# How long and cost to visit all 50 States in the USA? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 27, 2020, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032 "2020-01-27T01:03:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032/21 "2020-01-27T22:53:43Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > How close to an airport does it have to be to count as flying to? I thought it was a trick question related to the fact that a lot of well known airports associated with cities are not actually in the city limits. For example, Sacramento International Airport is not in Sacramento, so you can’t “fly into” Sacramento. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032/22 "2020-01-28T02:36:45Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > That’s easy: none. Capitols (spelled with an O) are buildings and you can’t fly into those. I call foul. Many worse misspellings pass scrutiny here. And don’t any state capitol structures support helicopter pads? I’ve taken commercial choppers around Los Angeles. A chopper pad atop a state capitol would facilitate quick escapes from angry mobs. > [@](#): > > Now the question about capitals (spelled with an A) is harder. How close to an airport does it have to be to count as flying to? Salem OR, for example, doesn’t have commercial service to its airport, but it’s maybe 70 miles or so to PDX. Does that count as flying to Salem or not? Similar distances for Olympia/Sea-Tac and Topeka/KC International. My trick question has an easy answer: Dover DE, because no commercial flights infest the state of Delaware. At least Salem has in-state access. If you can’t fly commercial into a state, its capital city is stranded like an abalone at high tide. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032/23 "2020-01-28T05:33:39Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > try stopping in each state capitol. Been there, done that. For 49 of them, anyway. While we’ve been to Alaska we were not in Juneau. Collected state capitol police/state police patches at every capitol we’ve been to. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032/24 "2020-01-28T06:34:39Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > My trick question has an easy answer: Dover DE, because no commercial flights infest the state of Delaware. At least Salem has in-state access. If you can’t fly commercial into a state, its capital city is stranded like an abalone at high tide. Whether the nearest airport is in the same state or not should be irrelevant. You certainly didn’t put it in the question. At any rate, Googling gives three different answers to the road distance between Dover and Philly International and they fall into the range of 66 to 71 miles. The distance from Topeka to KC International is 72 miles. So if you can’t fly commercially to Dover, you can’t do it to Topeka either. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032/25 "2020-01-28T06:46:16Z")
Sort of an oops. I found out that Mahattan Regional Airport does have commercial flights. It’s slightly closer to Topeka than KC Int’l. and about the same (69 miles) as Dover to Philly Int’l. That doesn’t change my point, though. If one is served by commercial flight, the other is too. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032/26 "2020-01-28T13:07:57Z")
pkbites: > [@](#): > > It took us over 20 years to do it. I don’t remember the overall cost. > > But we got off the interstates and actually saw stuff, a lot of stuff, just didn’t drive through. We spent weeks in one state at a time, going back to some states several times. Ditto for me and my wife, but we did it in five years rather than 20. But we didn’t count a state unless we’d actually done something (at least one thing) there, not just pass through. We’ve also re-visited states multiple times. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032/27 "2020-01-28T21:48:43Z")
[Moderating] Since this thread seems to be almost entirely personal experiences and discussion of “what counts”, it’d probably fare better in IMHO than GQ. Moving. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032/28 "2020-01-28T21:59:59Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > A former coworker of mine upon retirement bought an RV and set off on mission to spend one night each in all 48 contiguous states. Which he (and his wife) accomplished in about three months having driven just under 10,000 miles. I think the answer to . the OP gets into how you define “visit”; I like the one your coworker used. I know people who have done most, or all, 48 in 15-20 days or there-abouts but most states were drive through and some like WV were driving through the thinnest spots possible. That isn’t what I personally would consider a visit. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032/29 "2020-01-29T02:55:28Z")
On a fund-raiser, two of us drove through 21 states in 52 hours. Speed limit was 55 then. Packed food, so only cost was gas. Stopped in each to make a collect call back, to prove we were there, which took two hours time… My GF once got one of those national parks passports, and we stamped it in 48 states in a year, and I had a part-time job to go to every week. So you can really do them as quickly as you want – just do it, according to your own definitions. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032/30 "2020-01-29T07:52:49Z")
I’ve been to every state except North Dakota at least twice, with the visits separated by at least a year. (I expect this year to catch ND for the second time.) I think I lack just 3 states on my “piloted a small plane over” list. Working hard on my “visited all US National Parks” merit badge - about 5 left to go. (It’s something of a moving target - more are added from time to time.) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2020, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032/31 "2020-01-30T07:28:10Z")
Pearls Before Swine has a [tip for visiting all 50 states](https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2020/01/30). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-and-cost-to-visit-all-50-states-in-the-usa/847032.md?page=1)