Three Good Stops

Denver to St. Louis: where to stop

852 miles, about 12 hr 19 min of driving. Here are the real towns worth stopping in between Denver, CO and St. Louis, MO, and why each one earned it.

Your first stop

Burlington, COStretch your legs in Burlington, CO · mile 137

The other 5 stops on this drive

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

C•••••, KSstretch, fuel, meal · mile 281
A•••••, KSstretch · mile 426
L•••••, KSstretch, fuel · mile 568
K•••••, MOovernight, meal · mile 608
C•••••, MOstretch · mile 741

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
16088 hr 35 minKansas City, MO
22443 hr 44 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 St. Louis your way →

Questions

How far is Denver, CO to St. Louis, MO?
About 852 miles, roughly 12 hr 19 min of driving before stops.

Can you drive Denver to St. Louis in one day?
Not comfortably. At a 9-hour driving day it splits into 2 days, with a night in Kansas City, MO.

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