The Common Timing Mistake Rick Steves Warns Americans To Avoid Making In Europe

If you're visiting Europe, it's pretty certain that, from your flights to trains to timed tickets for museums and attractions, you're booking everything online. It's wonderful to have it all right there in front of you, but in a rush to get your itinerary set for the trip, you might make a common mistake that many tourists make, which could cost you both time and money. Europeans use different methods for writing the time and date than we do in the United States. Travel pro Rick Steves cautions about this on his website. While he's given us tips on everything from using the secret entrances to the Louvre Museum in Paris to advising us to splurge on a professional tour guide, his advice on knowing how Europeans list the time and date could be the most important for your travel planning.

You may be more familiar with the way Europeans write the date, but if you're not, they do it from the smallest unit of measure to the largest. While we list our dates in the format of month-day-year, Europeans list the day first, then the month, and then the year. Although you'll likely notice it if you see a date like 30-1-2025 because it looks odd, you might not pick up on the fact that 7-3-2025 stands for March 7, 2025. When you're booking hotel reservations, train trips, or museum entry tickets, this could cause some big headaches. To make it even more confusing, some countries (specifically Hungary and Lithuania) list their dates as year-month-day. Before booking anything, make sure you double-check the date on a calendar if the website you're using has one, or confirm directly with the service provider by phone or email.

Another issue that Americans may face in Europe is that they use a 24-hour clock. (You may know it as military time.) It's exactly what it sounds like: The first 12 hours are the same, but after noon (12:00 p.m.), the numbers continue to go up. 1 p.m. is 13:00 in this system, 2 p.m. is 14:00, and so on. While it may stymie you a bit at first, Steves explains, "For any time after noon, subtract 12 and add p.m. (18:00 is 6 p.m.)." If you're making your way around using public transportation as Steves recommends, and you see a time you recognize on the schedule, it's before noon. 

That isn't the only issue you may have, however. Whether you're calling friends and family at home, trying to make plans, or anything else, you have to remember Daylight Saving Time (there is no "s" at the end of "savings," by the way). Europe uses it as well but at different times. In America, we spring forward three weeks before Europe, which changes its clocks on the last Sunday in March, and then fall back on the last Sunday in October, which is a week before we do in America. Again, that may affect your scheduling. Steves says, "For a handy online time converter, use the world clock app on your phone." However, if you're planning far into the future, it's a good rule of thumb to double-check this as well. One other thing you might not know unless you've accidentally ordered a day planner or wall calendar from a European company is that they tend to start the week on a Monday, while we go Sunday through Saturday as a rule.