[LowCal]

Depending on what time you leave and traffic, leaving from Ventura is about a 2.5 hour drive more or less from the San Ysidro border and about a 5 hour drive to the Calexico border crossing.

If you head south on the Transpeninsular it’s a net 7 hour drive to San Quintin, little less than 8 hours to El Rosario and 10 hours to Cataviña.

Crossing at Mexicali it’s a net 7 hours to San Felipe and a little over 9 hours to Gonzaga.

If it was me for this trip, I’d leave early and stick to Mex 1 and make the drive to Cataviña, which would leave me closest to my destination.

[gregj]

I like the 5 too but I agree that Mex1 makes more sense for this trip

[coyote]

I prefer the 5 simply due to less traffic but as lowcal said, what time you leave can make a big difference in your driving time. If there is a lot of traffic I’d stop in San Felipe. From there that’s a long drive to San Juanico and I’d probably stop in Vizcaino the 2nd night.

[stevie]

I like the 5 too but leaving from Ventura to reach Scorpion Bay it makes more sense to target Cataviña for the first night. From there it’s lot more doable to get there on the second day.

[gregj]

No way do I want to make this a 3 day drive

[bajajeepers]

No way that should be a 3 day drive unless you’re stopping to do a lot of sightseeing.

[enchirito]

If it was me, I’d leave extra early like at 3:00AM which gives you a super easy drive through LA / Orange County and also skims through the worst of the San Diego southbound commuter traffic with the goal of crossing the border by 6:00 or 6:30AM at the latest. From there it’s easy to reach Guerrero Negro before sunset. Go to bed early that night to recoup and that will put you in San Juanico by the following afternoon.

[gregj]

I am liking this idea and as there are 3 of us we can split up the time behind the wheel. Might actually leave at 2 AM just to be sure we get through the San Diego and TJ traffic. We should be in GN by 3 PM easy and could even push on to Vizcaino.

[rogerw]

You won’t have any traffic issues in Tijuana at 6am. It’s basically an expressway to the scenic toll road after you make it through Mexican customs. You might experience traffic slowdowns driving through Ensenada.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by  rogerw.

[gregj]

Yeah, I figure we’d stop for breakfast somewhere around Rosarito and then push through Ensenada, which should be the worst of it. That would get us through San Quintin well before lunch which means there shouldn’t be a lot of farm worker busses around that time.

[LowCal]

Making Vizcaino from Ventura is ambitious but doable I suppose if you leave that early, especially having 2 additional companions to help take turns driving. That would get you you there th next day in time for an afternoon set before dinner.

[mx-rider]

It will mostly depend on how much traffic they encounter between LA and the border. Leaving that early with 3 drivers to share the load makes Vizcaino quite reachable if they can be south of Ensenada by 8:00AM.

[tom-lindsay]

We have taken the Mex5 route several times but found it was just too lonely a drive. We really missed all the options to stop along the way and get something to eat as well as get a tire checked or repaired, etc.