Papeete, French Polynesia · UTC-10
Convert time from Papeete
Papeete is in the Pacific/Tahiti timezone (TAHT/UTC-10), with no daylight saving time observed. Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia, sitting on the northwest coast of Tahiti in the Society Islands. The name Papeete means “basket of water” in Tahitian, a reference to the fresh springs that once drew canoes to this bay. Gauguin arrived here in 1891 and painted what he found. The port still handles the ships and the cruise vessels, and the waterfront market opens before dawn.
French Polynesia uses Tahiti Time, UTC-10, year-round with no daylight saving. The IANA identifier is Pacific/Tahiti. At 17 degrees south, the islands have modest seasonal variation: around 11 to 13 hours of daylight. But the clock offset means that UTC midnight is 2pm in Papeete. The islands are among the last populated places to end each calendar day.
The Marquesas Islands, further northeast, use a different offset: UTC-9:30, one of the world’s remaining half-hour timezone anomalies. French Polynesia’s territory spans an ocean area larger than Europe, and the timezones vary accordingly.
Gauguin’s light and the half-hour Marquesas
Paul Gauguin came to Tahiti seeking a world outside European industrial time, and the paintings he made here document light and skin and vegetation at particular hours of particular days. The Musée Paul Gauguin in Papeete holds some of his work and some of the light he was trying to capture.
9am in Papeete is 7pm in London.
Sources
Read more about time in French Polynesia →Same time as Papeete
Compare Papeete with
Questions about time in Papeete
- What timezone is Papeete in?
- Papeete uses the IANA timezone
Pacific/Tahiti. The UTC offset is always UTC-10 - this timezone does not observe daylight saving time. - Does Papeete observe daylight saving time?
- No. Papeete does not observe daylight saving time. The UTC offset remains UTC-10 all year round.
- What is the current UTC offset for Papeete?
- Papeete is currently at UTC-10.
- What is the time difference between Papeete and New York?
- Papeete is currently 6 hours behind New York.
- What is the time difference between Papeete and London?
- Papeete is currently 11 hours behind London.
- What is the time difference between Papeete and Los Angeles?
- Papeete is currently 3 hours behind Los Angeles.
- What is the time difference between Papeete and Tokyo?
- Papeete is currently 19 hours behind Tokyo.
- What is the IANA timezone name for Papeete?
- The IANA timezone database identifier for Papeete is
Pacific/Tahiti. Use this string in programming languages and APIs: JavaScript (`new Intl.DateTimeFormat('en-US', { timeZone: 'Pacific/Tahiti' })`), Python (`pytz.timezone('Pacific/Tahiti')`), or any IANA-compatible library.