Driving from San Francisco to Las Vegas: the Short Route
Distance: 570 milesDrive Time: 9 hours
You have several options for a road trip from San Francisco to Las Vegas. The shortest way from San Francisco to Las Vegas is also the least prone to winter road closures, but it's also the most tediously boring.
The map above shows the fast route in general. The red line is the best option if you're starting from San Mateo or south of there. Click on the map and you'll get a slightly larger version. If you'd like to see it even bigger, zoom in and out or get detailed driving directions for your road trip and explore what you might see along the way, go to the interactive version.
This is the basic route: From San Francisco, take I-80 east to I-580 east to I-5 south. South of Kettleman City, exit onto CA Hwy 46 and connect to CA Hwy 99 south toward Bakersfield. Exit onto CA Hwy 58 east toward Tehachapi and Mojave, connecting with I-15 at Barstow. From there, I-15 goes directly to Las Vegas.
If you're looking for a fun road trip and not just a way to get from city to city as fast as possible, there are better options. The next couple of pages describe the most scenic ones.
