New York City, NY to Key West, FL: distance, drive time and fuel cost
It is about 1396 miles from New York City, NY to Key West, FL, which is roughly 22 hr 9 min behind the wheel. Everything below is an estimate — see how it is worked out at the bottom of the page.
Estimated road distance
1,396miles
2,247 km
- Drive time
- 22 hr 9 min
- Average speed
- 63 mph
- Fuel cost
- $173
- Fuel used
- 55.0 gal
Cities along the way
Places within about 25 miles of the route from New York City, NY to Key West, FL, in the order you would reach them.
- Toms River, NJ61 mi
- Virginia Beach, VA336 mi
- Havelock, NC506 mi
- Port Saint Lucie, FL1156 mi
What the drive from New York City to Key West is like
The route runs from New York City, NY to Key West, FL, crossing 4 state lines — New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. Speed limits and everyday driving rules are set state by state, so what is posted can change as you cross. At roughly 22 hr 9 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 Toms River, NJ at about 61 miles in. That matters mostly for where you can stop: on a 22 hr 9 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 17 hr 15 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 1,396 miles than sit them out.
What the fuel works out at, and what that figure assumes
1,396 miles at 25.4 miles per gallon is about 55.0 gallons, which comes to roughly $173 at $3.15 a gallon. Split between four people that is about $43 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 $27 — so read $173 as the middle of a range from roughly $146 to $201, 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 489 kg of CO₂ this drive implies is arithmetic on the fuel rather than a measurement: 55.0 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.