We are staying at Disneyland Resort 10/7(Sun) to 10/14(Sun) and are thinking of taking a drive down to visit the San Diego Zoo. What is the drive like and does it make sense to do this as a day trip since we already have DLR hotel reservations for the whole week or do an overnight to SD? Any trips on drive times and routes to avoid traffic would be appreciated. And any other tips that you think would help.

Thanks.

If you can do it on a weekend it is not as bad as a weekday. The weekday traffic will kill you, that will be a very long drive for a day trip with all the traffic. The Zoo is all hills and very steep, you will leave there very tired unless you are a marathon runner, so be prepared for that and don't wipe yourselves out so much that you can't face a 3 hour trek home (which is what is easily could be with traffic). I'd reccommend leaving Anaheim super early, like 5am, get down to SD and have breakfast, then hit the zoo, OR go after traffic around 10am, stay at the zoo until closing and stop at a nearby restaurant for dinner, hang around and then jump on the freeway around 7pm.

Maybe I'm jaded because I've been there enough times to know what's there, but personally I would not make such a trip during a vacation just for the zoo unless I was also doing Sea World or Legoland while in SD. It's a really nice zoo and all, but there other really nice zoos in the country, actually nicer ones, and it wouldn't be worth all the hours on the freeway during a vacation to me to see just the zoo.

You can do the zoo as a day trip. It takes about 1.5 - 2 hours to drive down there, depending on traffic. The last few months, weekend traffic has been heavier than I have seen it in the past, and so expect the freeway to crawl for much of the time.

As DizneyMommy said, the zoo is very large and very hilly. You can do the zoo in a tour bus, but that costs extra. You will probably only get to see about half of the zoo in a day (it's that big), so don't try to rush things. Take your time, and enjoy what you can. You cannot do it all. So, pick and choose which exhibits you want to see the most, and take the appropriate routes on the map they give you.

The zoo is located in the heart of Balboa Park, which has enough activities outside the zoo to keep your family busy for at least a day. Then there is Sea World, Legoland, Mission Beach, etc. So, if you have two days, you can easily stretch out your stay in San Diego. If not, just do the zoo. It is well worth it.