Help and Frequently Asked Questions

How does the distance calculator work?

Our easy to use distance calculator tool only requires you to enter an origin and a destination point. You can set as origin or destination any geographic point you like, it can be a city name, a street address, etc. As you type in the form field a list of suggestions will be shown and you must pick one of them. If your origin or destination point is not shown on the list, you can try with a different name or check your spelling. Once you picked origin and destination from the suggestions list you can press the "Find" button to see complete information about the distance and route between them.

How does the route planning work?

You can use our driving directions tool to plan your trip. By simply inputting your origin and destination points, as describe on question "How does the distance calculator work?" in this same page, you will be able to know all the details about your route. Our tool will provide you with turn by turn directions to your destination, travel cost calculations, time to destination, recommended hotels to stay and even CO2 emissions calculator for the environmentally conscious.

How can I print driving directions?

To print driving directions you will find a “PRINT DIRECTIONS” button. By clicking it you will be directed to a printer friendly version of the page, where you can find a map with the overview of your route and a list of turn by turn driving directions. From this page you can now click File > Print in your browser’s menu bar or hit CTRL+P (for PC) or ⌘+P (for Mac) on your keyboard to print. Your browser's print dialog will appear. Follow the instructions to print your directions.

How is fuel cost estimated?

Fuel cost is estimated by considering the distance between the two locations and the average price per gallon from the U.S. Energy Information Administration website. We do our calculations using the average consumption of gallons per miles for a standard car. Additionally we also show the estimated cost for heavy cars and efficient cars in the text titled “Fuel Economy” under the map. Average consumption of the mentioned type of cars are also mentioned in the "Fuel Economy" paragraph.

How are the CO2 emission calculated?

Emissions are calculated with an average CO2 emission of 182 grams per mile. CO2 emissions may be lower if you use an electric car, an efficient car, or a brand new car; while it may be higher if you use a heavy or an old car.

How is the flight/direct distance being calculated?

Flight or direct distance is the geographical distance between the two locations in a straight line, assuming there is an airport exactly in your origin point and in your destiny point. For calculations we take into account the curvature of the Earth, so technically speaking, we calculate the geodesic distance or the great-circle distance between two geographical points.

Can I book a hotel from Distances.io?

You can find hotels at your destination but we don't manage the booking process directly. We will show you recommended hotels on your trip destination and you can proceed to book them with our partner booking.com. They are a very reputed brand in the hotel booking business and offer a secure and easy to use booking experience that we trust and recommend.

I keep getting an error message when typing my origin or destination

When entering the locations, make sure you pick a location from the list of suggested places in both, origin and destination boxes, then press the “FIND” button to get the distance information.

Driving distance or directions are not available for my trip

Sometimes, for example when the starting point and destination are on two different continents, the driving distance and directions can not be calculated, since there are no roads between them. In this case you can check the flying distance. If a driving distance is definitely possible, check if you have picked the right locations. If you find any other errors, please get in touch with us and we will try our best to solve it.

How accurate is your distance calculation?

We calculate both the linear distance and the driving distance between two given points. For the linear distance we calculate it taking into account the Earth's curve and we use very precise calculation using the latitude and longitude of your origin and destination points. For driving distance our tool will offer you the shortest distance by road. When performing the time estimation, it does take into account the type of road and current traffic on route. As part of our system we make use of Google Maps APIs helping us to provide accurate information to our users.

Do you take traffic into account when calculating the driving time?

Yes, traffic is taken into account when calculating the driving time. Accidents, traffic jams and construction zones are usually considered in calculations too.