Best Meeting Times Between Popular City Pairs (Quick Reference)

Finding a workable meeting time across time zones is one of the most common challenges for remote teams, freelancers, and international businesses. This reference guide covers the most frequently searched city pairs with specific time windows that keep both sides within reasonable working hours. Always confirm with our time zone converter for your exact date, since Daylight Saving Time can shift these windows by an hour.

New York to London — Best Meeting Times

Time difference: 5 hours (New York behind London). During the 2–3 week DST mismatch in March, the gap shrinks to 4 hours.

Best window: 9:00–12:00 New York / 14:00–17:00 London. This keeps both teams within core business hours. For a quick 30-minute sync, 10:00 New York (15:00 London) is the sweet spot.

Avoid: Scheduling after 13:00 New York, which pushes London past 18:00.

Chicago to London — Best Meeting Times

Time difference: 6 hours (Chicago behind London) during standard time, 5 hours when both are on summer time.

Best window: 8:00–11:00 Chicago / 14:00–17:00 London. Chicago needs to start early to catch London before end of day. A team lunch meeting at 11:30 Chicago works well — it is 17:30 London, just on the edge.

New York to Berlin — Best Meeting Times

Time difference: 6 hours (New York behind Berlin). Shrinks to 5 hours during the brief DST mismatch.

Best window: 9:00–12:00 New York / 15:00–18:00 Berlin. If Berlin prefers morning meetings, 8:00 New York (14:00 Berlin) opens up an earlier option.

San Francisco to Tokyo — Best Meeting Times

Time difference: 17 hours in winter, 16 hours in summer (Japan does not observe DST).

Best window: This is one of the hardest pairings. Late afternoon San Francisco (16:00–18:00) catches early morning Tokyo (8:00–10:00 the next day). Alternatively, very early morning San Francisco (7:00–9:00) aligns with late evening Tokyo (23:00–01:00), though this pushes into personal time.

Pro tip: Rotate the inconvenient slot monthly so neither team always bears the burden. Record meetings for async catchup.

Los Angeles to Sydney — Best Meeting Times

Time difference: 17–19 hours depending on the combined DST state of both countries.

Best window: LA late afternoon (15:00–17:00) lands in Sydney morning the next day (8:00–10:00 AEST). This narrow overlap is only about 2 hours, so keep meetings tight and agenda-focused.

Toronto to Mumbai — Best Meeting Times

Time difference: 10.5 hours (India's UTC+5:30 is one of the few half-hour offsets).

Best window: Toronto morning (8:00–10:00) aligns with early evening Mumbai (18:30–20:30). This avoids extremely late hours for either side. For a brief standup, 8:30 Toronto / 19:00 Mumbai works well.

Sao Paulo to Madrid — Best Meeting Times

Time difference: 4–5 hours depending on DST (Brazil ended permanent DST observation in 2019, simplifying things).

Best window: Sao Paulo morning (9:00–12:00) with Madrid afternoon (13:00–16:00 or 14:00–17:00 depending on offset). Comfortable overlap for both sides.

Dubai to New York — Best Meeting Times

Time difference: 8–9 hours (Dubai ahead of New York). Neither the UAE nor New York share DST rules.

Best window: New York morning (8:00–10:00) catches Dubai late afternoon (16:00–18:00 or 17:00–19:00). If Dubai prefers morning, the math pushes New York into late evening — usually not ideal.

London to Singapore — Best Meeting Times

Time difference: 7–8 hours (Singapore ahead). Singapore does not use DST.

Best window: London morning (8:00–10:00) meets Singapore late afternoon (15:00–17:00 or 16:00–18:00). Both are within core hours — one of the more manageable pairings.

General Tips for Cross-Timezone Scheduling

Use the Meeting Planner on our homepage to visualize a full 24-hour day and instantly see which hours overlap with working time in both zones. The green tiles show mutual 9-to-5 overlap, yellow means one side is outside business hours, and red means neither is working.

Anchor your "From" and "To" zones in the converter, take a screenshot of the planner grid, and paste it into your calendar invite so everyone can double-check. For more tips, see our full scheduling across time zones playbook.