Boise to Coeur d’Alene: the distance, the drive time and the cost
Coeur d’Alene to Boise is the same road as Boise to Coeur d’Alene taken in the other direction: about 327 miles, roughly 5 hr 27 min behind the wheel. Everything below — the distance, the drive time and the fuel — is an estimate rather than a routed figure.
Coeur d’Alene to Boise: the same drive the other way round
The road distance from Boise to Coeur d’Alene is about 327 miles, or 527 kilometers. Measured straight across the map the two are 282 miles apart, so the roads add roughly 16% on top of the line — which is the normal penalty for going where the tarmac actually goes.
Distance from Boise to Coeur d’Alene in miles and kilometers
Put the other way round, 282 miles of straight line becomes 327 miles of driving. That gap is why the distance from Boise to Coeur d’Alene taken off a map is never the number to budget fuel against — the roads decide, not the ruler.
Drive time and average speed
The drive time works out at about 5 hr 27 min, at an average of 60 mph across the whole trip. That average already allows for slower going at each end; it does not allow for traffic, roadworks or a stop, so treat the drive time as a floor rather than a promise. If you came here from the other direction — “Coeur d’Alene to Boise” — read the figures the same way; the road is indifferent to which end you start from.
Estimated road distance
327miles
527 km
- Drive time
- 5 hr 27 min
- Average speed
- 60 mph
- Fuel cost
- $41
- Fuel used
- 12.9 gal
Cities along the way
Places within about 25 miles of the route from Boise, ID to Coeur d’Alene, ID, in the order you would reach them.
- Emmett, ID22 mi
- Lewiston, ID228 mi
What the drive from Boise to Coeur d’Alene is like
Both ends of this route sit in Idaho, so it is an intra-state drive with no state line to cross and one set of road rules the whole way. At roughly 5 hr 27 min of driving this is a full day and worth planning as one. Two stops rather than one, and an early start, make the difference between arriving usable and arriving wrecked.
There are 2 towns of any size close to the line between the two cities, the first being Emmett, ID at about 22 miles in. That matters mostly for where you can stop: on a 5 hr 27 min drive the useful question is not how far it is but where the fuel, food and daylight run out.
The route also crosses a time-zone boundary, so the clock at the far end is 1 hour behind the one you set off with. Arrival times booked at the destination are in local time, which is the part people get wrong.
Flying this route saves about 2 hr 23 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 327 miles than sit them out.
What the fuel works out at, and what that figure assumes
327 miles at 25.4 miles per gallon is about 12.9 gallons, which comes to roughly $41 at $3.15 a gallon. Split between four people that is about $10.15 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 $6.44 — so read $41 as the middle of a range from roughly $34 to $47, 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 115 kg of CO₂ this drive implies is arithmetic on the fuel rather than a measurement: 12.9 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.