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Distance between Indianapolis and Washington, DC

Driving non-stop from Indianapolis to Washington, DC

How far is Washington, DC from Indianapolis? Here's the quick answer if you don't sleep at all, or you have a friend with you so each person can drive some of the way, letting you make the entire trip by car without stopping.

Nonstop drive: 576 miles or 927 km

Driving time: 8 hours, 59 minutes

This is a pretty long drive, so it's not very realistic to drive nonstop. To get a better idea of how long this road trip would really be, scroll down to calculate how many hours it would take if you drive with stops.


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Flying non-stop from Indianapolis to Washington, DC

Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Indianapolis, Indiana and Washington, District of Columbia. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest distance is actually the "great circle" distance, or "as the crow flies" which is calculated using an iterative Vincenty formula.

Flight distance: 492 miles or 792 km

Flight time: 1 hour, 9 minutes

The straight line flight distance is 84 miles less than driving on roads, which means the driving distance is roughly 1.2x of the flight distance.

Your plane flies much faster than a car, so the flight time is about 1/6th of the time it would take to drive.

This is a relatively short flight in a private plane, but you might be planning to book a commercial flight. In that case, your travel time would really need to include how many minutes to get to your local airport, wait for security, board and taxi on the runway, land at the other airport, and get to your destination. Scroll down to see a more realistic calculation that takes into account all these factors to get a more accurate estimate of your actual flight time.





Indianapolis to Washington, DC road trip

Let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Washington, DC, and you want to stop along the way to rest. If it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting stops along the way, eat at great restaurants, and maybe even find a hotel to stay overnight. That's what Trippy is perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.

Based on the length of this trip, we think you could spread out this fun road trip over more than one day.

Road trip: 2 days of driving

With the full itinerary planned out, we can estimate your total travel time for this trip.

Travel time: 11 hours on the road with 1 overnight


Itinerary

Start in Indianapolis.

Drive for about 1.5 hours, then stop in Richmond (Indiana) and stay for about 1 hour. Next, drive for another 1.5 hours then stop in Columbus and stay for 1 hour. Drive for 52 minutes then stop in Zanesville (Ohio) and stay for 1 hour. Drive for 1.5 hours then stop in Wheeling (West Virginia). Stay overnight.

The next day, drive for about 1.5 hours, then stop in Morgantown and stay for about 1 hour. Next, drive for another 2 hours then stop at Sideling Hill and stay for 1 hour. Drive for 1.5 hours then stop in Gettysburg and stay for 1 hour.

Finally, drive for about 1.5 hours and arrive in Washington, DC.


To see all the details on this itinerary, including recommended restaurants, hotels, and things to do along the way, check out the full road trip planner:





Indianapolis to Washington, DC airports and flights

In the quick calculation above, we assumed you had a private plane and just wanted to know the time in the air from city to city. But for most of us, we're going to be flying on a commercial airline (whether it's first class or coach). So that means we really need to account for all the extra travel time getting to the airport, waiting for our flight, and making it to the destination.

To give you a better estimate of real-life travel, we've put together a flight itinerary with actual airports. Eventually you'll be able to customize this plan, choosing your own airports and flights. But for now, here's an example we've selected to give you an idea of how traveling might work between airports.

Departure airport: Indianapolis International Airport (IND)

Arrival airport: Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)

With the airports selected, we can estimate the travel time to and from the airport, based on how far the airport is from downtown.

Getting to the airport: 24 minutes

Getting to your destination: 12 minutes

Now finally, let's look at an actual flight from IND connecting through SRQ and arriving at BWI flying on Allegiant Air LLC. We can figure out how long it would take to fly including take-off and landing, time to taxi on the runways, and an average layover time of about 2 hours.

Initial flight time: 2 hours, 13 minutes

Connecting airport: Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)

Connection flight time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

So now we can finally get an idea of the total travel time from Indianapolis to Washington, DC including time spent getting to and from the airports, roughly 2 hours at the departure airport for TSA security lines and waiting at the gate, plus the connecting flight with a 2-hour layover.

Total travel time: 9 hours


To see the details on this flight plan, including recommended airports, airline, and route, check out the flight planner:





Plan a trip to Washington, DC

Trippy has a ton of information that can help you plan your trip to Washington, District of Columbia. Start by reading the Trippy page on where to stay in Washington, DC. Trippy has an entire Q&A community where you can post questions and get answers from expert travelers or locals who know the area. For instance, you might be interested in the answers to this question: Places to see on route. If you're looking for a place to stay, you might want to check out JW Marriott Hotel. A great place to eat might be Mitsitam Cafe. Trippy members can suggest things to do in Washington, DC like National Mall. Check out some of the questions people have asked about Washington, DC like Best hotel near museums. Click the button below to explore Washington, DC in detail.





How far is it the other way?

The distance is the same either way if you're flying a straight line (or driving the same roads back and forth). But for a real trip, there can be plenty of differences so go ahead and check the reverse directions to get the distance from Washington, DC to Indianapolis, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.

If you happen to know Indianapolis, don't forget to help other travelers and answer some questions about Indianapolis!





At a Glance
without making any stops
total driving distance is 576 miles
driving time of 8 hours, 59 minutes
flight distance is 492 miles
flight time of 1 hour, 9 minutes
Washington, DC is the same time as Indianapolis
60 Indianapolis travel answers
199 Washington, DC travel answers








   
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