My Favorite Time Zones For Traveling & Living: The Older I Get, The More I Care

To me the topic of time zones is interesting, both as it impacts where one chooses to live, and in terms of choosing where to vacation. I love traveling far away, and in a way jetlag has its charms, but there’s also something nice about not having a major disruption to your typical schedule.

My favorite time zone to live in

Over the years I’ve lived on both the East Coast and West Coast of the United States, though I’ve also spent a significant amount of time over the course of my travels in virtually every time zone. While I have a general preference for the West Coast lifestyle, personally I far prefer living on the East Coast in terms of the time zone. Why?

• I’m a morning person nowadays, and I naturally wake up well before 5AM (in fairness, I also go to bed really early); not only do I love watching the sun rise every morning, but I also love the feeling of getting a head start, and being able to get stuff done before most people are even awake
• For the purposes of my work, most news and other commitments happen during East Coast business hours, so I have a pretty easy time staying on top of things
• Given that we have two young kids, it’s useful to be able to get some stuff done before they wake up in the morning, or else I’d feel very behind; I almost feel like half of my productivity happens before 7AM
• The downside of the East Coast is that in the afternoons you might have more going on, though personally I kind of call it quits at around 4PM, and can deal with anything from the afternoon the following morning, before others are awake

There’s no denying that the West Coast has its advantages as well. Specifically, the much more laid back afternoons, because when it’s 2PM on the West Coast, it’s 5PM on the East Coast. That being said, I just don’t like waking up and feeling like I’m already behind.

Of course this just reflects my personal situation. The whole world doesn’t revolve around the East Coast, but this is what works best for me, based on my circumstances.

My favorite time zones to travel to

Just as I have a favorite time zone to live in, I also have favorite time zones to travel to. Increasingly, time zones impact where I have the desire to travel to, which probably reflects that I’m getting older, and staying up for weird hours is significantly less appealing.

I should mention that I “work” when I travel, so I never really have a traditional vacation where I truly disconnect. Roughly in order, below is my take on the time zones I enjoy traveling to most.

The less time change, the better

On many levels, traveling to somewhere that doesn’t require much of a time change is pretty awesome. I’ve realized this more than ever before living in Miami, given all the international destinations you can travel to that don’t involve huge time changes:

• It’s pretty awesome to be able to travel to the Caribbean, Central America, or South America, all without dealing with any sort of a major time change
• On some level I’d almost rather travel to a place like Los Cabos rather than the Maldives, because it’s oh-so-nice to not be jetlagged the entire time you’re there (though it is still a time change of a few hours)

Europe & Africa are easy enough to deal with

If I have to deal with jetlag, I like being in Europe or Africa, where you’re typically five to seven hours ahead of the East Coast of the United States. I’ve been going to Europe since I was young (since my family is from Germany), and it has never been an issue for me.

My general approach in Europe is the following:

• I wake up fairly early (as usual), and then work for a couple of hours
• Then I have most of the day free to explore stress-free, while most people in the United States are still asleep
• Then in the late afternoon I’ll work for a few more hours before dinner, for anything I missed in the morning
• Then I’ll enjoy the evening, and before going to bed I might work again briefly, depending on what’s going on

Personally I think this is pretty great, whether you’re exploring a city in Europe, at a beach resort, or on Safari in Africa. I find I’m much more relaxed when traveling to Europe and Africa, since I don’t always feel like I’m “missing” everything going on in the world, but rather feel like I’m ahead of the curve.

Hawaii is tough, but I make it work

I absolutely adore Hawaii, and how laid back and relaxing it is. The time zone is of course tricky, as it’s like the West Coast on steroids, being five or six hours behind the East Coast. When I’m in Hawaii, I typically get up ridiculously early, around 3AM, but I make it all work.

What I love about Hawaii is that by late in the morning, most of the action on the East Coast is over, so I can really make the most of my time, and disconnect. I’m usually so tired by the time the sun sets in Hawaii anyway (given how much time I spend outside), so going to bed before 8PM isn’t any sort of sacrifice.

So while this is a time zone that always sounds bad to me on paper, in practice I usually end up liking it.

Asia & the South Pacific are really complicated

As much as I love traveling to Asia and the South Pacific, from Tokyo, to Hong Kong, to Bali, to New Zealand, I struggle with the time zones… a lot.

Much of Asia is around 12 hours ahead of the East Coast of the United States, so the time difference is quite literally night and day:

• I get that this is appealing for some people, since they say you can answer emails when you wake up in Asia and catch people as they go out of the office, and then you have all day without being bothered
• However, for those of us who try to stay overlapped somewhat with the first half of the US East Coast business day, it’s much trickier
• In Asia my strategy is usually to get up very early (let’s say 4AM or so), work for a bit, have the whole day to explore, then work again in the evening before dinner, and then work again after dinner; suffice it to say it’s brutal, especially as I get older

Australia is even trickier. 7AM to 12PM on the East Coast of the United States (usually my prime working hours) is 11PM to 4AM in Sydney, so that’s especially rough. In Australia and New Zealand I usually just say “to hell with my schedule,” and try to adjust as much as possible, because I’m going to be miserable if I try to maintain US hours at all.

Bottom line

Over the years I’ve found that being in the right time zone can both maximize my productivity and my general happiness and stress level. Nowadays I’m a full-on morning person, so I love being on the East Coast, and being ahead of the curve.

In general I’d rather vacation somewhere without as much of a time change, even if there are other (slightly) nicer destinations. When it comes to traveling further away, I personally love being in Europe and Africa, while Asia and Australia are tough for me.

Anyway, that’s my opinion based on my situation, though I’m curious to hear how other OMAAT readers feel.

Do you have a favorite time zone, either for living or traveling?