# Drive From Boston to Paris:Can It Be Done?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 15, 2004, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338 "2004-10-15T07:42:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/1 "2004-10-15T07:42:49Z")
Suppose you wanted to emulate the Great Auto Race of 1907…could one actually drive a car from Boston to Paris? Would the following route work:
-Drive To Vancouver, BC, Canada via US Inerstate Highways.
-ALCAN Highway : Vancouver-Anchorage, AKL
-Local Roads From Anchorage to Nome, AK
-Ferry Across Bering Straights (Damn, WHEN is that Bridge going to be built?)
-(Tricky Part-any local roads to Vladivostok, Russia?)
-In Vladivostok, have your car fitted with wheels to fit Russian rail guage, you drive on the Tran-Siberian Railway
-Vladivostok to Omsk (3700 miles)
-Omsk-Moscow
-Moscow-Bialystok, Poland (Join european highway system)
-Finally once you enter germany, you drive highways to Paris!
If this could be done in 1907, how long woul it take you today?
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/2 "2004-10-15T07:53:06Z")
> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> . . . In Vladivostok, have your car fitted with wheels to fit Russian rail guage, you drive on the Tran-Siberian Railway
While this might be techically feasible, I kind of doubt that you’re allowed to do it. What happens if you meet a train coming the other way?
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### Author:  [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/3 "2004-10-15T07:55:03Z")
**-Local Roads From Anchorage to Nome, AK** – there are none.
**-Ferry Across Bering Straights** – there is none.
In the original [Great Auto Race of 1908](http://www.thegreatautorace.com/), the American team took a boat from Seattle to Alaska, only to discover that the route to Nome was totally impassible. They got a time credit (shades of The Amazing Race, lol) but was the first team to cross the finish line anyway. And the German team cheated by taking a train across the western U.S. 😃
The 100th anniversary of the Great Race is in four years…wouldn’t that be a great time for a sequel??
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### Author:  [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/4 "2004-10-15T11:17:29Z")
> [@ralph124c](#):
>
> ## -(Tricky Part-any local roads to Vladivostok, Russia?) -In Vladivostok, have your car fitted with wheels to fit Russian rail guage, you drive on the Tran-Siberian Railway -Vladivostok to Omsk (3700 miles)
These people drove from Vladivostok to Instabul in a Toyota 4wd
[http://www.markandmichelle.com/russia.htm](http://www.markandmichelle.com/russia.htm)
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/5 "2004-10-15T11:33:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The only remotely feasible option for a normal tourist would be to take the one-hour flight between Nome, Alaska, and Providenya, Chukotka…
>
> Travel between Providenya and other parts of Russia involves flying, unless you wish to walk. There are occasional flights to and from Chukotka’s capital Anadyr, which is one of the nastiest cities in the whole of the former USSR. Anadyr is linked by air to Moscow, and sometimes to other parts of Siberia.
>
> Onward travel from Nome to other parts of the USA requires taking an expensive flight to Anchorage (unless you are good at handling huskies).
> **[Crossing the Bering Straits](https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2003/aug/18/userstraveladvice2)**
>
> I am planning a round-the-world trip. How can I cross the Bering Straits from Russia to Alaska?
Or you could try [this](http://www.nationalwindscreens.co.uk/news/impact/issue9/page2.htm)…
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### Author:  [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/6 "2004-10-15T12:05:16Z")
It could be done. You’d want either a Leslie Special or a Hannibal 8 for the purpose.
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### Author:  [@curly\_chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curly_chick)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/7 "2004-10-15T12:13:52Z")
Haven’t Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman just ridden their motor bikes from London to New York?
So it’s possible on motorbikes. It took them three and a half months, they said on Jonathon Ross’s chat show. Can’t remember what route they took, but if you’re interesetd, I’m sure you could Google it up.
The point is, if you can do it from London to New York, you can surely do it from Boston to Paris.
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### Author:  [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/8 "2004-10-15T12:23:01Z")
[Here you go …](http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?go=1&1a=&1c=boston&1s=ma&1z=&1y=US&do=nw&1ex=1&2ex=1&src=maps&ct=NA&2a=&2c=Paris&2s=TX&2z=&2y=US&2pn=&2l=3C5%2fC9ySLG0%3d&2g=nSbv7Xd%2fdu0%3d&2v=CITY&2pl=)
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### Author:  [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/9 "2004-10-15T12:31:33Z")
[in disguise as board member]
No, no, absolutely no! When a company of this repute, stakes it’s reputation on the likes of of a man like this, a cheap carnival performer, a fraud! a trickster! well, it’s disreputable.
[/in disguise as board member]
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### Author:  [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/10 "2004-10-15T12:44:26Z")
Push the button, Max!
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/11 "2004-10-15T13:55:03Z")
Good plan, except there _is_ no road from Anchorage to Nome, nor is there a ferry from Nome to anywhere. The only overland way to get to Nome is on foot in “summer” and by snowmachine or dogsled in winter.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/12 "2004-10-15T13:56:50Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> Good plan, except there _is_ no road from Anchorage to Nome, nor is there a ferry from Nome to anywhere. The only overland way to get to Nome is on foot in “summer” and by snowmachine or dogsled in winter.
Guess I should have read _all_ the posts first. :smack:
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/13 "2004-10-15T17:07:33Z")
> [@SCSimmons](#):
>
> [Here you go …](http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?go=1&1a=&1c=boston&1s=ma&1z=&1y=US&do=nw&1ex=1&2ex=1&src=maps&ct=NA&2a=&2c=Paris&2s=TX&2z=&2y=US&2pn=&2l=3C5%2fC9ySLG0%3d&2g=nSbv7Xd%2fdu0%3d&2v=CITY&2pl=)
Surely you mean [this](http://www.multimap.com/map/aproute.cgi?client=public&startx=-2860&starty=6944256&endx=261721&endy=6218402&startrd=&starttown=Boston%2C%20Lincolnshire&startpc=&startcountry=GB&endrd=&endtown=PARIS&endpc=75004&endcountry=FR&rn=EU&qs=q&starttime=09:00&input_rt=aproute_pan&useRJS3=true&lang=)? 😃
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### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/14 "2004-10-15T17:31:04Z")
What about going north over the pole? Any solid packs of ice that one could traverse north of Canada and then south into the USSR?
Outside the box people, _outside the box_. 😉
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/15 "2004-10-15T18:27:33Z")
> [@Uncommon Sense](#):
>
> What about going north over the pole? Any solid packs of ice that one could traverse north of Canada and then south into the USSR?
>
> Outside the box people, _outside the box_. 😉
There was an effort recently by some team to create a vehicle that could not only work in the water, but crawl out onto pack ice as necessary. The object was to be able to traverse polar areas. I’m pretty sure the thing was unusable and failed miserably in tests.
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### Author:  [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/16 "2004-10-15T19:49:47Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> There was an effort recently by some team to create a vehicle that could not only work in the water, but crawl out onto pack ice as necessary. The object was to be able to traverse polar areas. I’m pretty sure the thing was unusable and failed miserably in tests.
Wouldn’t an existing hovercraft work just fine?
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### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/17 "2004-10-15T20:28:08Z")
…we need a Trans-Bering Straights Bridge! It will stimulate the developement of the new Inter-continental highway network! (Of course, Nome to Vladivostok eill take a few years to construct)!
Seriously, for the cost of a NIMITZ-class aircraft carrier, we could make this dream a reality!
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### Author:  [@Aragowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aragowyn)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/18 "2004-10-15T21:01:02Z")
I found the [website for Ewan & Charley’s Motorbike trip](http://www.longwayround.com).
The route shows a crossing over the Bering Strait, spending the night in Magadan, Russia then Anchorage, AK. I couldn’t find any details on how they got from Magadan to Anchorage exactly. Pretty awesome feat. The documentary will start airing on the Bravo channel on 10/28/04.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drive-from-boston-to-paris-can-it-be-done/269338/19 "2004-10-15T22:24:47Z")
> [@Aragowyn](#):
>
> The route shows a crossing over the Bering Strait, spending the night in Magadan, Russia then Anchorage, AK. I couldn’t find any details on how they got from Magadan to Anchorage exactly. Pretty awesome feat. The documentary will start airing on the Bravo channel on 10/28/04.
The best I’ve been able to find is a mention of a ‘short flight’ across the Bering Straits. I suspect that it was long enough to get them to Anchorage.