# Travel >> Travel Preparation >> General Travel Prep

How to Calculate Time Difference Worldwide

Continent to continent, country to country and city to city, time zones are used to balance and regulate international activities such as travel and commerce. Time zones are legally created and assigned to a given territory. The most common time zone system is Coordinated Universal Time -- UTC. Most zones within this system are staggered in single-hour increments. Some cases, however, such as in Newfoundland, in Canada, are staggered by 30 minutes.

Instructions

- 1
  Choose two locations. Pick the cities or areas you would like to use as your base for calculating the time difference. You will need two areas, since you will be comparing them.
- 2
  Determine each city or area's time zone. Find out which UTC zone in which each of the two areas are located. The number will either be + or - some number, this is how many hours the city or area is off from the standard time located at the zero mark, located in countries such as Iceland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire
- 3
  Calculate the difference between the two locations. Determine the number of hours separating the two locations from the UTC standard, either by adding or subtracting the two numbers, which will depend on their relative locations. The sum will be the number of hours that separates each of the two locations.