By air
Bakersfield is served by Meadows Field Airport (BFL), a small regional airport about 6km northwest of downtown. It handles limited domestic service — American Eagle operates connections to Los Angeles and Phoenix, and United Express flies to San Francisco and Denver. For more options, many travelers use Los Angeles (LAX), roughly 180km south via CA-99 and I-5 (about 2 hours in light traffic, considerably more during peak hours).
By train
Bakersfield is a stop on Amtrak's San Joaquin service, which runs daily between Oakland/Sacramento and Bakersfield. The Bakersfield Amtrak station on Truxton Avenue is a compact but functional facility. The San Joaquin does not continue south — at Bakersfield, passengers connect to Amtrak Thruway bus services for onward travel to Los Angeles (roughly 3 hours by bus) and southern California. The train-bus combination is slower than driving but considerably cheaper than flying, and the Valley scenery through the Central Valley agricultural heartland is worth seeing once.
By road
Bakersfield sits at the intersection of two major California highways. CA-99 is the main Central Valley artery running north to Fresno, Sacramento, and the Bay Area; travel times to Los Angeles via CA-99 and I-5 are around 1.5–2 hours depending on the Tejon Pass (known to locals as "the Grapevine"), which can close in winter during snowstorms. I-5 passes just west of the city and provides the fastest direct route to Los Angeles when CA-99 is congested. From San Francisco, count on roughly 4–5 hours via I-5 or CA-99.