Fort Wayne to Detroit drive: Distance, time & best road trip stops
The distance from Fort Wayne to Detroit by car is 163 miles, with a 2h38m driving time. The best road trip stops on the Fort Wayne to Detroit drive are Independence State Park, the National Museum of the Great Lakes and the Henry Ford Museum.
Planning a Fort Wayne to Detroit road trip
The drive from Fort Wayne to Detroit takes you from northern Indiana to the biggest city in Michigan. For most, this will part of a longer road trip route – perhaps from Indianapolis to Detroit or St Louis to Detroit.
The main attractions in Fort Wayne are the Froellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory and the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo.
Top things to do in Detroit include the excellent architecture walking tours, the Sealife Michigan Aquarium and the Legoland Discovery Centre. The Motown Museum and Ford Piquette Avenue Plant are great, too.
Fort Wayne to Detroit distance and driving time
By car, the distance from Fort Wayne to Detroit is 163 miles. That makes for a driving time of around two hours and 38 minutes. The quickest route is largely along the US-24 and I-75.
The best stops to add to a Fort Wayne to Detroit road trip itinerary are Independence State Park, the National Museum of the Great Lakes and the Henry Ford Museum.
Fort Wayne to Detroit drive: Independence State Park
On the banks of the Maumee River near Defiance, Ohio, this small state park is popular for camping and boating. On a road trip, it’s a simpler affair. This becomes somewhere to have a picnic and a stroll along the three mile walking trail.
Come in winter, and Independence State Park is a good place for ice skating, sledding and cross-country skiing.
Things to do between Fort Wayne and Detroit: National Museum of the Great Lakes
The National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio, really embraces the scale and scope of its subject. The aim is to show how the Great Lakes have shaped America’s cultural, economic and political history. The museum covers everything from the Underground Railroad to Prohibition-era rum-runners.
The highlight of the visit is the Col. James M. Schoonmaker, once an iron ore freighter plying its trade on the lakes, now a museum ship.
Other Toledo experiences include Toledo Zoo.
Fort Wayne to Detroit road trip attractions: Henry Ford Museum
A slight detour off the route in Dearborn, Michigan, the Henry Ford is arguably the most astonishing museum in the United States.
The Henry Ford is home to an incredible haul of modern history. The bus on which Rosa Parks made her world-changing civil rights protest is there, as is the car JFK was assassinated in.
The Greenfield Village outside has remarkably transported buildings such as the courthouse in which Abraham Lincoln practiced law and the bike shop where the Wright Brothers made the first plane brick by brick.
You can very easily spend a full day here.
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