Halfway point between two cities: where should we meet?

How to find your halfway point

Live in a smaller town? Pick the nearest large city. For a trip of hundreds or thousands of kilometres, the difference is usually tiny.

1. Start typing your city and pick it from the list. There are over 2,400 cities: every city with 250,000 people or more, plus every national capital.
2. Do the same for your partner's city.
3. Choose kilometres or miles.
4. Read your distance, the time difference and the exact halfway point. Open it on a map if you like.
5. Look at the fairest cities to meet in, then send the link or save the image to plan together.

The exact midpoint versus the fairest city

The Earth is round, so the true halfway point is on the shortest path over the globe, called a great circle. Between London and New York, that point is in the North Atlantic, south-east of Greenland. Between Sydney and Los Angeles, it is in the Pacific, almost on the equator. Lovely to know, not much use for a weekend away.

So the tool also ranks real cities. For each listed city it measures both of your journeys and puts first the cities where the longer journey is as short as possible. That stops one of you doing almost all the travelling. When two cities are equally fair, the one with the more even split wins.

How far apart are we? Distance, time and flights

The distance is the great-circle distance, worked out with the haversine formula on a round Earth. It is the shortest possible path, so real roads are always longer, often by 20 to 40 percent, and flight paths can bend to follow air corridors.

The flight estimate assumes about 800 km an hour in the air plus half an hour for take-off and landing, rounded to the nearest 15 minutes. It is a rough guide for a non-stop flight, not a timetable: connections, headwinds and airport time can add hours. For trips under 300 km we leave it out, because most people drive or take a train.

The time difference uses your browser's time-zone data, so it is right for today and follows daylight saving. To find the hours you are both awake, use the time zone overlap calculator.

Planning a meet-in-the-middle trip

Meeting halfway is popular with long-distance couples because it feels fair, it doubles as a holiday and it means neither of you is the host. It works especially well for a first meeting, when a neutral city takes some pressure off.

• Compare fares, not just distance. A slightly further city with a direct route can be cheaper and quicker for both of you.
• Check visas and entry rules for both passports. The fairest city on the map is not always the easiest to enter.
• Pick arrival times that work. Aim to land within a couple of hours of each other so nobody waits alone at the airport for half a day.
• Split costs in a way you both feel good about, especially if one ticket costs much more than the other.
• Count down together with the countdown until we meet tool once the trip is booked.

Making the distance feel smaller

Knowing exactly how far apart you are can feel big. It helps to plan what you do between visits, not just the visits themselves. Our guide to long-distance relationships across time zones covers routines that make the gap easier, and the date idea generator has long-distance dates you can do tonight.

Some couples keep a running list of cities they want to meet in, and tick them off one by one. Others alternate: one visit at home, one halfway, one at home. However you do it, a plan on the calendar makes the miles feel shorter.