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Distance between Tucson and Washington, DC

Driving non-stop from Tucson to Washington, DC

How far is Washington, DC from Tucson? Here's the quick answer if you have friends taking shifts as driver so that you can make the entire trip by car without stopping.

Nonstop drive: 2,277 miles or 3664 km

Driving time: 33 hours

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


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Flying non-stop from Tucson to Washington, DC

Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Tucson, Arizona 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. For a long distance, this appears as a curve on the map, and this is often the route that commercial airlines will take so it's a good estimate of the frequent flyer miles you'll accumulate as well.

Flight distance: 1,955 miles or 3146 km

Flight time: 3 hours, 48 minutes

The straight line flight distance is 322 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 1/8th of the time it would take to drive.

This is a medium length flight, so unless you have a nice private jet, you might be booking 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.





Tucson to Washington, DC road trip

Realistically, you're not going to want to drive without stopping all the way from Tucson to Washington, DC, especially if you're the main driver. So let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Washington, DC, 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: 5 days of driving

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

Travel time: 36 hours on the road with 4 overnights


Itinerary

Start in Tucson.

Drive for about 4.5 hours, then stop in El Paso and stay for about 1 hour. Next, drive for another 2.5 hours then stop at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Stay overnight.

The next day, drive for about 5 hours, then stop in Abilene and stay for about 1 hour. Next, drive for another 2.5 hours then stop in Dallas. Stay overnight.

The next day, drive for about 5 hours, then stop in Little Rock and stay overnight.

The next day, drive for about 5.5 hours, then stop in Nashville and stay for about 4 hours. Next, drive for another 4.5 hours then stop in Johnson City (Tennessee). Stay overnight.

The next day, drive for about 3 hours, then stop in Roanoke and stay for about 1 hour.

Finally, drive for about 3.5 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:





Tucson 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: Tucson International Airport (TUS)

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: 23 minutes

Getting to your destination: 12 minutes

Now finally, let's look at an example flight from TUS to DCA and figure out how long it would take to fly including take-off and landing, and time to taxi on the runway.

Commercial flight time: 4 hours, 2 minutes

So now we can finally get an idea of the total travel time from Tucson to Washington, DC including time spent getting to/from the airports, an estimated wait time of 2 hours at the airport for TSA security lines and waiting at the gate, and the actual flight itself.

Total travel time: 7 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. 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 Tucson, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.

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





At a Glance
without making any stops
total driving distance is 2,277 miles
driving time of 33 hours
flight distance is 1,955 miles
flight time of 3 hours, 48 minutes
Washington, DC is 3 hours ahead of Tucson
90 Tucson travel answers
199 Washington, DC travel answers








   
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