How Far Can I Drive?

“How far can I drive in an hour?” is one of those questions that’s surprisingly hard to answer with a normal map — distance on a map isn’t the same as distance on the road. This tool answers it directly: pick a starting point, choose how long you’re willing to drive, and it shades the area you can actually reach.

What makes it more useful than a plain drive-time blob is the second half: it also lists the towns and cities you can get to inside that area, ranked by size, with how far each one is. So instead of staring at a shape, you get real destinations — handy for planning a day trip, a weekend away, a house move, or just seeing what’s in range.

It’s free, works in your browser with no sign-up, and you can start from your current location, search for any place, or share a link to a specific drive-time map.

See how far you can drive

How to use it

1. Set your starting point. Tap “Use my location”, or type any city, address or landmark into the search box.
2. Choose a drive time. Pick anything from 15 minutes to 2 hours. The shaded area updates to show how far you can get.
3. Read the destinations. The panel lists the cities and towns inside the area, biggest first, with the distance to each.
4. Share it. Use “Copy link” to send someone the exact drive-time map — the start point and time are saved in the link.

Data & method

The reachable area is a drive-time isochrone — the set of points you can reach within a time limit. With routing enabled it comes from OpenRouteService, which follows the real road network; otherwise it’s estimated from an average driving speed and marked “Approximate”. Neither mode models live traffic. The destination list is drawn from the GeoNames open database (CC BY 4.0): every city in our set is tested against the reachable area and ranked by population. Place search uses Photon (OpenStreetMap) and the basemap is © OpenStreetMap contributors and © CARTO.

Frequently asked questions

Is this based on real roads and traffic?

With routing enabled the area follows real roads via OpenRouteService; otherwise it’s an average-speed estimate shown with an “Approximate” badge. Neither uses live traffic, so treat the edge of the area as a guide rather than a guarantee.

Why don’t small villages show up?

The list focuses on cities and larger towns (roughly 100,000 people or more) to stay readable. Smaller places can still sit inside the shaded area even when they’re not listed.

How is this different from the Travel Time Map?

Our Travel Time Map draws the reachable area for different travel modes. This tool is driving-focused and adds the ranked list of destination cities inside the area — it answers “where could I actually go?”, not just “what’s the shape?”. For finding specific places near you, try Find Places Within 2 Hours.

Does “Use my location” share my exact position?

Your browser asks permission and, if granted, your coordinates are used only in your browser to set the starting point and request the drive-time area — they aren’t stored or sent anywhere else. You can ignore the button and search for a place instead.

Related Mappr tools

• Travel Time Map — isochrones for driving, cycling and walking.
• Find Places Within 2 Hours — points of interest near you.
• EV Trip Planner — routes with smart charging stops.
• Distance Calculator — distance between any two points.
• All Mappr apps — the full collection of free map tools.