<p>I'm in the throes of planning the first college road trip--to make matters worse I'm doing it for my husband and D--so I'll hear about it, if it's goofed up! We're concentrating on the PacNW, but have an event in LA on Saturday night. We're trying to tour both Chapman (Orange) and Loyola Marymount. Here's the itinerary:</p>
<p>Tour USF and possibly SCU in the bay area on Thursday (stay in SF on thursday nite).
Fly from SFO to John Wayne Airport at 9am. Arrive at 10:40 and pick up a rental car and arrive at Chapman in time for the 11:30 info session and tour (DOES THAT SEEM IMPOSSIBLE?). Ideally we'd see LMU the same day, but I think that's cutting it too close since the last tour is at 1pm. Fortunately they have a tour and info session on Saturday at 11am. We will probably stay in Santa Monica.</p>
<p>So...Is John Wayne within a 30 minute drive from Chapman? Will traffic from Orange County heading to LA be crazy on Friday mid afternoon? Will driving from Santa Monica to LMU be difficult on a Saturday morning? Google maps looks okay, but I'm a terrible judge of driving distances. I know that LMU is quite close to LAX, but short of catching a 6am flight, there's nothing that would allow us to make both tours in one day. </p>
<p>I’m not a Californian, but I travel through SFO often. The shuttle flights within California are delayed VERY frequently – much more so than other flights in and out of SFO. Flights to John Wayne might be a little better than flights to LAX, but in general the intrastate flights have last priority, so I would allow some extra wiggle room in a schedule based on a flight within CA.</p>
<p>I think that the timing is too tight to get to Chapman. The flight, waiting for the rental car. There is a 7am Southwest flight ($69?) that arrives at 8:30am.</p>
<p>I don’t think it would normally take too long to get to Orange from John Wayne but your timings are pretty tight. The time between you flight arrival (10:40), you getting off the plane, getting your rental car, and starting the drive to Chapman alone may well put you at 11:00 before you’ve even driven a mile. After you get to Chapman you need to park, get out of the car, find the info session place, etc. It’s really tight and it’d be better and more relaxing if you could select an earlier flight.</p>
<p>The drive from Orange to the LAX area at that time of day s/b okay but you never know how it’ll really be. But since the info session only ‘starts’ at Chapman at 11:30 and the last tour at LMU starts at 1pm I don’t see how you can make it unless the Chapman info session is only 15 minutes long Allow about an hour for the drive between the two and don’t forget about getting to/from your car and parking time and while at Chapman you’ll also want to look around and it’d be best to do it in a relaxed way rather than rushing and skipping things and not getting a decent sense of it.</p>
<p>I think you’re better off getting an earlier flight to be able to get to Chapman in plenty of time and planning on the LMU session the following day. This way you’ll have a more relaxing time and can check things out better including the areas immediately surrounding the campus where your kid will likely spend some time in the next 4 years. You can also maybe get some decent beach time in Santa Monica or even hit Disneyland for a bit if you want to.</p>
<p>The following site gives you real time speeds of traffic in the area. You can check your route at the time of day you plan to be there for some days beforehand to get a sense of how fast/slow it’ll likely be (assuming no accidents in front of you).</p>
<p>I’m just wary of expecting a chronically late teenager and her chronically late father to check out of a hotel, get to SFO, drop rental car and get through security to be on 7am flight-likely a 5am wake-up call. We’ve never been on a tour before (though by that point, it will be their 5th), what happens if you show up 10 minutes late for one of these things? FWIW the admissions info session is at 11:30 and, if they like Chapman and decide to stay, the actual campus tour is at 2pm.</p>
It depends. If it’s a tour that started as a group outside the first problem could be that they’re gone - they already are walking around. If it starts with an info session in an auditorium, as many do, especially if called an ‘info session’ as opposed to just a ‘tour’, then you miss some of the info. It’s probably not a huge deal if you miss the first 5 - 10 minutes. You probably won’t be the only ones late. Maybe a poster with knowledge of the Chapman info session can chime in.</p>
<p>The “worst” case scenario is that you might miss half the info session that starts at 11:30 but most likely you won’t miss more than 10-15 minutes— if that (the delay could be in getting out of SFO). Not the end of the world since you will be there in plenty of time to do the campus tour. I would plan on doing carry-on size bags and do a car rental with one of the airport based companies. If you’ve never flown into John Wayne before… it is the “country club” of all airports (a total breeze). Chapman, in Orange CA, is no more than 30 minutes from the airport at that time of the day. If you travel with a portable GPS or smartphone, have the Chapman U address pre-programmed so you know where you’re going and don’t waste time trying to find where you’re going. Have fun and welcome to the OC!</p>
<p>Friday afternoon traffic on the 405 can be really bad or it could be a breeze. It all depends. One accident and it’s all over. Hopefully you have one of those traffic monitors on your smartphone. They are really helpful for LA traffic.</p>
<p>From Santa Monica to LMU on Saturday morning will be an easy drive. Have a good time.</p>
<p>To get from SNA (John Wayne Airport) to Chapman U, I would take the 55 North to the 5 North. There is a 55N onramp right at the airport. You won’t even be on the 405, you’ll be bypassing it altogether, although any roadway can potentially be a problem.</p>
<p>The timing is beyond tight and that is assuming your inbound flight is on time, you have only carry-ons, and you utilize and in-airport car rental agency. The distance from SNA to Chapman is ~12 miles and at mid-morning should be wide open. 20 minutes drive time should be plenty; the airport has a direct connector from the parking lot to the 55-N. But then you have to find a place to park at Chapman, walk to the building…</p>
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<p>I would bypass the 5 on the way to Chapman. I’d recommend Ca-55 North, exiting Chapman.</p>
<p>The OC to the westside is extremely slow on most afternoons, and in particular on Fridays. Just assume at least a 90 minute trip and you won’t disappoint yourself. To leverage the car pool lanes, do what the shuttles do (get ready):</p>
<p>I-5 north to
Ca-91 west to
I-605 north to
I-105 west to
I-405 north to Santa Monica</p>
<p>With a little luck, you’ll hit the I-405 in <hour.</p>
<p>Santa Monica to LMU Saturday morning will be wide open. Most folks on the westside will still be asleep at that hour. :D</p>
<p>OP, once you have your dates I suggest that you check with your Santa Monica hotel if there are going to be any closures on the 405. Check the day before, too. There is a massive construction project extending over the West Los Angeles section of the 405, and parts of the freeway get shut down on occasion, usually at night. You can’t necessarily predict when the closures will be, and though info on the closures is tweeted, it’s going to be impossible for someone unfamiliar with the area to figure out if there’s going to be a major detour/closure in your area. Odds are it won’t be a problem, but in the interests of making sure that your husband and daughter can’t whine “but you didn’t warn us about THIS”, best to know. ;)</p>
<p>10:40 arrival corresponds to 10:40 wheels touching down, so yes, the John Wayne to Chapman in 50 minutes is impossible. Everything in Southern California is supposedly 20 minutes from everything else…sure, at 2 AM. With a sports car. And a professional driver. Or a helicopter. :D</p>
<p>If you are visiting Santa Clara University last in the bay area, stay in that area and fly from SJC (San Jose) airport*. SJC flights are much less likely to be delayed than SFO flights. There are non-stop flights between SJC and SNA (Orange County) on Southwest Airlines.</p>
<p>You may want to consider dropping off the rental car the night before if you stay in a hotel that has a free airport shuttle, so that you will not have to deal with that while rushing to your flight.</p>
<p>*Santa Clara University is almost next to San Jose airport, although on the opposite side of the airport from the terminals.</p>
<p>Here’s my take on the Norcal half of the trip
Fly into SFO very early (red eye from NY)
Taxi to USF
Tour USF
Taxi to Caltrain King Street Station
Take the Caltrain down to SCU (it is a straight shot down to SCU)
Get off the SCU stop
Tour SCU
Taxi to San Jose Airport for late flights to SNA (Orange County/John Wayne Airport)
Fly down to Orange County Airport that SAME night, get rental car
You spend the night in Orange County so you will be in place for the Chapman tour
Think about it…</p>
<p>With the CONSTANT delays of puddle jumpers out of SFO, like Hanna said above, I think this could be your biggest problem. There is so much weather that shuts down one of the 2 runways. I’d say 75% of our frequent flights in and out of SFO are significantly delayed. I mean by hours, not minutes. DH often connects through on a flight that gets in (supposely) at 8PM. I plan on 11:00 dinners those nights! Have you thought about flying the night before?</p>
<p>Santa Clara University is about a third of a mile from the Santa Clara [url=<a href=“http://www.caltrain.com%5DCaltrain%5B/url”>http://www.caltrain.com]Caltrain[/url</a>] stop.</p>
<p>However, redeye transcontinental flights go west to east, not east to west.</p>
<p>There is also a San Jose to Orange Co 8:35am flight. San Jose is much easier to get in and out of than SFO, so getting their by 7:30 would not be a big hassle. (7am wakeup call…)</p>
<p>Gives you more time on the OC side to get to Chapman.</p>
<p>Back on point to your specific questions.<br>
-Yes Chapman will be less than a 30 minute drive at that time of day.<br>
-Since you will not make the same day Loyola tour, relax and stay in Orange County and drive to Loyola Saturday morning rather than drive past Loyola to Santa Monica in Friday traffic.<br>
-Highly recommend the Shorebreak hotel in Huntington Beach(see trip advisor). Loyola is a easy 40 minute drive from there on Saturday morning. </p>
<p>Great info SoCal parents! UCBalum and and Battlo, I was wondering about this option. I took a look at the CalTrain schedule and it seems to be about 90 min to or from–I assum the drive is similar–or worse? We’re trying to coordinate 8 schools in 5 days, all the way from Seattle to LA. Starting to feel like Planes Trains and Automobiles. I forgot about issues like weather in SFO–here in the east we think we’re the only victims. Onward!</p>
Allow about an hour for the drive between the two and don’t forget about getting to/from your car and parking time and while at Chapman you’ll also want to look around and it’d be best to do it in a relaxed way rather than rushing and skipping things and not getting a decent sense of it.</p>