If you were in the United States this past Halloween, you got the gift of an extra hour of sleep after the revelry as the clocks “fell back” at 2 a.m. (unless, like me, you have pets who don’t understand the human concept of a time change!) with the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST).
No matter which schedule you prefer, the extra or subtracted hour can cause confusion when abroad. Only around 70 countries observe some form of daylight saving time, and not all of them change on the same weekend. Countries in the Southern Hemisphere adjust on the opposite schedule to those in the north.
In some cases, like the U.S.’s outliers of Arizona and Hawaii, parts of a country will keep the same time year-round…with outliers to the outliers such as Arizona’s Navajo Nation, which observes DST while its surrounding state does not. And then there are countries like China, which maintains a single, unchanging time zone across its more than three million miles.
If you’re trying to schedule a move, a business trip, or a video call around the end of October or late March, it is prudent to check if and when a switch will take place. Living Abroad has tools to help you stay on schedule and avoid mishaps.
On each country’s homepage, you’ll find a list of key facts that includes the country’s time zones and information and whether or not they observe daylight saving time.
You’ll also find a link to the World Time Buddy tool for the capital city. World Time Buddy is a world clock and timezone convertor that allows for easy comparison across time zones, making scheduling a breeze.
And since scheduling appropriate travel isn’t just about knowing how many hours to shift, country reports also include information about holidays and standard business hours in the target country. The Business hours article also mentions when workers are typically on holiday or any culturally significant reasons for business closures.
With preparation from Living Abroad’s resources, you’ll never have to worry about showing up too early or late, or arriving to an empty office. Time changes will be a breeze- just make sure someone is up to feed the dog or cat.
Written by Kate Havas, GMS-T, Content Manager
