<p>i'm visiting LA in late august and want to go up to the bay area for a couple of days. what's the cheapest, easiest and most convenient way to do this? flying costs about 80-100 bucks, amtrak costs about $60 (but of course, takes longer), are there any other options?</p>
<p>You can always do a rideshare. Go on MyUCLA and poke around the forums.</p>
<p>greyhound?</p>
<p>Greyhound will run around $80 for the round-trip.</p>
<p>For Greyhound, if you get another person to travel with you, he/she can get a Companion Rate that takes off 50% off for their ticket. So, in effect, both of you get 25% off.</p>
<p>don't take Amtrak!! It would just about be faster on bike. The train up the coast is really slow, a complete waste of your time. </p>
<p>You should fly, unless you value 8-10 hours of your time at less than $20 or so.</p>
<p>Bike and camp. It is completely possible.</p>
<p>^
:/ You couldn't pay me enough to do that.</p>
<p>if you really research your airplane tix, and plan enough in advance, you can get tickets for $50. just takes more planning, is all. southwest offered a promotion like this in the spring- you just have to look for them.</p>
<p>Its too bad southwest doesn't work out of san francisco anymore. They were usually the cheapest whenever I needed tickets.</p>
<p>Virgin America LAX to SFO will be $88 roundtrip, plus taxes, roughly $110 total.</p>
<p>Plus, you get to fly Virgin America. How sweet is that?</p>
<p>making the trip on a bus or by car is not quick ... you basically will spend a day traveling each direction ... so unless you're want to kill 2 days traveling I'd fly. FYI - the coastal drive from LA to SF is amazing but it does take a day.</p>
<p>Southwest flies from LAX to Oakland and is very cheap. You can catch the BART train (schedules and maps online) over to the city from Oakland. In fact, some people think it is easier to fly into Oakland and do this rather than flying directly into the SFO airport.</p>
<p>I've driven from LA to SF in about 6 or 7 hours. If you just take the 5, you can do it pretty quickly. It's just...not exciting.</p>
<p>~5.5 hours for me on I5</p>
<p>"the" 5 :rolleyes:</p>
<p>There are no police on Highway 1.</p>
<p>too bad it takes like 7+ hours...</p>
<p>how about for 1 buck? </p>
<p>A new bus company is starting service from LA to the Bay Area, and 2 seats on every bus are $1 !!! Most cost more, but there are supposed to be plenty available at $5 and $10 according to a newspaper article I read. See <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-numegabus31jul31,1,1185503.story%5B/url%5D">http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-numegabus31jul31,1,1185503.story</a></p>
<p>The bus company is at <a href="http://www.megabus.com%5B/url%5D">www.megabus.com</a></p>