How far & how long?
Pick two cities and see how long the trip would take on foot, by bike, car, ship, plane, rocket — and at the speed of light. Arrival shown in the destination’s local time.
Straight line, no stops, no sleep — and yes, on foot you’d be walking on water.
The speeds we use
- Walking — A steady 5 km/h, no breaks, no sleep.
- Running — An easy 10 km/h jog, forever.
- Cycling — Touring pace, 18 km/h.
- Driving — Highway 90 km/h, straight through.
- Container ship — 20 knots, the speed of global trade.
- Airliner — Typical cruise, about 870 km/h.
- Orbital rocket — Low-Earth-orbit speed, 28,000 km/h.
- Speed of light — 299,792 km per second.
Why a straight line?
The shortest path between two points on a sphere is a great circle — the reason flights from Europe to the US West Coast pass over Greenland. We measure that great-circle distance with the haversine formula, using the Earth’s mean radius of 6,371 km. It’s the fairest single number for comparing very different ways of travelling, even if no road, sea lane or flight path follows it exactly.
The arrival time adds the travel time to the moment you open the page, then reads the destination’s clock at that future moment — so it already includes the time difference and any daylight saving change on the way.
Questions
Is this a real travel time?
No — it is a thought experiment. We take the straight-line (great-circle) distance between the two city centres and divide it by a steady speed, with no stops, no sleep, no roads and no oceans in the way. Real journeys are longer.
Why is the flight time different from my ticket?
Real flights follow air routes, climb and descend, and ride or fight the jet stream, so a ticket time can be an hour or more away from the straight-line estimate. Eastbound flights across the Atlantic and Pacific are usually faster than westbound ones for this reason.
What does the arrival time mean?
It is the local clock time at the destination when you would arrive if you left right now — time zones included. Fly east and you can land “before” you left, or a day later than you expected.
Where do the speeds come from?
Walking 5 km/h and easy running 10 km/h are common averages; 18 km/h is a relaxed touring pace on a bike; 90 km/h is a steady highway speed; 37 km/h (20 knots) is a typical container ship; 870 km/h is a typical airliner cruise; 28,000 km/h is roughly the speed needed to stay in low Earth orbit; light travels at 299,792 km per second.