Distances from Buffalo Grove, IL to nearby and major US cities
Drive times and estimated fuel costs from Buffalo Grove, IL to the towns around it and to the major cities most people head for. Pick any row for the full route.
Buffalo Grove, IL sits in Illinois, on Chicago time, at 42.15° north and 87.96° west. The nearest place of any size is Palatine, IL, about 6 miles away — roughly 13 min of driving. 83 other towns of size are within an hour's drive.
Counting only places above twenty thousand people, 166 are within three hours' driving of Buffalo Grove, IL and 361 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 Chicago, IL, about 32 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 Buffalo Grove, IL
Reachable places are rarely spread evenly around a town, and they are not around Buffalo Grove, IL. Of everything above twenty thousand people within three hours' drive, the largest share — 36 of 166 — lies to the south, with 35 to the southeast. 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.
108 of those places are in Illinois and 58 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: Chicago, IL is about 32 miles out, roughly 50 min of driving, while Los Angeles, CA is around 2,005 miles — a different order of trip entirely, and one to plan in stages rather than as a day.
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 Buffalo Grove, IL, the road safety guides cover the part the mileage leaves out.
Closest cities to Buffalo Grove, IL
- Palatine, IL 6 mi · 13 min
- Vernon Hills, IL 7 mi · 13 min
- Rolling Meadows, IL 7 mi · 15 min
- Northbrook, IL 9 mi · 19 min
- Mundelein, IL 11 mi · 22 min
- Highland Park, IL 11 mi · 23 min
- Des Plaines, IL 12 mi · 25 min
- Libertyville, IL 12 mi · 25 min
- Hoffman Estates, IL 13 mi · 26 min
- Elk Grove Village, IL 14 mi · 28 min
Major cities from Buffalo Grove, IL
- Chicago, IL 32 mi · 50 min
- Philadelphia, PA 818 mi · 12 hr 59 min
- New York City, NY 876 mi · 13 hr 54 min
- Manhattan, NY 877 mi · 13 hr 56 min
- Brooklyn, NY 880 mi · 13 hr 58 min
- Queens, NY 887 mi · 14 hr 4 min
- Houston, TX 1102 mi · 17 hr 29 min
- San Antonio, TX 1226 mi · 19 hr 28 min
- Phoenix, AZ 1671 mi · 26 hr 32 min
- Los Angeles, CA 2005 mi · 31 hr 49 min