I want to second what the others have said, but add a few tidbits. Heading north from LA that Sunday is ugly, but doable. Of course, that depends on where in LA you are actually coming from.San Diego is another matter entirely, but there is a way if absolutely necessary. First, make darn sure you have a current California map with you. When you leave SD, go north on I-15, not I-5. This road will be ugly too, but not nearly as bad. This is the critical part: stay on I-15 all the way through the Riverside/SB area, and all the way up the hill into the desert. Eventually you will hit the fair sized town of Hesperia. One of the first exits will be for highway 395 north. Take it. You will be stuck in town traffic for 3-4 miles, but just be patient, and think about how bad LA traffic is. Once out of town you go up to highway 58. Take that going west. After going past Edwards AFB then a couple of hours of a pretty mountain freeway driving, you will come out in Bakersfield. At that point you need to find a news/traffic station, but I would probably recommend highway 99 north to 126 west. Which will then get you home. This was isn t perfect, but you are going around 80% of the really bad traffic. HTH
I have made the drive from Southern California to San Jose every year for 20+ years, and the one thing I can say is DO NOT try to do it on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Took me 14 hours one year because of one accident. You can avoid some of it if you travel very late at night (like afte midnight). Seriously, if you can take Monday off and go to San Jose on MOnday, you ll be much happier. Or leave after midnight on Saturday night and get to San Jose on Sunday morning before all the traffic hits.
I drove from LA to SD last thatnksgiving at about 1200 am and it was horrible. All the lanes in both directions were pretty packed. And that was at midnight. The thanksgiving before we went from LA to SF, traffic was heavy but not unmanageable. I d say that if you avoid Wednesday and Sunday it shouldn t be too bad, just realize its going to be busy just relax
The ONLY time traffic is not bad from San Diego to LA is at 2 in the morning. I hate Los Angeles traffic, but you do what you have to do.
Los Angeles will be a parking lot.