The fair place to meet is Chicago, IL — the city closest to the midpoint of Denver and Hartford. From the farther side that’s about 19 hr 15 min of driving.
Recommended midpoint
Chicago, IL
From Denver
19 hr 15 min
918 mi to Chicago
From Hartford
16 hr 8 min
769 mi to Chicago
Hartford has the shorter trip; the split is off by about 3 hr 7 min. The alternatives below can even it out. Denver and Hartford are about 1,687 miles apart.
Denver and Hartford are about 1,687 miles apart by road. Split the difference and you arrive near Chicago, the city closest to the halfway point between them. That puts roughly 19 hr 15 min of driving on the Denver side and 16 hr 8 min on the Hartford side — the fairest single meeting point among the cities near the middle.
Over this distance most people will fly rather than drive the whole way. Chicago still makes a fair, central place for Denver and Hartford to converge, splitting the travel instead of asking one side to cross the country.
If Chicago doesn't have what you're after, Indianapolis and Milwaukee are also close to the midpoint and worth a look — each keeps the drive reasonably balanced between Denver and Hartford.
Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the third-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 2.74 million at the 2020 census. Read more →
Denver is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Officially a consolidated city and county, it is located in the South Platte River valley on the western edge of the High Plains, and is just east of the Front Range of the Rocky… Read more →
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 at the 2020 census and was estimated at 124,006 in 2025. Read more →
City descriptions adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA); photos via Wikimedia Commons, credited above.
Estimates use straight-line distance and typical road speeds; real drive times vary with route and traffic.