How many hours is it from Detroit to Grand Rapids?

Q: Why is Grand Rapids famous?

Grand Rapids was once known as Americas Furniture Capital for its fine residential furniture It is known today as the center of office furniture manufacturing. Gerald R. Ford, a native son, became the 38th President of the United States on August 9, 1974.

The driving time from Detroit, Michigan to Grand Rapids, Michigan is:

2 hours, 21 minutes

Average driving speed: 67.1 mph
Kilometers per hour: 108 km/h
This is based on typical traffic conditions for this route.

Plan your road trip at

Map of driving directions from Detroit, MI to Grand Rapids, MI

View a map with driving directions using your preferred map provider: Google Maps, Bing Maps, or MapQuest. You can use DriveDistance.com to find out how far is it to drive from Detroit to Grand Rapids with full directions.

More trip calculations

How long is the drive from Detroit, MI to Grand Rapids, MI? The total driving time is 2 hours, 21 minutes.

Your trip begins in Detroit, Michigan. It ends in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

If you're planning a road trip, you might be interested in seeing the total driving distance from Detroit, MI to Grand Rapids, MI.

You can also calculate the cost to drive from Detroit, MI to Grand Rapids, MI based on current local gas prices and an estimate of your car's best gas mileage.

If you're meeting a friend, you might be interested in finding the city that is halfway between Detroit, MI and Grand Rapids, MI.

Planning to fly a plane instead? You might be more interested in calculating the flight time from Detroit, MI to Grand Rapids, MI.

Driving time calculator

Travelmath helps you find the driving time based on actual directions for your road trip. You can find out how long it will take to drive between any two cities, airports, states, countries, or zip codes. This can also help you plan the best route to travel to your destination. Compare the results with the flight time calculator to see how much longer it might take to drive the distance instead of flying. You can also print out pages with a travel map.

The driving time from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Detroit, Michigan is:

2 hours, 21 minutes

Average driving speed: 67.1 mph
Kilometers per hour: 108 km/h
This is based on typical traffic conditions for this route.

Plan your road trip at

Map of driving directions from Grand Rapids, MI to Detroit, MI

View a map with driving directions using your preferred map provider: Google Maps, Bing Maps, or MapQuest. You can use DriveDistance.com to find out how far is it to drive from Grand Rapids to Detroit with full directions.

More trip calculations

How long is the drive from Grand Rapids, MI to Detroit, MI? The total driving time is 2 hours, 21 minutes.

Your trip begins in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It ends in Detroit, Michigan.

If you're planning a road trip, you might be interested in seeing the total driving distance from Grand Rapids, MI to Detroit, MI.

You can also calculate the cost to drive from Grand Rapids, MI to Detroit, MI based on current local gas prices and an estimate of your car's best gas mileage.

If you're meeting a friend, you might be interested in finding the city that is halfway between Grand Rapids, MI and Detroit, MI.

Planning to fly a plane instead? You might be more interested in calculating the flight time from Grand Rapids, MI to Detroit, MI.

Driving time calculator

Driving non-stop from Detroit to Grand Rapids

How far is Grand Rapids from Detroit? Here's the quick answer if you drive this relatively short distance without making any stops.

Nonstop drive: 158 miles or 254 km

Driving time: 2 hours, 21 minutes

Even though you can drive this distance straight through, it might be more interesting to stop along the way. You can scroll down to calculate how many hours it would take if you drive with stops.

Flying non-stop from Detroit to Grand Rapids

Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Detroit, Michigan and Grand Rapids, Michigan. 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: 141 miles or 226 km

Flight time: 30 minutes

The straight line flight distance is 17 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 1/2th 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.

Detroit to Grand Rapids road trip

Let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Grand Rapids, and you want to stop on the way to explore. If it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting places along the way, or maybe eat at a great restaurant. That's what Trippy is perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.

Road trip: 1 day of driving

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

Travel time: 4 hours on the road

Itinerary

Start in Detroit.

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:

Detroit to Grand Rapids 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: Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW)

Arrival airport: Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR)

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: 54 minutes

Getting to your destination: 27 minutes

Now finally, let's look at an actual flight from DTW to GRR on Delta Air Lines 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: 57 minutes

So now we can finally get an idea of the total travel time from Detroit to Grand Rapids 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: 4 hours

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

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 Grand Rapids to Detroit, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.

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

Is Grand Rapids near Detroit?

The distance from Detroit to Grand Rapids is 140 miles. The road distance is 157 miles. ✔ What agencies operate bus routes between Detroit and Grand Rapids?

How far is GR from Detroit?

Driving distance from Grand Rapids to Detroit is 253 kilometers (157 miles).

How do I get from Detroit to Grand Rapids?

The quickest way to get from Detroit to Grand Rapids is to drive which costs $28 - $45 and takes 2h 37m. Is there a direct bus between Detroit and Grand Rapids? Yes, there is a direct bus departing from Detroit, MI and arriving at Grand Rapids, MI. Services depart three times a day, and operate every day.

Why is Grand Rapids famous?

Grand Rapids was once known as America's Furniture Capital for its fine residential furniture It is known today as the center of office furniture manufacturing. Gerald R. Ford, a native son, became the 38th President of the United States on August 9, 1974.