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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.
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 long trip and there's not a lot of consistency in the radio stations along
the way, so bring some CDs or tapes. You'll find a couple of compilation albums are more
entertaining on the road than listening to one artist over and over and over. 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. Vegas.com's Geoff Carter has some
suggestions on Vegas music that will get you in
the mood.
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.
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