Meet Halfway Map: How to Find the Halfway Point Between Two Locations

To find the halfway point between two locations, get directions between them in Google Maps, note the total drive time or distance, and drop a pin at the spot where half of it is reached. For a straight-line midpoint, average the two sets of coordinates. Dedicated meet halfway map tools such as Trippy or Distance Between Cities do the math for you and suggest towns or places to meet.

This guide covers each method, explains why "halfway" by distance, by drive time and as the crow flies can give three different meeting spots, and shows how to pick a fair one for two or more people.

Which halfway point do you need?

A halfway point can mean three different things, and choosing the right one decides whether the meeting spot feels fair. The table compares them.

The three rarely line up. A straight-line midpoint can land in a lake, on a mountain or on the far side of a river with no bridge. A route-distance midpoint ignores that one side may face slow city streets while the other has a fast highway. For most meetups, the travel-time midpoint is the fairest, because nobody wants to sit in the car 40 minutes longer than the other person.

How to find the halfway point in Google Maps

Google Maps does not have a dedicated halfway button, but its directions view gives you everything needed to find the midpoint of a route by distance or by time.

1. Open Google Maps and select Directions.
2. Enter the first address as the starting point and the second address as the destination.
3. Pick the travel mode (car, walking, cycling or transit) and choose the route you would actually take.
4. Note the total distance and the travel time shown for the route.
5. Zoom in along the route line and find the area roughly halfway along it. Right-click it on a computer, or long-press it on a phone, to drop a pin.
6. Check the result: get directions from each starting address to the pin. If one trip is clearly longer, move the pin toward that person and check again.

The last step is the one most guides skip, and it is what turns a distance midpoint into a time midpoint. Two or three adjustments are usually enough to get both trips within a few minutes of each other.

On a computer, you can also add the pin as a stop on the route. Google Maps lets you add up to 9 stops with "Add destination", although multiple stops are not available for public transit or flight searches.

Measure the straight-line midpoint

The Google Maps measure distance tool shows the direct distance between two points, which helps when you want the geographic middle rather than a road midpoint.

1. On a computer, right-click the first location and select Measure distance.
2. Click the second location. The total distance appears at the bottom of the map in miles and kilometers.
3. Divide the total by two, then drag the second point back toward the first until the total shows half the distance.
4. Select Close on the card at the bottom when you are done.

Google documents the steps on its measure distance help page. The tool is not available in Lite mode, which Google Maps marks with a lightning bolt at the bottom of the screen. Points and paths can be dragged to adjust them, and clicking a point removes it.

Treat this midpoint as a starting area, not a meeting place. Search for cafes, parks or a train station near it, then run the travel-time check from the previous section.

Find the midpoint with coordinates

Averaging latitude and longitude gives a precise geographic midpoint, and it also works for three or more people.

1. Right-click each location in Google Maps on a computer, or long-press it on a phone. The coordinates appear at the top of the menu or in the search box.
2. Add up all the latitudes and divide by the number of locations. Do the same for the longitudes.
3. Paste the result, for example 48.137, 11.575, into the Google Maps search box to see where it lands.

Example: 40.7128, -74.0060 and 39.9526, -75.1652 average to 40.3327, -74.5856, a spot in central New Jersey between New York City and Philadelphia.

Simple averaging is accurate enough for distances within a country. Over very long distances it drifts from the true midpoint because the Earth is curved, and it fails for places on either side of the 180th meridian, for example Alaska and Siberia. For a group, the coordinate average is a good first guess; then compare everyone's travel time to a few candidate places near it.

Meet halfway map tools and apps

Meet halfway tools calculate the midpoint for you and add suggestions for places to stop or meet, which saves the manual pin work.

• Trippy Halfway point: calculates the midpoint along a route and suggests stopping places based on recommendations from Trippy members, plus restaurants or hotels nearby.
• Distance Between Cities: works out the halfway point between two places, aimed at city-to-city trips.
• Google Maps itself: once you have a pin at the midpoint, search "restaurants" or "coffee" to see places near it, with ratings and opening hours.

ghacks first covered this idea in 2014 with Meet Me Halfway, an Android app that took two addresses, showed the halfway point on a map and listed nearby bars, restaurants and other places. That early version could not share the result or filter place types, so you had to send the location yourself. Check the app store listing and permissions of any midpoint app before you install it, since many small location apps are no longer maintained.

How to pick a fair meeting place

A fair meeting place is one that both people reach in about the same time, at a spot that is easy to park at or reach by public transport. Use this checklist once you have a midpoint.

• Compare travel times, not distances, from each starting address to the candidate place.
• Check the time of day: rush-hour traffic can shift the fair point by several miles. Set the departure time in Google Maps directions to see typical traffic.
• Prefer public places with clear landmarks, such as a cafe, a shopping center or a station, over an exact pin on a road.
• For three or more people, shortlist two or three places near the coordinate average and pick the one where the longest trip is shortest.
• Share the place from Google Maps with the Share button so everyone navigates to the same address.

If your phone's location is off when you check travel times, calibrate Google Maps on Android first so the starting point is correct.

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Related: maps and driving directions sites compared, Bing Maps high-resolution imagery, Google "take me home" explained