PacificMountain2012

The time you enter the LA Area, that would be Sylmar coming south on the 5, will determine how bad it is for you traffic wise. Obviously the earlier the better. Anytime late afternoon on and you will run into your basic LA freeway gridlock. It won't really matter what freeway you're on or what direction you're are going. If you really want to go to the Santa Monica Pier, you can bite the bullet (you never know maybe no traffic!) and head straight there on the 405 (to the 10 west) and then plan to stay in Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey or the Airport area for the night. Lot's of hotels and restaurants. In the morning get up early and head down the 405 to the 710, traffic should be fairly light, just don't wait too late in the morning. If you can live without Santa Monica, I would stay on the 5 south and stay in the Glendale area, lots of hotels and eating options, not much sight seeing however. Then in the morning you'd have a 45 minute or so drive down to Long Beach (you'll hit some traffic going through downtown LA but that should be it). Sounds like a great car trip you have planned! Hope that helps

Did a 1:50 from Hobby a week an half ago and we were there early enough to make a 11:30 flight. This was during the week though, I don't know how crowded security lines are on the weekends, which could make a difference.

Stayed in the Hampton Inn, Webster probably a dozen times. Its a typical Hampton Inn, but it close to lots of restaurants (good bbq not far away), has the usual Hampton inn breakfast and is typically priced right.

The DoubleTree is a half mile from Hobby and they have a free shuttle from the airport. There is a restaurant on property as well as a bar. Its a nice hotel, not great, but for a night works great. We are using it again this week.