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Distance between New Orleans and Memphis

Driving non-stop from New Orleans to Memphis

How far is Memphis from New Orleans? Here's the quick answer if you are able to make this entire trip by car without stopping.

Nonstop drive: 395 miles or 636 km

Driving time: 5 hours, 42 minutes

Realistically, you'll probably want to add a buffer for rest stops, gas, or food along the way. To get a better idea of how long this 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 New Orleans to Memphis

Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between New Orleans, Louisiana and Memphis, Tennessee. 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: 358 miles or 577 km

Flight time: 1 hour, 1 minute

The straight line flight distance is 37 miles less than driving on roads, which means the driving distance is roughly 1.1x of the flight distance.

Your plane flies much faster than a car, so the flight time is about 1/4th 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.





New Orleans to Memphis road trip

Realistically, you're not going to want to drive without stopping all the way from New Orleans to Memphis, especially if you're the main driver. So let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Memphis, and you need to stop along the way to rest. Plus if it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting stops along the way, eat at great restaurants, and 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 a number of days.

Road trip: 3 days of driving

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

Travel time: 21.5 hours on the road with 2 overnights


Itinerary

Start in New Orleans.

Drive for about 1 hour, then stop in Hammond (Louisiana) and stay for about 1 hour. Next, drive for another 56 minutes then stop in McComb and stay for 1 hour. Drive for 1.5 hours then stop in Jackson (Mississippi) and stay for 1 hour. Drive for 1.5 hours then stop in Kosciusko. Stay overnight.

The next day, drive for about 15.5 hours, then stop in Water Valley (Mississippi) and stay overnight.

The next day, drive for about 1 hour, then stop in Hernando (Mississippi) and stay for about 1 hour.

Finally, drive for about 28 minutes and arrive in Memphis.


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:





New Orleans to Memphis 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: Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)

Arrival airport: Memphis International Airport (MEM)

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: 34 minutes

Getting to your destination: 25 minutes

Now finally, let's look at an actual flight from MSY connecting through TPA and arriving at MEM flying on Southwest Airlines. 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: 1 hour, 21 minutes

Connecting airport: Tampa International Airport (TPA)

Connection flight time: 1 hour, 56 minutes

So now we can finally get an idea of the total travel time from New Orleans to Memphis 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: 8 hours


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





Plan a trip to Memphis

Trippy has a ton of information that can help you plan your trip to Memphis, Tennessee. Start by reading the Trippy page on where to stay in Memphis. If you're looking for a place to stay, you might want to check out Peabody Hotel. A great place to eat might be Central BBQ. Trippy members can suggest things to do in Memphis like Beale Street. Check out some of the questions people have asked about Memphis like What's the best neighborhood in Memphis for a first time visitor?. Click the button below to explore Memphis 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 Memphis to New Orleans, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.

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





At a Glance
without making any stops
total driving distance is 395 miles
driving time of 5 hours, 42 minutes
flight distance is 358 miles
flight time of 1 hour, 1 minute
255 New Orleans travel answers
140 Memphis travel answers








   
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