Places

Distance Between Cities

Type any two places to get the distance between them in kilometres, miles and nautical miles, the compass direction, the midpoint, and rough travel-time estimates for driving and flying.

Try:

Great-circle distance, not road distance

This tool measures the great-circle distance — the shortest path across the curved surface of the Earth between two points, the same line a plane roughly follows. It is the “as the crow flies” distance and it is always shorter than the distance you would actually drive. A road trip winds around mountains, coastlines, lakes and one-way streets, so real driving distance is typically 15–40% longer than the straight-line figure shown here. Use this number for planning, comparisons and a sense of scale; use a dedicated routing/maps service when you need turn-by-turn road mileage.

How to measure the distance between two places

  1. Enter your starting place. Type a city, address or landmark in the “From” box (for example, “Paris, France”).
  2. Enter your destination. Type the second place in the “To” box (for example, “Rome, Italy”).
  3. Calculate. Press the button — each place is looked up to its exact coordinates on the WGS84 datum, then the distance and direction are computed.
  4. Read the results. You get the distance in km, miles and nautical miles, the initial bearing and compass direction, the geographic midpoint, and indicative driving and flying times.
  5. Refine on the map. Both places appear as pins joined by a line; drag a pin to fine-tune a point and the numbers update instantly.

How the travel-time estimates work

The driving and flying times shown are deliberately rough estimates based on the straight-line distance, not on real routes or schedules. The driving estimate assumes a steady average of about 80 km/h (50 mph) over the great-circle distance — it ignores traffic, stops, terrain, ferries and the fact that roads are longer than the straight line, so treat it only as an order-of-magnitude guide. The flying estimate assumes a cruising speed of roughly 800 km/h (about 430 knots) over the great-circle path and does not include taxi, climb, descent, holding patterns or airport transfer time. For an exact journey time, always check a routing service or an airline timetable.

Units and what each one means

UnitWhere it’s usedConversion
Kilometre (km)Most of the world, road and map distances1 km = 0.621 mi
Mile (mi)US and UK road distances1 mi = 1.609 km
Nautical mile (nmi)Aviation and marine navigation1 nmi = 1.852 km
Bearing (°)Initial direction from start to destination0° = North, 90° = East
See all tools →

Frequently asked questions

Is this driving distance or straight-line distance?
It is the straight-line, great-circle distance — the shortest path over the Earth’s surface, “as the crow flies”. Real driving distance is longer because roads bend around terrain and follow the network; expect roughly 15–40% more than the figure shown.

How accurate are the travel-time estimates?
They are rough indications only. Driving time assumes about 80 km/h over the straight-line distance and flying time assumes about 800 km/h on the great-circle path. Neither includes traffic, stops, route detours, taxi or airport time, so use them for planning, not booking.

What is a nautical mile?
A nautical mile (1.852 km) is the standard unit in aviation and at sea, originally defined as one minute of latitude. We show it alongside km and miles because flight and shipping distances are usually quoted in nautical miles.

What does the bearing tell me?
The bearing is the initial compass direction you would head in to travel from the first place to the second along the great-circle path, given in degrees (0° = North, 90° = East) with a 16-point compass label such as NE or SSW. On a long route the bearing changes as you go.

Where is the midpoint, and is it the halfway point of a drive?
The midpoint shown is the geographic halfway point along the great-circle line between the two places. It is not the halfway point of a road trip, which depends on the actual route. You can drop the midpoint coordinates into find GPS coordinates to see exactly where it lands.

Which datum and data sources do you use?
Place names are looked up to coordinates on the WGS84 datum (the standard used by GPS and Google Maps) via OpenStreetMap data, and the distance is computed with the haversine formula on a spherical Earth — accurate to well under half a percent. To check the local clock at either end, see time in a place.