Things to do on the Las Vegas to Los Angeles run

5 hours. That number is not reliable on Friday and Sunday afternoons, when returning weekend traffic backs up for miles near Barstow and again approaching the LA basin; a trip that should take four hours can stretch past eight if you leave at the wrong time. This is not a day trip.

Los Angeles is a sprawling coastal city with no relationship to the desert resort corridor you just left, and it makes far more sense as a multi-day add-on to a Nevada itinerary than a there-and-back excursion squeezed into 24 hours behind the wheel.