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MLB Road-Trip Index

“A great baseball road trip comes down to the schedule, not the odometer. Whether fans have five days or a single weekend, the 2026 calendar lines up: the best route packs three ballparks into just 84 miles of driving.”
Action Network Spokesperson
Stop 1MilwaukeeMon, Jul 20
Stop 2Chicago CubsTue, Jul 21
Stop 3White SoxFri, Jul 24
84Total Miles

Key Findings

What the Road-Trip Rankings Show

The strongest routes balance venue quality with practical travel. The top results are not just the strongest stops on paper: they are the trips fans can actually fit into a long weekend or short run of annual leave.

1
Overall No. 1

Milwaukee → Cubs → White Sox Is the Best Trip in the Study

The overall No. 1 packs three ballparks into five days from Jul 20, 2026, with barely any road between them.

84 miTotal drive1h 32mDrive time72.2/100Road Trip Score
2
Overall No. 2

Phillies → Orioles → Nationals Is Almost Tied for First

The Beltway alternative departs Jul 21, 2026 and lands just 0.1 back of the top score.

124 miTotal drive2h 15mDrive time72.1/100Road Trip Score
3
Weekend No. 1

Cleveland → Detroit → Toronto Owns the Weekend

The best Friday-to-Sunday run goes border-hopping on Aug. 14–16, 2026, packing three games and a US–Canada crossing into one long weekend.

297 miTotal drive5h 25mDrive time65.6/100Road Trip Score
4
Weekend No. 2

Mets → Phillies → Nationals Is the East Coast Weekend Pick

Three NL East parks in three days on Jul 24–26, 2026, with less than four hours of total driving.

213 miTotal drive3h 53mDrive time63.0/100Road Trip Score
5
Bottom of the Table

Athletics → Dodgers → Red Sox Is the Trip to Avoid

The lowest-ranked route in all 2,265 qualifying trips asks for a coast-to-coast slog in the same five-day window.

2,954 miTotal drive53h 43mDrive time16.3/100Road Trip Score
MLB road-trip study

Ranked: The Best Upcoming MLB Road Trips

Compare the strongest three-ballpark itineraries left on the 2026 schedule, from tight Friday-to-Sunday routes to flexible trips with weekday stops, or pick your club for a top five built around your home ballpark.

All MLB Road Trips

Search every qualifying three-ballpark itinerary, including weekday games and travel. Select any row to view the route, dates, driving legs and score.

Preview date: Use ?qa=1 to test future weekly resets.
All upcoming road trips
10 results per page.
RankRoad tripDepartureTotal driveLengthRoad Trip Score

No Matching Upcoming Trips

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How the live table works

The source workbook's Road Trip Score is retained. Every Sunday, completed itineraries are removed from the planning pool. Search, sorting, row selection and pagination all run instantly in the browser. Selecting a row updates the itinerary card above without opening a separate popup.

Driving times are estimates from the source study and may differ from actual routes and traffic.
04Methodology Menu

Methodology

How the MLB Road-Trip Rankings Were Calculated

The study focuses only on three-ballpark MLB road trips. Team and city night-out rankings have been removed from this page and can be treated as a separate study.

1. Building the Trip Pool

The official 2026 MLB home schedule was used to generate itineraries featuring three different teams at home on separate days within a three-to-five-day window. This produced 2,265 qualifying trips beginning on or after July 11, 2026.

2. Weekend Trips

The weekend view isolates Friday-to-Sunday routes only. Each route includes one game per day and is ranked separately so fans can quickly compare long-weekend options.

3. All Trips

The all-trips view includes weekday games and travel, then lets you filter by team, maximum drive per leg, trip length and sorting preference.

4. Road Trip Score

Each trip starts with the average venue score of its three stops, then applies drive-time adjustments between ballparks.

  • Under 1 hour: 20% bonus
  • 1–2.5 hours: no adjustment
  • 2.5–4 hours: 15% penalty
  • Over 4 hours: 50% penalty

Sources

Game dates and home schedules: MLB.com. Route distances and drive times: driving-distance estimates between ballparks. Venue inputs: Action Network’s 2026 MLB venue dataset, including family game-day cost and surrounding fan-experience indicators.

Road Trip Score: average venue score of the three stops, adjusted for the driving convenience of each leg. Higher scores indicate a stronger overall fan road trip.

Figures are rounded for display. Late-season start times may flex for television scheduling. Driving times are estimates and do not account for traffic, parking or border delays.