Not California, Not Texas: This State's Residents Are Willing To Take The Longest Road Trips

With a full tank of gas, a trunk stuffed with gas-station snacks, and a curated road trip playlist, the whole continental expanse of America is your oyster. But how far are you willing to drive before you throw in the towel and book a flight? You might think 10 hours is already a stretch, but Idahoans are willing to drive further. A survey by Upgraded Points found that Idaho residents are, on average, willing to drive 12 hours and 55 minutes before they'd rather take a plane — the longest threshold of all states surveyed. With Idaho being a relatively spacious, lightly populated state, making a longer drive is par for the course for many destinations — and the scenery of rugged mountain ranges, river canyons, and high-desert country rewards drivers in return.

Travel points platform Upgraded Points surveyed over 2,400 people across the continental United States (except Wyoming, due to limited respondents) in July 2026. They asked respondents how far they're willing to drive somewhere before opting for flying instead, as well as how they define a "long drive" and what other factors influence their decision to drive far.

It might seem like residents of Texas or California — two huge states where big cities can be hundreds of miles apart — would have the country's most committed road trippers. But Upgraded Points' survey found that Texans were willing to drive an average of seven hours and 16 minutes, while Californians had the country's lowest threshold at just six hours and 24 minutes — both well below Idahoans' nearly 13-hour tolerance. Size alone, then, isn't what makes long drives more customary. Upgraded Points itself chalks it up to the greater distances between travel hubs and destinations in Idaho and neighboring Mountain West states.

How far can a roughly 13-hour drive actually get you in Idaho? Heading westward from Boise, you could move from Idaho's high desert to the temperate rainforest of Washington's Olympic National Park in around a nine-hour drive, still under the threshold of the average Idahoan's tolerance. From eastern Idaho's Pocatello, a top small-town escape for retirees, the drive to Olympic National Park is a little over 12 hours.

Still, there are lots of destinations you can reach from Idaho that fall well under a 13-hour road trip. From Boise to the West Entrance of Yellowstone National Park, it's about a six-hour drive — the West Entrance gets you close to the park's legendary geysers, including Old Faithful. For a shorter trip that falls within the state, you could reach the Craters of the Moon National Monument, a surreal vast lava flow, in just under a three-hour drive from Boise. Both aforementioned destinations are under the average six-hour-50-minute threshold that Idahoans considered a "long drive" in the Upgraded Points survey.

Idaho offers many road trip routes worth taking just for the drive itself. The state has 32 scenic byways in total, according to Scenic America. The longest is the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway, which covers over 200 miles and takes almost five hours, according to Visit Idaho. It runs from Lewiston to the Idaho-Montana border, following river canyons, mountains, and Nez Perce cultural and historical sites. Others are much shorter: For example, the Wild Horse Trail Scenic Byway is an ethereal mountain and lake drive through Idaho's panhandle that takes just over an hour, covering about 36 miles (though you may need a longer drive to get there).