Rapid city sd to chicago il

Driving non-stop from Chicago to Rapid City

How far is Rapid City from Chicago? 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: 913 miles or 1469 km

Driving time: 13 hours, 4 minutes

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.



Flying non-stop from Chicago to Rapid City

Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Chicago, Illinois and Rapid City, South Dakota. 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: 804 miles or 1294 km

Flight time: 1 hour, 57 minutes

The straight line flight distance is 109 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 1/6th 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.




Chicago to Rapid City road trip

Let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Rapid City, and you want to stop along the way to rest. If it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting stops along the way, eat at great restaurants, and maybe even 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 more than one day.

Road trip: 2 days of driving

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

Travel time: 16.5 hours on the road with 1 overnight


Itinerary

Start in Chicago.

Drive for about 2.5 hours, then stop in Madison (Wisconsin) and stay for about 1 hour. Next, drive for another 2.5 hours then stop in La Crosse (Wisconsin) and stay for 1 hour. Drive for 2.5 hours then stop in Blue Earth. Stay overnight.

The next day, drive for about 1.5 hours, then stop in Worthington (Minnesota) and stay for about 1 hour. Next, drive for another 4 hours then stop at Quality Inn and stay for 1 hour. Drive for 3 hours then stop at Wall Drug Store and stay for 1 hour.

Finally, drive for about 1 hour and arrive in Rapid City.


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:


Chicago to Rapid City 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: Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)

Arrival airport: Rapid City Regional Airport (RAP)

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: 47 minutes

Getting to your destination: 27 minutes

Now finally, let's look at an actual flight from ORD connecting through PHX and arriving at RAP flying on American Airlines. We can figure out how long it would take to fly including take-off and landing, time to taxi on the runways, and an average layover time of about 2 hours.

Initial flight time: 3 hours, 39 minutes

Connecting airport: Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)

Connection flight time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

So now we can finally get an idea of the total travel time from Chicago to Rapid City including time spent getting to and from the airports, roughly 2 hours at the departure airport for TSA security lines and waiting at the gate, plus the connecting flight with a 2-hour layover.

Total travel time: 11 hours


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


Plan a trip to Rapid City

Trippy has a ton of information that can help you plan your trip to Rapid City, South Dakota. Start by reading the Trippy page on where to stay in Rapid City. Click the button below to explore Rapid City 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 Rapid City to Chicago, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.

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

What is there to see between Chicago and Rapid City?

The top stops along the way from Chicago to Rapid City (with short detours) are Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Parks, American Family Field, and Six Flags Great America. Other popular stops include Wisconsin State Capitol, The House on the Rock, and National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium.

How far is Chicago from Rapid City South Dakota?

913 miles / 1 469 km Rapid City to Chicago drive.

What major airlines fly into Rapid City South Dakota?

Which airlines offer direct flights to Rapid City Regional? SkyWest Airlines, American Airlines, United, Delta, Qatar Airways, Mesa Airlines, Allegiant Air and Air France all fly non-stop to Rapid City Regional.

How far is Chicago from South Dakota by plane?

The total flight duration from Chicago, IL to South Dakota is 1 hour, 44 minutes.