Three Good Stops

Denver to Minneapolis: where to stop

842 miles, about 13 hr 3 min of driving. Here are the real towns worth stopping in between Denver, CO and Minneapolis, MN, and why each one earned it.

Your first stop

Sterling, COStretch your legs in Sterling, CO · mile 140

The other 6 stops on this drive

Named for your own departure time and driving style when you plan the trip — your first full plan is free.

N•••••, NEstretch, fuel, meal · mile 277
B•••••, NEstretch · mile 400
W•••••, NEstretch · mile 524
V•••••, SDmeal · mile 535
S•••••, NEovernight, fuel · mile 585
W•••••, MNstretch · mile 713

Name every stop — first trip free

No card for the first trip. After that it's 99¢ for three trips, or $2.99 a month.

How the days break up

DayMilesDrivingNight in
15859 hrSouth Sioux City, NE
22574 hr 3 min—

How we picked these

Every stop is a real town on your actual route — not a chain billboard. We score towns on what a driver needs at that point in the drive: fuel and food for a stretch break, parks and grass when a pet is along, hotels and restaurants when it's an overnight. Detour distance counts against a town, so nothing here costs you a long side trip.

This page is planned for a 9-hour driving day leaving at 8:00 AM. Change any of that — your hours, your MPG, pets, small children, an EV's charging range — and the stops change with it. Plan Denver to Minneapolis your way →

Questions

How far is Denver, CO to Minneapolis, MN?
About 842 miles, roughly 13 hr 3 min of driving before stops.

Can you drive Denver to Minneapolis in one day?
Not comfortably. At a 9-hour driving day it splits into 2 days, with a night in South Sioux City, NE.

Where is a good place to stop between Denver and Minneapolis?
Sterling, CO is the first one on this route.