Travel Time Calculator
Driving time is distance divided by average speed. 300 miles at an average of 60 mph is 5 hours; add the minutes you expect to spend at stops and you have the total trip time.
Answer
Total travel time
5 h 30 min
5 h of driving and 30 min of stops.
- minutes driving
- 300
- minutes in total
- 330
- hours in total
- 5.5
Check the work
Every line comes from the same calculation as the answer.
time = distance ÷ average speed, plus stops
| driving | 300 ÷ 60 × 60 | 300 min |
|---|---|---|
| total | 300 + 30 | 330 min |
How it works
Time equals distance divided by speed. 300 ÷ 60 = 5, so 300 miles at 60 mph takes five hours, and a 30-minute stop makes it five and a half.
The speed that matters is your average over the whole drive, not the speed limit. Junctions, towns, traffic and slowing for roadworks all pull the average down, so a motorway trip at a 70 mph limit often averages closer to 55–60 mph, and a cross-country route less than that.
Stops are where trip estimates usually go wrong. Fuel, food and a stretch every couple of hours add up quickly on a long drive, so the calculator keeps them separate and shows how much of the journey is spent standing still.
Formula
driving time = distance ÷ average speed; total = driving time + stops
Distance divided by speed gives hours; multiplying by 60 gives minutes, to which the stop time is added.
Worked examples
- Try these numbers
300 miles at 60 mph with a 30-minute break
- 300 ÷ 60 = 5 hours = 300 minutes.
- 300 + 30 = 330 minutes.
330 minutes in total — 5 h 30 min.
- Try these numbers
450 km at 90 km/h without stopping
- 450 ÷ 90 = 5 hours.
- No stops are added.
300 minutes — 5 hours of driving.
- Try these numbers
125 miles at 55 mph with two 15-minute stops
- 125 ÷ 55 = 2.2727 hours = 136.36 minutes.
- 136.36 + 30 = 166.36 minutes.
About 166 minutes — 2 h 46 min.
Inputs and results
- Distance
- How far you will drive, in miles or kilometres.
- Average speed
- Your expected average speed in mph or km/h, in the same distance unit.
- Stops
- The total minutes you expect to spend stopped.
- Driving time
- Distance divided by average speed.
- Total time
- Driving time plus stops.
When to use it
- Planning when to leave for a long drive or an airport run.
- Comparing a faster but longer route with a slower, shorter one.
- Building realistic breaks into a road-trip itinerary.
Common mistakes
- Using the speed limit instead of a realistic average speed.
- Forgetting to double the distance for a return trip.
- Leaving out fuel and rest stops on a drive of several hours.
What it does not do
- It does not know the route, the traffic or the time of day.
- It uses one average speed; mixed motorway and town driving should be averaged by you or split into legs.
- It does not convert between miles and kilometres; choose one system for both values.
Method and assumptions
Driving time in minutes is the distance divided by the average speed, multiplied by 60. The total adds the stop minutes you entered.
The total is shown in hours and minutes, rounded to the nearest minute; the unrounded minutes appear in the working.
Assumptions
- Distance and speed use the same distance unit.
- The speed is an average over the whole drive.
Edge cases
- Zero stop time gives the driving time alone.
- Distance and speed must be greater than zero.
- For a route with very different sections, run each leg separately and add the times.
Sources and corrections
This calculator uses an elementary formula, so it needs no outside data source. The method, the rounding rules and how a reported error is corrected are set out in the site standards.
Result looks wrong?
Send the inputs you used and the answer you expected. Every report is checked against the formula and its tests, and confirmed errors are corrected in public.