Practical Information

While the United States is more similar to Europe than any other place in the world, they of course do some things differently than we do in America. That is why it is important to have some knowledge of the most common differences. The ability to convert and comprehend that information, while traveling in Europe, will only aid your traveling experience. In addition to the data listed below you will find pages about the:

When traveling, east to west or west to east, one can easily get jet lag. That’s when your body has been condition to eat or sleep at a certain time and your now in a different time zone when those activities are hours apart. Your body is telling to eat and sleep at your normal time but, you are now doing those activities at a different time. You’ll most likely be able to stay up late at night but, getting up in the morning could be a challenge.

As a reference the grid below reflects the difference in hours between Europe and US time zones. When Greenwich or Universal Time is 12:00 noon the corresponding times are displayed for the other US and european times zones. As an example, at that same time New York is 7:00 am (EST), Rome is 1:00 pm or 13:00 (CET)

UTC – Coordinated Universal Time

GMT = Greenwich Mean Time UTC +0 (BST = British Summer Time, WEST = Western European Summer Time, WET = Western European Time)
CET = Central European Time UTC +1 (CEST Central European Summer Time)
EET = Eastern European Time UTC +2 (EEST = Eastern European Summer Time)
MSKS = Moscow Time UTC +3
TRT = Turkey Time UTC +3

Change to Daylight Savings Time at 2 am- March 28, 2021
Change to Regular Time at 2 am – October 31, 2021
Belarus, Iceland and Russia have no time change to daylight savings in the summer months. Autonomous Republic of the Crimea has recently changed their time to MSK Moscow Time

To quickly calculate afternoon times just subtract 12 from the time. If the time is 15:30 subtract 12 from that and you get 3:30 pm.

 In the US we use the fahrenheit scale to measure temperature but, in Europe they use the celsius scale. The following table converts Celsius to Fahrenheit.

0º Celsius = 32º Fahrenheit water freezes / 100º = 212º water boils

When shopping for clothes and shoes in Europe you will find those sizes vary in the UK and continental Europe from US sizes. For a conversion table of sizes on our ➾ Shopping page.

Most European countries use the latin alphabet and use all 26 letters as used in the US. However, several countries have extended their alphabets with ligatures, modified letters or digraphs.

As we said to be in Europe is to be in another country in which they will label, say and do things differently from the US. You can find it very helpful to gain a little understanding  on some common everyday uses.

Floor Levels on multiple storied buildings are labeled slightly different. While the ground floor is always the main floor the one above in Europe is the 1st floor, not the second floor as we called it here. This will be good for you to know so you can remember what floor your hotel room is on.

Europe	United States
Ground or Main floor	1st floor or Main floor
1st Floor	2nd Floor
2nd Floor	3rd Floor
3rd Floor	4th Floor