Where did Paul go on his missionary journeys?

First journey, about AD 46–48 (Acts 13–14)

Acts traces Paul’s routes in unusual detail, often port by port. He sets out with Barnabas, and for a while John Mark.

1. Antioch on the Orontes, today’s Antakya, and its port, Seleucia (13:1–4).
2. Salamis, on the east coast of Cyprus, then across the island to Paphos (13:5–12).
3. Perga, near Antalya, where John Mark turns back (13:13).
4. Pisidian Antioch, near Yalvaç, and Iconium, today’s Konya (13:14–14:5).
5. Lystra and Derbe, small towns of Lycaonia south of Konya (14:6–20).
6. Back through each town, appointing elders, then home by sea from Attalia, today’s Antalya (14:21–26).

Second journey, about AD 49–52 (Acts 15:36–18:22)

With Silas, and from Lystra on, young Timothy. They cross Turkey by land but are kept from preaching in Asia and from entering Bithynia (16:6–7), and come out on the coast at Troas, near ancient Troy.

A vision appeared to Paul in the night. There was a man of Macedonia standing, begging him and saying, “Come over into Macedonia and help us.”

So, around AD 49 or 50, Paul first sets foot in Europe.

1. By sea past Samothrace to Neapolis, today’s Kavala, and up to Philippi, a Roman colony (16:11–40).
2. West along the Roman highway, the Via Egnatia, through Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica (17:1–9).
3. Berea, today’s Veria, then on to Athens (17:10–34).
4. Corinth, for “a year and six months” (18:1–17).
5. From Cenchreae, Corinth’s eastern port, to Ephesus, Caesarea, Jerusalem and back to Antioch (18:18–22).

Third journey, about AD 53–57 (Acts 18:23–21:17)

1. Overland again through Galatia and Phrygia (18:23).
2. Ephesus, near today’s Selçuk, his longest stay: “a period of three years” (20:31).
3. Macedonia and Greece, including three months, probably at Corinth (20:1–3).
4. Back north to Philippi, then Troas, where a young man named Eutychus dozes off during a long sermon and falls from a third-floor window (20:6–12).
5. Down the coast by ship: Assos, Mitylene on Lesbos, Chios, Samos and Miletus, where he takes leave of the elders of Ephesus (20:13–38).
6. Cos, Rhodes and Patara, then across to Tyre, Ptolemais and Caesarea, and up to Jerusalem (21:1–17).

The voyage to Rome, about AD 59–60 (Acts 27–28)

Now he travels as a prisoner. From Caesarea the ship calls at Sidon and Myra, in Lycia, where the centurion finds an Alexandrian grain ship bound for Italy. It crawls past Cnidus to Fair Havens on Crete. A storm drives it past the islet of Clauda, today’s Gavdos, and on for fourteen days until it runs aground on Malta. After the winter come Syracuse, Rhegium and Puteoli, near Naples, then the Appian Way, where believers walk out to meet him at the Market of Appius and the Three Taverns (28:15).

What Acts leaves out

Acts never numbers the journeys. The three-journey scheme is a later convenience of maps and study Bibles, and every date above is approximate. Paul’s letters also add places Acts never maps. After Damascus he went “away into Arabia” (Galatians 1:17). He speaks of a third visit to Corinth (2 Corinthians 12:14), one more than Acts describes. And he reached the far side of the Balkans.

so that from Jerusalem and around as far as to Illyricum, I have fully preached the Good News of Christ

Illyricum ran along the Adriatic coast, today’s Albania and the former Yugoslavia. He told the Romans he meant to go on to Spain (15:24). Whether he ever did is part of the story told in How did Paul die?