CET to GMT

The UK and the EU follow the same summer-time rule: clocks change at 01:00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October. In winter that means CET (UTC+1) against GMT (UTC+0); in summer CEST (UTC+2) against BST (UTC+1). Brexit did not change this, and the UK still uses the same dates.

The constant one-hour gap shapes daily life on Eurostar. The fastest trains from Paris to London take about two and a quarter hours, but because London is an hour behind, you arrive only about one and a quarter hours later by the clock. Going the other way, a train leaving London at 9:00 AM reaches Paris after 12:00 PM local time.

Geography and time zones disagree in western Europe. Spain lies mostly west of the Greenwich meridian yet uses Central European Time, a choice made in 1940 to align with Germany and France. Portugal and the Canary Islands, by contrast, use the same clock as the UK. That gives Madrid a one-hour lead over Lisbon and London, and it is one reason Spanish meals and evening schedules run late by the clock.

For a British traveler, the rule is simple: add an hour for Spain, France, Italy, Germany or the Benelux countries, but not for Portugal, Ireland or the Canaries. For the reverse direction, see GMT to CET.