Bangor, ME to Grand Rapids, MI: distance, drive time and fuel cost
It is about 1003 miles from Bangor, ME to Grand Rapids, MI, which is roughly 15 hr 56 min behind the wheel. Everything below is an estimate — see how it is worked out at the bottom of the page.
Estimated road distance
1,003miles
1,615 km
- Drive time
- 15 hr 56 min
- Average speed
- 63 mph
- Fuel cost
- $124
- Fuel used
- 39.5 gal
Cities along the way
Places within about 25 miles of the route from Bangor, ME to Grand Rapids, MI, in the order you would reach them.
- Waterville, ME52 mi
- Burlington, VT258 mi
- Hamlin, NY546 mi
- Lansing, MI937 mi
What the drive from Bangor to Grand Rapids is like
A straight line between these two places crosses open water, so the road cannot follow it. The distance here is measured round by Watertown, NY and Port Huron, MI, which is the way the highway network actually goes.
The route runs from Bangor, ME to Grand Rapids, MI, crossing 3 state lines — Maine, Vermont, New York and Michigan. Speed limits and everyday driving rules are set state by state, so what is posted can change as you cross. At roughly 15 hr 56 min of driving this is a multi-day trip for anyone driving alone. Planned as two or three stages it is a genuine road trip; attempted in one push it is a bad idea.
There are 4 towns of any size close to the line between the two cities, the first being Waterville, ME at about 52 miles in. That matters mostly for where you can stop: on a 15 hr 56 min drive the useful question is not how far it is but where the fuel, food and daylight run out.
Flying this route saves about 11 hr 44 min door to door once airport time is counted, so the drive is a choice rather than the obvious option — worth it if you want the car at the other end, or if you would rather see the 1,003 miles than sit them out.
What the fuel works out at, and what that figure assumes
1,003 miles at 25.4 miles per gallon is about 39.5 gallons, which comes to roughly $124 at $3.15 a gallon. Split between four people that is about $31 each, which is the comparison worth making before you look at a flight price rather than after. Two figures in that sentence are assumptions rather than facts about your trip: the price per gallon, reviewed 2026-08, and the consumption, which is a US fleet average. Both are published with the rest of the method under fuel cost assumptions.
The size of that assumption is easy to see on this route. A fifty-cent move in the pump price either way changes the total by about $19.75 — so read $124 as the middle of a range from roughly $105 to $144, not as a quote. A car that does noticeably better or worse than 25.4 mpg shifts it further, and neither figure includes tolls, which are charged on a good deal of the interstate network in the northeast and on individual bridges and tunnels elsewhere. Nothing on this page knows which tolls apply to a particular route, so none are counted.
For the same reason the 351 kg of CO₂ this drive implies is arithmetic on the fuel rather than a measurement: 39.5 gallons of gasoline at the EPA's figure of 8.89 kg per gallon. It is useful for comparing this route against flying it, or against a longer way round, and not useful as an absolute number.