Vegas Guide

Driving to Vegas from L.A. can eat up half your weekend if you're not careful. Here are some tips to cut down the drive time and make the trip go smoothly. Or you could book a flight or travel package and take your chances with the lines at the security checkpoints.

Traffic: If you're going on a weekend, know that there WILL be traffic. Not maybe. Not perhaps. There is no luck involved here. There WILL be traffic. Even if it's 3 a.m. Saturday, there is traffic. However, on an average weekend, the traffic is not too bad (by L.A. standards). You can usually make it from L.A. to Vegas in about five hours. It'll be bumper to bumper around Barstow, but it'll clear up and you could end up going about 70 mph the rest of the way. It seems most visitors leave L.A. between Friday morning and very late Friday night, but everyone heads back to L.A. between noon and 8 p.m. on Sunday. The trip to L.A. is almost always slower than the trip to Vegas. If you can take Monday off and travel then, you'll be traffic free.

Construction: We know the drive between Victorville and Vegas can be painful. And for the time being it's going to get worse before it gets better. The State of California is in the process of expanding Interstate 15 from two to three lanes in certain areas and adding truck lanes on the hills. Caltrans and Nevada Department of Transportation will be spending a combined 356.8 million on improving 70 miles of the 138 miles of freeway from Victorville to the Nevada state line. NDOT has also begun widening southbound I-15 to three lanes from Las Vegas to Primm. Construction on all the projects is scheduled for completion in 2007. Until then, be patient and prepared for construction delays, narrow lanes and temporary re-routing.

Holiday Weekends: If you're coming to Vegas on a holiday weekend, be prepared for the longest road trip of your life. It is not uncommon for the trip to Vegas to take as long as seven hours and the trip back to take as long as 11 hours. That's not a typo. That's an 11-hour trip.

It took one guy we know 12 hours to get from the Stratosphere to UCLA on New Year's Day.

... and speaking of New Year's: New Year's weekend traffic is usually six-eight hours on the way to Vegas and 10-12 hours on the way back. If you don't mind the time, but can't stand the traffic (i.e., you'd rather be moving fast for a long time than moving slow for a long time), you can try taking the 10 east to the 95 north to the 215 west to the 15 north. With no traffic, that's a seven-hour drive, but at least you're moving. If this alternate route has traffic, though, you're stuck because there's no turning back.

Gas and Mileage: On average, the trip is about 300 miles from most parts of L.A. Know your mileage and how much gas you've got left. This may seem trivial, but there are a couple of sections on the 15 with 30-plus mile stretches with no gas stations. In an approximate sense, if you're coming from L.A., Victorville is about the one-third mark, Barstow is the one-half mark, Baker is the two-thirds mark and Primm is the "We're in Nevada -- only 45 minutes left!" mark. Barstow has lots of gas stations and fast food joints, while Baker has only a handful. Oddly enough, it doesn't take much longer to get here from San Diego because you can stay on the 15 all the way.

Speeding: How can you speed if there's so much traffic? You can't most of the time, but there will be spurts of speed. Be careful! The California Highway Patrol and Nevada Highway Patrol are always ready to hand out a speeding ticket or, more frequently, a moving violation ticket. Don't tailgate, don't cut off your neighbor, don't drive in the Slow Truck Lane and pay attention while driving. It's a dangerous highway if you're not careful.

Pass the time: It's a road trip so remember to pack the tunes to keep yourself entertained. You'll find a couple of compilation albums are more entertaining on the road than listening to the same CD or tape over and over and over. Coming into Vegas you can also tune in to several radio stations that feature information on deals in Vegas, late-breaking news and music. Nighttime driving is tough because there's not a lot to see. It's not the most beautiful drive during the day, either, but at least you see more than a line of light from opposing traffic. However, if you can time your trip to be between Barstow and Baker at sunset, you'll see some amazing sunsets, especially if there are some clouds.

Local Driving: Don't drive on Las Vegas Boulevard (the Strip). Use Paradise to the east and Industrial to the west as much as possible. Twenty-six miles of the 405 every day for a year was never as bad as Strip traffic on an early Friday night.