Distances from Albany, NY to nearby cities and major US destinations
Drive times and estimated fuel costs from Albany, NY to the towns around it and to the major cities most people head for. Pick any row for the full route.
Albany, NY sits in New York, on New York time, at 42.65° north and 73.76° west. The nearest place of any size is Troy, NY, about 8 miles away — roughly 17 min of driving. 6 other towns of size are within an hour's drive.
Counting only places above twenty thousand people, 351 are within three hours' driving of Albany, NY and 505 within six — which is a better measure of how connected a town is than its position on a map. The nearest city of real size is The Bronx, NY, about 145 miles out.
The two lists below answer different questions. The first is what is physically close, which is what you want for an errand or a day out. The second is the major cities people actually drive to from here, which is usually a longer trip and a different kind of plan. Every figure is an estimated road distance rather than a routed one, and every drive time assumes free-flowing traffic with no allowance for a stop — how the estimate works. For a pair that is not listed here, the calculator will work out any two US cities.
Which way the driving goes from Albany, NY
Reachable places are rarely spread evenly around a town, and they are not around Albany, NY. Of everything above twenty thousand people within three hours' drive, the largest share — 189 of 351 — lies to the south, with 88 to the east. Only 1 sit to the northeast. That asymmetry is usually geography rather than road building: coastline, a state line, mountains or simply empty country in one direction and settlement in another.
126 of those places are in New York and 225 are across a state line, which matters more than the mileage does. Speed limits, phone rules and what you may do at a red light are all set state by state, so a drive of the same length can be governed by two sets of rules or by one. The state-by-state differences are set out separately.
The major-city list below spans a wide range: Boston, MA is about 161 miles out, roughly 2 hr 41 min of driving, while Phoenix, AZ is around 2,504 miles — a different order of trip entirely, and one to plan in stages rather than as a day. All 10 routes below have a page of their own, with the towns along the way and how flying compares.
One thing none of these figures account for: the distance is the same in both directions but the drive often is not. A route that climbs on the way out descends on the way back, rush hour is in one direction in the morning and the other in the evening, and a mountain pass can be open one way and closed the other in winter. The estimate here is symmetrical because the road is; the day is not. For a long haul out of Albany, NY, the road safety guides cover the part the mileage leaves out.
Closest cities to Albany, NY
- Troy, NY 8 mi · 17 min
- Latham, NY 9 mi · 18 min
- Rotterdam, NY 19 mi · 31 min
- Schenectady, NY 20 mi · 31 min
- Pittsfield, MA 36 mi · 57 min
- Saratoga Springs, NY 36 mi · 57 min
- Queensbury, NY 59 mi · 1 hr 10 min
- Kingston, NY 60 mi · 1 hr 12 min
- Northampton, MA 71 mi · 1 hr 25 min
- Westfield, MA 73 mi · 1 hr 28 min
Major cities from Albany, NY
- Boston, MA 161 mi · 2 hr 41 min
- South Boston, MA 162 mi · 2 hr 42 min
- Buffalo, NY 302 mi · 5 hr 2 min
- Richmond, VA 473 mi · 7 hr 31 min
- Virginia Beach, VA 495 mi · 7 hr 52 min
- Raleigh, NC 637 mi · 10 hr 7 min
- Cincinnati, OH 710 mi · 11 hr 16 min
- Atlanta, GA 977 mi · 15 hr 30 min
- Denver, CO 1919 mi · 30 hr 27 min
- Phoenix, AZ 2504 mi · 39 hr 45 min