Location
All three major airports in the San Francisco Bay Area provide access to Sandia/California. Oakland International Airport is the closest airport to Sandia, followed by San Jose International Airport and then San Francisco International Airport. Traffic on Interstate 580 — used when traveling to Sandia from either Oakland or San Francisco — can be quite heavy, so be sure to allow for extra time when driving during rush hour.
Public transportation to Sandia is available from the San Francisco and Oakland airports via the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Wheels bus system. In addition, you can rent a car from any AVIS rental location — including the airports — and return the car at Sandia. AVIS cars are also available for pickup at Sandia with a prior reservation at least 24 hours in advance of the pickup date and time.
Sandia’s contracted rental car provider is National / Enterprise. Currently, Sandia does not have on-site rental cars available at the Sandia Livermore site and there is no provision for drop-off of one way rental cars of any brand on the Sandia Livermore site.
If you choose to travel by rental car from Oakland or other airports we recommend a round trip rental car reservation, returning the vehicle to the same place you picked it up. This avoids very high one-way trip charges. If you choose a one-way rental, National’s nearest drop-off point is at 2111 Research Drive, Livermore, CA 94550, 0.93 miles from the Lab. The nearest drop-off for Enterprise cars is 3569 1st St. Livermore, CA 94551, 2.9 miles from the Lab. We recommend Uber, Lyft or taxi for the remaining distance to the Lab.