Distances from Columbia, MO to nearby cities and major US destinations
Drive times and estimated fuel costs from Columbia, MO to the towns around it and to the major cities most people head for. Pick any row for the full route.
Columbia, MO sits in Missouri, on Chicago time, at 38.95° north and 92.33° west. The nearest place of any size is Jefferson City, MO, about 33 miles away — roughly 53 min of driving. One other town of size is within an hour's drive.
Counting only places above twenty thousand people, 56 are within three hours' driving of Columbia, MO and 218 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 St. Louis, MO, about 136 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 Columbia, MO
Reachable places are rarely spread evenly around a town, and they are not around Columbia, MO. Of everything above twenty thousand people within three hours' drive, the largest share — 27 of 56 — lies to the east, with 21 to the west. Only 1 sit to the southeast. 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.
36 of those places are in Missouri and 20 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: Kansas City, MO is about 140 miles out, roughly 2 hr 20 min of driving, while Miami, FL is around 1,336 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 Columbia, MO, the road safety guides cover the part the mileage leaves out.
Closest cities to Columbia, MO
- Jefferson City, MO 33 mi · 53 min
- Sedalia, MO 59 mi · 1 hr 11 min
- Rolla, MO 88 mi · 1 hr 45 min
- Wentzville, MO 93 mi · 1 hr 52 min
- Quincy, IL 97 mi · 1 hr 57 min
- O’Fallon, MO 103 mi · 2 hr 3 min
- Saint Peters, MO 107 mi · 2 hr 9 min
- Wildwood, MO 109 mi · 2 hr 10 min
- Chesterfield, MO 112 mi · 2 hr 15 min
- Ballwin, MO 115 mi · 2 hr 18 min
Major cities from Columbia, MO
- Kansas City, MO 140 mi · 2 hr 20 min
- Tulsa, OK 323 mi · 5 hr 23 min
- Minneapolis, MN 486 mi · 7 hr 43 min
- New Orleans, LA 736 mi · 11 hr 41 min
- Denver, CO 786 mi · 12 hr 29 min
- Washington, DC 953 mi · 15 hr 7 min
- Albuquerque, NM 966 mi · 15 hr 20 min
- Orlando, FL 1107 mi · 17 hr 34 min
- New York City, NY 1135 mi · 18 hr 1 min
- Miami, FL 1336 mi · 21 hr 12 min