How far is Columbia (Maryland) from Annapolis? Here's the quick answer if you make this quick drive without any stops. Of course, traffic is going to make a big difference so make sure you check that before leaving.
Nonstop drive: 34 miles or 55 km
Driving time: 36 minutes
Even on a short drive, it might be more interesting to stop along the way and explore the local area. You can scroll down to see the calculation if you drive with stops.
Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Annapolis, Maryland and Columbia, Maryland. 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: 25 miles or 41 km
Flight time: 33 minutes
The straight line flight distance is 9 miles less than driving on roads, which means the driving distance is roughly 1.4x of the flight distance.
Your plane flies much faster than a car, so the flight time is about 1/1th 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.
Let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Columbia (Maryland), 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: 13 hours on the road with 1 overnight
Itinerary
Start in Annapolis.
Drive for about 12.5 hours, then stop in Sherwood Forest and stay overnight.
The next day, drive for about 7 minutes, then stop in Crownsville (Maryland) and stay for about 1 hour.
Next, drive for another 12 minutes then stop at Hellas Restaurant and Lounge and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 9 minutes then stop in Odenton and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 12 minutes then stop in Jessup and stay for 1 hour.
Finally, drive for about 14 minutes and arrive in Columbia (Maryland).
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:
Trippy has a ton of information that can help you plan your trip to Columbia, Maryland. Start by reading the Trippy page on where to stay in Columbia (Maryland). Click the button below to explore Columbia (Maryland) in detail.
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 Columbia (Maryland) to Annapolis, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.
If you happen to know Annapolis, don't forget to help other travelers and answer some questions about Annapolis!
More info on this route:
drive from Annapolis to Columbia
road conditions
alternate routes
Google driving directions