With just one country with two officially recognized time zones (PDT +1 and UTC+2), and another where both daylight and dusk / dawn are accepted as local times, figuring out exactly the right time in French Guiana may seem like a foreign mission. But there’s one thing to keep in mind about French Guiana: Its two time zones are really quite similar.
The two local times in French Guiana follow daylight saving time rules. They start and finish each weekday at the same time. In Pacific Time (PST), the local time in French Guiana begins or ends at 0500 local time. In Europe, it’s the European Time or the International Air Time (IAT).
Universal Time
For those who are accustomed to browsing the time zone table on a computer at home, this will look fairly normal. But for those who have never seen or used a computer, the difference could be stunning! See, when you view the time zone list on your computer, you see the zone where the time zone ends and begins. But when you view the time zone list on French Guiana, you will see that it displays the offset of the local time from the UT, or Universal Time.
So how does this have anything to do with French Guiana? There are a few interesting things about the relationship of the two regions. One is that French Guiana technically starts and finishes daylight saving time in the afternoon of the second week of March. This is because the US and Canada have yet to adopt a standard time zone system. The second region where it practices daylight saving time is in the afternoon of the second week of April. This is because Latin American countries, including French Guiana, use the metric system of measurement.
English-speaking North American Cities
Now let’s compare this with the local time in English-speaking North American cities. If you look up the local time in any one of these cities, you will see that it is listed as “Daylight Saving Time.” Most cities don’t use DST, but some have only certain hours during the summer months that are designated as DST. One of the largest cities in the United States, Fort Collins, Colorado, observes DST during three designated times of the year. This means that during the evening on Saturdays, the western daylight begins and ends at 2 PM, and on Sundays it begins and ends at 2 AM. This also applies to Monday through Saturday.
However, French Guiana doesn’t have a central government and each community has its own local time. This means that there may be local time in some places and local time in others. On the coast of French Guiana, for example, the local time is considered the time of the coast-side market as well as the time of the beach. You can find the local time in French Guiana by consulting your travel guide or by looking at the time on your GPS. Unfortunately, there are no accurate clocks.
A Centralized Time System
This brings me to the next problem that you may run into when visiting French Guiana: the lack of a centralized time system. Each island has its own time zone, and it may vary by half an hour in some places. This makes it impossible for most travelers to get a true 24-hour time.
Even if you could, the island would be too far away to get back to the closest time zone. Many people try to overcome this problem by finding an online time service that they can use to find out the time in French Guiana when they get there.
Final Words
One solution is to use a blog site that updates its users with accurate times throughout the island. One such site, Tropical Time, does just that. Here you can set up your own blog with an updated map that shows where the tropical islands are located in the tropical time zone. You can then log in and use the site’s advanced features to find out what time the island will be at any given time. With a little research, you should be able to find a website that provides accurate time in French Guiana.
