On a wet late March evening in London a few years ago, I learned the hard way that not all countries change their clocks to daylight saving time at the same time. After ordering a glass of white wine in a cozy bar in Bermondsey, I absentmindedly scrolled through my phone as the bartenders chatted about the clocks ticking ahead to the coming Sunday. I almost spit out my Chablis.
Back home in New York City, I was an hour ahead on the second Sunday in March. As I googled frantically, I learned that clocks go forward one hour on the last Sunday of March in the UK.
Don’t be like me and lose two hours of sleep in a month. When you travel, remember the following to avoid daylight saving time-related snafus and other time zone errors.
Daylight Saving Time occurs on different days around the world — or not at all
The UK is not the only country that the US For example, most European countries follow the same calendar as the UK, moving clocks one hour forward and one hour back on the last Sunday in March. hour on the last Sunday of October.
In general, when traveling in the spring and fall, it’s always best to check the daylight saving time in the country you’re visiting — and also whether the country observes daylight saving time at all. In fact, according to Pew Research CenterAbout 66% of the world’s people do not.
While North America and Europe generally observe daylight saving time, many non-EU countries in Europe remain on standard time year-round, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Iceland, Russia, and Turkey.
In 2023, Egypt became the only country in Africa to change its clocks when it reintroduced daylight saving time. For the first time in seven years. Now, every year, its clocks go forward one hour on the last Friday of April and back one hour on the last Thursday of October.
Not all states within the same country follow daylight saving time
Even if you’re traveling to the United States, it’s worth double-checking these things. In 48 states, daylight saving time runs from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November. Arizona and Hawaii are outliers that stay on standard time year-round. While this is less of a problem on an island like Hawaii, Arizona shares enough borders with other states that observe daylight saving time that it can be problematic.
“Always double-check the time when crossing/exiting the state and on road trips,” says Becky Blaine, TPG’s senior newsletter editor and Arizona resident. Otherwise, you risk missing the flight or reservation.
Daily newsletter
Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily Newsletter
Join over 700,000 readers for the latest news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts
To keep it simple, remember that Arizona is in the Pacific Time Zone from mid-March to early November, and the rest of the year it’s in the same time zone as other Mountain Time Zone states.
Similar is the situation in Canada. In general, Canada follows the same daylight saving schedule as the United States, but Most of SaskatchewanThe Yukon and parts of Quebec and British Columbia remain on standard time year-round.
in AustraliaDaylight saving time starts on the first Sunday in October and ends on the first Sunday in April in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria, while the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia do not observe it.
Private island resorts sometimes create their own time zones
Outside of daylight saving time changes, there are some common time zone issues to be aware of when traveling.
In large countries like the US, Canada and Australia, it’s easy to see why there are so many time zones. But Eric Rosen, TPG’s director of travel content, also points out that in In the Maldives, the airport is in a different time zone than some of the resorts in the small island nation.
Technically, the Maldives has only one official time zone: Maldives Time, which is five hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time, also abbreviated UTC. However, some private island resorts in the archipelago add an hour to Maldives time to maximize their guests’ evening light.
For example, the St. Regis Maldives Vommuli Resort sets its clock one hour ahead of the official clock to what it calls “island time,” but it also provides guests with butlers who coordinate transportation to and from the airport so that no flight accidents happen. Don’t miss it.
Before you head to the Maldives, be sure to check if your resort does the same.
Related: The surprising reason some hotels have their own time zone
Some places have a half-hour time zone
Because of its geographic location, the Canadian island of Newfoundland is 90 minutes ahead of Eastern Time instead of just 60 minutes ahead like the rest of Atlantic Canada. On the July trip, Nick Ewen, senior editorial director at TPG, found this challenging for calendar purposes.
While traveling in Newfoundland, he received an invitation from Outlook for a 7:30 pm dinner meeting the following week and accepted without thinking much of it. However, back home in the US the actual dinner started at 6pm Eastern Time, which he completely missed until a reminder popped up 15 minutes earlier – at which point he realized he would be late.
Other places offset by 30 minutes from UTC include India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and some states in Australia. Want to get even more confused? Nepal’s time zone is offset by 45 minutes due to its geography.
Pay attention to your digital calendars
Even when not working with half-hour time zones, it can be easy to make the same mistakes when adding events to your digital calendar back home when traveling in a different time zone.
“Last year, I brought my middle son to a birthday party. We were running a few minutes late, but when we arrived it looked like the party was almost over,” says. According to Tarah Chieffi, senior writer at TPG. “While the kids were eating the cake, I double-checked my calendar to make sure we had the right time, and it looked like we had. But then I went to check the invitation, and we were, in fact, an hour late. . late.”
Her mistake? When she entered the party into her calendar while traveling, her calendar app defaulted to the time zone she was in and showed her the wrong time back home.
“Now, if I enter an appointment in my calendar while I’m traveling I always toggle the time zone to my home time zone,” she says.
Another trick?
“Outlook lets you display up to three time zones on a calendar,” says Madison Blancaflor, managing editor of content operations at TPG.
Go to Settings > Calendar > Time Zone. Then check the box for “Show another time zone in day and week view” below your default time zone. Need a third? You can also check that box.
Cruise ships often cross multiple time zones
It’s also important to remember that it’s possible to quickly encounter multiple time zones on a cruise — especially on transoceanic cruises, where you’ll change time zones daily or almost daily. And if you’re on a cruise crossing the Pacific Ocean, you can lose an entire day. International debt lines, as Clint Henderson, TPG’s managing editor, did when he recently moved from Seward, Alaska, to Tokyo.
Even on short cruises, check if you have to change time zones. “I was on a less than a week cruise from Portugal to Spain and we had to change time zones with only one day in between,” says Erica Silverstein, managing editor of cruises at TPG.
Cabin stewards usually leave notes on your bed at turndown reminding you of upcoming changes. Henderson says he had to set his watches back between one and two hours every night on his cruise. But Silverstein says you can’t always rely on your cellphone to correct the correct time when you’re in airplane mode and accessing satellite-based Internet. He recommends bringing an analog clock or alarm clock to ground you if you don’t know if your device will update properly.
RELATED: Can Cruises Help Jet Lag? The answer may surprise you
The bottom line
When traveling, don’t assume that every country or state follows the same daylight-saving-time rules and schedules as where you live, and watch out for time zone discrepancies. Losing sleep due to losing or gaining unexpected hours, arriving late to events and worst of all, missing flights.
Related Reading: