For comparison, it's about 383 miles between city centers, which takes about 6 hours to drive in good traffic.
Los Angeles to San Francisco by Train
The Amtrak Coast Starlight line runs from Los Angeles' Union Station to San Jose or Oakland's Jack London Square but does not go to the city of San Francisco. The trip from LA to Oakland takes a little over 11 hours and costs $52 one way. From San Jose, you can transfer to Caltrain to get to San Francisco or you can take a bus from Oakland.Los Angeles to San Francisco by Air
You may be surprised to find that air travel between LA and San Francisco isn't much more expensive than taking the train and it's much faster (about 1.5 hours). Learn about the San Francisco area airports. There are at least four place to fly in and out of in the the Los Angeles metro area.Jet Blue Airways flies from San Francisco to Long Beach and often offer the lowest fares between the two areas you'll find anywhere.
Southwest Airlines operates between LAX, Burbank, Ontario or Orange County to San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. They do not participate in any of the online travel sites and you should always check directly with their website.
For all other airlines, you can compare air fares using Kayak.com. LA area airport codes are LAX, BUR (Burbank), LGB (Long Beach), SNA (Orange County). San Francisco is SFO, Oakland OAK and San Jose SJC.
Los Angeles to San Francisco by Bus
GotoBus operates buses between Monterey Park (east of downtown LA) and Cupertino, San Francisco or Oakland. There's only one trip offered a day, leaving in the morning from each place. Cost is about the same as Amtrak and it takes about 7.5 hours to between Monterey Park and downtown San Francisco. Cost is about the same as Amtrak.California Shuttle Bus picks up and drops off at several locations on both ends of the route, departing at noon and midnight only and taking about 7.5 hours. They say fares start as low as $5, but most of them run about $40 round trip.
