The fair place to meet is Columbus, OH — the city closest to the midpoint of Hartford and Kansas City. From the farther side that’s about 12 hr 59 min of driving.
Recommended midpoint
Columbus, OH
From Hartford
11 hr 36 min
553 mi to Columbus
From Kansas City
12 hr 59 min
620 mi to Columbus
Hartford has the shorter trip; the split is off by about 1 hr 23 min. The alternatives below can even it out. Hartford and Kansas City are about 1,163 miles apart.
Hartford and Kansas City are about 1,163 miles apart by road. Split the difference and you arrive near Columbus, the city closest to the halfway point between them. That puts roughly 11 hr 36 min of driving on the Hartford side and 12 hr 59 min on the Kansas City 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. Columbus still makes a fair, central place for Hartford and Kansas City to converge, splitting the travel instead of asking one side to cross the country.
If Columbus doesn't have what you're after, Cincinnati and Cleveland are also close to the midpoint and worth a look — each keeps the drive reasonably balanced between Hartford and Kansas City.
Columbus is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a population of 905,748 at the 2020 census, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., second-most populous city in the Midwest, and third-most populous U.S. state capital. 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 →
Kansas City, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by both population and area. It is located on the Missouri River at its confluence with the Kansas River, within Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass counties. 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.