—The Hop Distance based Routing Protocol (HDR) is an on-demand based routing protocol suited for mobile ad hoc networks integrated with wired networks. HDR considers an efficient way to build multi-hop routes with low routing overhead, through efficient route discovery and route maintenance mechanisms. HDR does this by utilizing the hop count information between mobile nodes and access points to localize the route discovery and maintenance within a limited area in order to reduce routing overhead. HDR is an adaptive protocol and does not require any user or network dependent predefined inputs in order to operate. Simulation results show that HDR is highly efficient in reducing node participation and overhead in route request operations. Keywords- hop count; MANET; routing protocol