Aurora, NE Road Trips
Plan drives from Aurora, NE with practical route pages for distance, drive time, fuel cost, road character, and places to stop along the way.
Photo: Markku Soini
Trip Routes
3
Longest Drive
159.8 mi
North Platte, NE
Quickest Drive
1h 27m
Lincoln, NE
Plan Around Aurora, NE
Popular Incoming Routes
Useful if Aurora, NE is the arrival point and you want the strongest routes into the city first.
Continue From Aurora, NE
Good next legs if this city is only one stop in a longer road trip.
Trips from Aurora, NE
Aurora, NE by the Numbers
Recent demographic snapshot from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
Population
4,665
Median Income
$71,051
Median Home Value
$221,700
Median Age
39.6
Source: US Census Bureau ACS 5-year (public domain). See our methodology for details.
Traveler Guide to Aurora, NE
Grand Island is a city of 51,000 people (2019) in South Central Nebraska. Grand Island has been given the All-America City Award three times (1955, 1967, and 1981–82) by the National Civic League.
1 Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer (Stuhr Museum), 3133 W US Hwy 34 (at the corner of US Hwys 281 & 34, 5 minutes north of I-80 Exit 312), ☏ +1 308 385-5316. M-Sa 9AM-5PM, Su noon-5PM. A large scale indoor/outdoor museum dedicated to the Nebraska frontier and the pioneers who settled those lands. Exhibits include a replica 1800s plains town where visitors can interact with exhibits, walk inside the many buildings and houses on the campus and observe an 1800s train station along with older farm equipment used in the area. May-Sep: adult $8, senior $7, youth 6-12 $6, age 5 & under free; Oct-Apr: adult $6, senior $5, youth ages 6-12 $4, age 5 & under free. Townsley-Murdock Trail Site, Platte River Valley (1.5 miles south of Alda, Nebraska), ☏ +1 308-382-4400. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 5, 1998, this site contains one of the only remaining ruts on the Mormon Trail. The 2.4-acre site is west of and adjacent to the Wood River Crossing area. Upon leaving the Wood River Crossing, travelers were funneled onto a narrow ridge, which separated the winding Wood River from the wetlands of the Platte. Every traveler on this trail was forced onto this narrow pathway, creating the wide and shallow swale, which remains. The name of the site comes from the first settlers on the land, Marshal Townsley around 1860 and later Phineas and Catherine Murdock in 1866. Survey notes from 1866 note this tract of land contained the Murdock home, a sawmill and a telegraph line.
Art in the Park, Stolley Park. A juried summer art festival operating since 1982. Nebraska Danger Football, Heartland Events Center 700 East Stolley Park Rd.. The Nebraska Danger, central and western Nebraska's indoor professional football team and member of the IFL, was founded October 4, 2010 in Grand Island, Nebraska, by Charlie Bosselman and is owned and operated by the Bosselman Companies/Bosselman Entertainment, LLC.
Godfathers Pizza, 1916 S. Locust (Corner of so.Locust and Stolley Psrk Rd.), ☏ +1 308-384-9090. 11AM - 10PM. Dine-in, delivery, pick-up at drive-thru. Daily lunch buffet from 11AM-2PM. Wednesday night buffet from 5-8PM. In business for over 30 years. Tommy's Family Restaurant, 1325 S Locust St, ☏ +1 308-381-0440. Daily 6AM-8PM. Chicken fried steak, fried chicken, pie, etc.
The Chicken Coop, 120 E. 3rd St., ☏ +1 308-398-2500. M-Sa 11AM-midnight, Su noon-10PM.
Days Inn Grand Island, 2620 Diers Ave, ☏ +1 308-210-9541. Check-in: 2PM, check-out: 11AM. (updated Jun 2017) Comfort Inn, 3535 West State St, ☏ +1 308-381-7788. Check-in: 3PM, check-out: 11AM. Motel 6, 7301 Bosselman Ave., ☏ +1 308 384-6666. Check-in: 2PM, check-out: noon. Ramada by Wyndham Midtown Grand Island, 2503 South Locust St (7 miles north of I-80), ☏ +1 308-384-1330. Check-in: 4PM, check-out: noon. Full service Holiday Inn with 13,800 square feet of meeting room space. Island Inn Motel, 2311 South Locust (I 80 Exit 314 north 5miles on Locust St.), ☏ +1 308-382-1815. Check-in: 1PM, check-out: 11AM. Independent AAA approved comfortable, clean, well-maintained inn. Super 8 by Wyndham Grand Island South, 3205 S Locust St, ☏ +1 308-594-1823. Check-in: 4PM, check-out: 11AM.
Interstate 80 (I-80) runs just south of Grand Island. Exits 312, 314 and 318 lead into the city. US Highway 30 cuts from the southwest corner to the northeast corner of town. US Highway 34 runs out of town to the east, paralleling I-80. NE Highway 2 runs out of the city to the northwest. US Highway 281 cuts through the city north to south. 1 Central Nebraska Regional Airport (GRI IATA). Served by American Eagle twice daily from Dallas/Fort Worth and Allegiant Air from Las Vegas and Phoenix/Mesa Arrow/Trailways Lines (+1-800-992-4618) Navigator Bus / Eppley Express provides limited shuttle service between Omaha and several Nebraska cities including Kearney, Grand Island, Hastings, Lincoln and York. Two pick-up/drop-off locations are available in Omaha: Eppley Airfield and Holiday Inn at 72nd & Grover just north of I-80. Service is limited to specific days and times depending upon your destination. Reservations available on-line. +1 308-234-6066.
Public shuttle service for the Greater Grand Island Area (308-385-5324) Action Cab & Courier (308-381-1010)
Travel tips adapted from Grand Island (Nebraska) on Wikivoyage, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Content summarized; visit the source for the full article. See our methodology for how we use it.
Trips to Aurora, NE
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