Google Maps - Long Drives
I set out to find the longest distance for which Google Maps would give Driving Directions. Now that they've shut down the fun "swim the Atlantic" feature, things have changed a bit. It turns out there are multiple "longest drives", because the Google Maps World is partitioned (many countries don't support driving directions), and sometimes ferries are included, and sometimes they are not.
In order of distance, here are the seven longest drives I found. If you can better any of them, please add yours to the comments (please use
TinyURL to shorten up the giant URLs).
North America, Unalaska, AK, USA to Southern Newfoundland, Canada - 7,267 mi (11,695 km) - about 6 days 15 hours - 100 steps
Europe - West Canary Islands, Spain to Hammingberg, Norway - 4,425 mi (7,122 km) - about 4 days 8 hours - 156 steps
Brazil - Northern Amazon Basin, Para to Chui, Rio Grande do Sul - 3,719 mi (5,985 km) - about 3 days 5 hours - 100 steps
Australia - Cape Bruny, Tasmania to Mardie, Western Australia - 3,474 mi (5,591 km) - about 3 days 4 hours - 93 steps
Japan - Soya, Hokkaido to Tomai, Kagoshima Prefecture - 1,480 mi (2,382 km) - about 1 day, 12 hours - 10 steps (mostly by train)
New Zealand - Cape Reinga to Milford Sound - 1,400 mi (2,253 km) - about 1 day 8 hours - 205 steps
Hong Kong - Shek Pik to Wu kau Tang - 48 mi (77.3 km) - about 1 hour 28 mins - 20 steps
12 Comments +
A little bit of a fiddle about got me this far, http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=8463651387605141957,53.871869,-166.451773%3B11838804331881292171,53.327720,-57.473339&saddr=Overland+Dr+%4053.871869,+-166.451773&daddr=53.742214,-56.99707&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=7&sll=53.599025,-59.381104&sspn=3.775156,12.041016&ie=UTF8&ll=56.072035,-88.59375&spn=58.742892,192.65625&z=3
7,360 mi – about 7 days 2 hours
Does it qualify?
This one in Europe is slightly longer, also Norway to Canaries: http://tinyurl.com/3eb3ls, 4 days and 12 hours, 7 205 km.
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The Krim to Canaries is even longer: http://tinyurl.com/4erjxg, 4 days, 14 hours, 7 271 km.
Great fun, this is!
Tweaking Dave's map above, I managed to get up to 7,498 miles, ending in mid-ferry trip in Goose Bay: http://tinyurl.com/57gysn
To the people who posted maps in Europe: You do realize that 7200km in only 4474 miles. So it's not as long as the Alaska-Newfoundland route.
No fiddling,
Unalaska to Cartwright, Labrador:
7354 miles (11835 km)
So, what are the countries with routing data?
- US
- Canada
- Brazil
- All of Europe(?), except:
- Russia
- Turkey
- Japan
- Australia
- Thailand
NOT:
- Mexico
- Central America(?)
- South America(?), except Brazil
- mainland Asia(?), except Thailand
- Russia
- Africa(?)
http://maps.google.com/maps?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hl=en&tab=wl
Anchorage, Alaska to Homestead, Florida
A little over 5,000 miles
I think it should be obvious that "tweaking" doesn't count. It has to work with a single start point and a single end point.
Otherwise you could wind back and forth until the waypoints maxed out, which is not the point of the exercise.
there used to be a googlemaps cheat that would give you directions "from new york to london" that included among the steps "swim across the atlantic ocean." I suppose they removed it after awhile.
7,360 mi – about 7 days 2 hours
Does it qualify?