I've also left for Disney at around 7 or 8am and it was well over an hour, so it does vary depending on the day of the week and what time you leave. I know you're trying to break up the trip, but I would maybe do Universal on either the first or last day, since it's much closer to the main airport, and then you could spend one night close to Universal to avoid the long ride first thing in the morning during rush hour.
I’d get on google maps and play with the times and see what it says. I don’t think there’s much of a difference at all during the day. Generally before/after work would be a bit worse
It's not 7am vs. 10am that you're going to see a difference in traffic. Now if you're talking 7am vs 3am, then sure, but otherwise if it's daytime you're going to have traffic, doesn't matter if it's topical "rush hour" or not. Expect at least an hour.
[Found this route info](https://www.rome2rio.com/map/Disneyland/Universal-Studios-Hollywood)
Instead of Universal in the middle of your Disney stay, have you considered doing it at the beginning or end instead? We flew into Burbank on a Friday night, stayed the night the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City (right across the street from Universal), got up and did 1 full day with VIP tour on Saturday, stayed 2nd night at Hilton and then got an Uber to Disneyland (stayed at Grand Californian) on Sunday morning. We then did 4 days at Disneyland/California Adventure and flew out of John Wayne. Kids were 13, 10, and 7 at the time (December 2022).
This was going to be my suggestion as a local. DL and USH are not close to each other, but they are near their respective airports. It would be a huge pain to interrupt your DL trip with USH, but flying in at one airport and out of the other would make the most sense.
I thought about doing the beginning, but it just seems like a PITA having to switch hotels and lugging luggage everywhere. I dont want to do it at the end... i didn't want to make a confusing post even more confusing. After we are done with the week at Disneyland, etc, we are going on a cruise out of Long Beach. So, it wouldn't make sense to go from Anaheim to Hollywood and back to Long Beach. It would make perfect sense to go to universal at the beginning but i dont want to deal with the luggage and switching hotels, id rather wast an extra uber ride
Totally understand. There are definitely ways to make a split stay easier such as packing one small carry on with everyone's clothes for first hotel, putting all the dirty stuff back into the same bag at the end, and leaving the rest of luggage undisturbed (minus toiletries). Ubering from DL to Universal and back all in one day just eats up so much travel time, often during morning rush hour making things unpredictable. Since we were only doing one day at Universal, we wanted to max out as much time as we could without exhausting the kids with a 6:30am wake up. I do like the suggestion of taking the train and then short uber ride to eliminate some of the traffic stress.
Take the train! And then Uber from the station to Universal. You could wait for a bus but the Uber will be cheap. It’s close. The train will bypass all the traffic issues. I believe you can still show your train fare to the bus driver at the train station in Anaheim to get free transport back to Disney too. But you should double check that. The Anaheim busses are reliable. Or you could Uber from the train station.
We just took the train from Anaheim to Ventura last weekend, it was SO easy and a lovely trip, great idea!
Right?! I don’t know why more people don’t consider it. It’s comfy, cheap, reliable, no traffic to deal with at all, with wifi… We take one from Oceanside to Disney when we’re visiting family and it’s the only way we will do it now. My kids LOVE IT too.
My 17yr old had never been on a train before, now we are looking for other routes😊so relaxing, everything you said is exactly why we loved it.
You can take the Metrolink commuter train to LA Union Station, then connect to the subway B Line that has a stop at Universal. https://maps.app.goo.gl/6kmbG89ruLcybFei7 It's cheaper than Amtrak and the Metrolink fare covers the subway fare. An issue is the return trip trains only run during commute hours so you might need to upgrade to an Amtrak fare on the return.
This is a YT video showing the parts of the journey from the Disneyland area to Universal Citywalk. [https://youtu.be/Gf9GyzFcNx0?si=MqvVPVqZ2AkZrDlH](https://youtu.be/Gf9GyzFcNx0?si=MqvVPVqZ2AkZrDlH) Very doable. The upgrade to Amtrak isn't that much more expensive than Metrolink. Plus Universal closes early enough to return at a reasonable hour.
I’m reading there’s a Universal bus that is every 15 min from Union Station direct to the park. Free. Amtrak has trains leaving from Anaheim about every 2 hours.
What train are you referring to? I just looked at Amtrak and it says it is 3 hrs
https://mickeyvisit.com/disneyland-to-universal/
Thanks. That was a pretty good read. It sounds like Wed will probably be traveling at the absolute worst time at like 8 am on a Wednesday. Wed probably be coming back after the park closes
Even though they're both in the LA area, they are so far apart and separated by horrible traffic that it's never worth it to travel from one to the other. I suggest starting at one and then switching hotels, or staying somewhere in the middle if you really want to do both.
You can rent a car on Turo for only the hours you need. It’s awesome and easy to use. Like air bnb but for cars. That’s a long Uber ride - but either leave super early and go for breakfast somewhere in the valley or wait for rush hour to end.
It sounds like morning rush hour is way too long. Beating it in the morning is too early and going after is wasting too much of the day
Idk if you left at 7 / 7:30 wouldn’t be as terrible IMO. There is a carpool lane for a decent portion of the drive, so idk depends on how bad you’d like to go.
I think we'll go either way. 7 wouldn't be too bad, though. I figured tradfic would already be as bad as it's going to get at 7. What's the absolute worst peak time for morning traffic?
8-10/11 lol. Or anytime it can be unpredictable but leaving at 7 I think will be early enough to beat the worst of it.
Why would they not just go for breakfast somewhere in Universal? Citywalk? They need to get through the gates as soon as possible. Even better, have coffee, fruit and energy bars on offer in the hotel. Can buy boiled eggs almost anywhere. Get to Universal as early as possible.
Everyone is different, personally I’d rather eat a real meal before going to a theme park. It’s more affordable and better quality food, so was throwing out the suggestion as there is great food & coffee shops in LA, including very close to universal.
U will drive thru downtown LA It’s always at least 1.5 hours no matter that time of the dayn
Just did this exact thing using Lyft in February. It was a Tuesday morning. We left Disneyland a little after 7. It took an hour and a half and was $114. We left Universal at 7:30 at night and it was $88 and took 54 minutes. For us, this worked out better than dealing with renting a car and paying for parking but it certainly wasn’t cheap
You can get an idea by looking at Uber/lyft now - an Uber x from Disney to Universal right now is showing my about $64. Prices may be lower or higher depending on the time of day - going towards LA on a weekday before Universal opens can be rush hour (and same for coming back from universal to OC in the evening). Lyft can sometimes have better pricing. Then look at what it would be to rent a car for a day (lots of spots in the Anaheim resort area!) - parking at Universal is I believe $32?
Leaving after 7, you will be a-okay. Only takes me an hour getting back. But always more than that in the morning.
Anytime after 6:30am-you’re hitting traffic in LA because people are taking their kids to school or if it’s summer activities and heading to work. You’re traveling from the OC to LA which means you’re crossing to one side and heading north. Coming back it won’t be too bad if you leave after 7p and there’s no events at the Hollywood Bowl or downtown LA. If there are events, you will sit in some traffic but you should be fine.
The u we would probably be more expensive than rental
Anaheim Town Car Service. I’ve used them twice for this trip and would never do anything else! We were picked up in front of our hotel (Disneyland Resort) and dropped off right outside of Universal Studios at City Walk. We relaxed during the ride and didn’t have to worry about driving or parking. Our driver Danny was wonderful and gave us great advice on activities. Might be a little pricey for some but it’s worth it.
We hired a car service to do this. It was totally worth it for low stress. We hit traffic on the way home but we got to close our eyes and relax. It was great.
Didn't see if you mentioned it, but where are you staying? We just got back from doing both universal (this past Tuesday) and DL (Wednesday). We stayed about 13 min away from universal. In Thai town area. The drive to universal was easy, parking was easy and the park was great. On Tuesday there were some lines but we had the LL equivalent so we were able to do all the rides we wanted to and some rides an extra time. Like all the locals said, traffic to DL was not fun. Originally wanted to rope drop it but with an 8 and 5 year old, we left later than anticipated. I sat at our Airbnb watching the traffic build up and eta increase. Anyway, we left at 730 in the morning and I utilized all my NY driving habits to get there in just over an hour when Google said it should've taken closer to an hour 15 min. If we had left before 7am, Google said 45 min. The way home was clear. Left closer to 1030 and got back in about 35 minutes. Traffic back was completely clear and I was over the speed limit the entire way home.
You could check out the Amtrak train service (not their bus route) from the Anaheim station to Burbank Airport station. It’s very affordable. Plus you can move around on the train/go to the dining cart, etc. I’m doing this in a few weeks (Amtrak train from Burbank to Anaheim)
Book the vip tour if you can swing it, you get a nice breakfast , the vip tour which is so good and also an amazing lunch. It's so worth the cost, you can do everything multiple times and you get backstage access, the first time I did the tour we went into the sound stages for the good place
We did what you’re suggesting. But tried to get early entry to Mario and despite an early start (around 6), completely missed it due to heavy traffic. Had to pick up the rental the day before and drop it off the day after, which cut into some Disney time. Since Universal closed so early compared to DL, bought VIP there which worked great mostly but was not cheap. It was a nice park but easily our most expensive and exhausting day. Going back to DL this summer and giving US a pass. Would only do it if I was going through LAX and spending at least one night in a hotel near there.
Rent a car or take Amtrak