Route Planner
Plan a route across multiple stops, with the best visiting order, total distance, and travel time.
Driving distance and travel time are general estimates based on straight-line distance between city centers, not an actual routed path. Real road distance and drive time will vary by route, traffic, and border crossings.
How This Calculator Works
Add a starting location, an ending location, and as many stops in between as your trip needs, in any order. Unlike a calculator that simply adds up distances in the order you entered them, Route Planner searches for the order that produces the shortest overall trip, then estimates the driving distance and travel time for that route.
Route Planner vs. Multi-Stop Distance Calculator
The Multi-Stop Distance Calculator calculates distance leg by leg in exactly the order you enter your stops — useful when your visiting order is already fixed. Route Planner works differently: it evaluates the possible orders for your stops and recommends the one that minimizes total distance, then shows that order alongside the distance for each leg. If your trip has no stops in between, the Driving Distance Calculator covers a direct two-city trip.
FAQ
Does the order I enter my stops matter?
No. Enter your stops in any order — this calculator evaluates the possible orders and shows the route order that produces the shortest total trip, along with the distance for each leg. If it changes the order you entered, it tells you so.
How is the best route order found?
For a small number of stops, every possible order is compared directly and the shortest one is used. For a larger number of stops, checking every order becomes impractical, so the calculator instead builds a route by always continuing to the nearest remaining stop — a fast, well-established approach that still produces a strong route.
How is the total distance calculated?
Once the route order is set, the trip is broken into legs — starting location to the first stop, each stop to the next, and the last stop to the ending location. Each leg's driving distance is estimated separately from its straight-line distance, then all legs are added together for the total.
How is the estimated travel time calculated?
Estimated travel time divides the total estimated driving distance by an assumed average speed of 60 mph, approximating a typical mix of highway and other roads. It doesn't account for traffic, rest stops, or time spent at each stop.
What if a place I want isn't in the search results?
This calculator searches a dataset of tens of thousands of cities and places worldwide. If your exact stop doesn't appear, try searching for the nearest larger city instead — it will give a reasonably close estimate.
When should I use this instead of the Multi-Stop Distance Calculator?
Use the Multi-Stop Distance Calculator when you already know the order you want to visit your stops in — it calculates distance leg by leg in exactly the order you enter them. Use Route Planner when you want the calculator to figure out the best order for you, to minimize the total distance of the trip.