If you're heading to Cairo, Luxor or the Red Sea coast in early winter, a small detail could matter to your plans: Egypt ends daylight saving time on Friday, 30 October, turning clocks back one hour at midnight on Thursday the 29th. That effectively gives everyone an extra hour in bed — and travellers arriving that weekend should double-check flight and transfer times, since local time will have shifted.
The schedule is set by Law No. 24 of 2023, which fixes daylight saving from the last Friday of April to the last Thursday of October each year. This round began on 24 April, so 30 October marks the country's return to standard time until next spring.
It's not just clocks that change. Winter operating hours for businesses, already in force under Ministry of Local Development rules, shape how your evenings will actually look on the ground. Restaurants and cafes can stay open until midnight — good news for long, slow dinners in Cairo or a late shisha by the Nile. Shops and malls generally close at 10:00 PM, though they get an extra hour until 11:00 PM on Thursdays, Fridays, public holidays and festive occasions, which conveniently lines up with the typical Egyptian weekend. Workshops in residential areas wrap up by 6:00 PM.
Why does this matter to visitors? Egypt sits on a handful of time-zone edges depending on the season, and unlike Europe — which switches on the last Sunday of October — Egypt makes the change on a Thursday night, a day or two earlier. If you're connecting through Cairo on a multi-country itinerary, or coordinating a sunrise trip to Abu Simbel or a hot-air balloon flight over Luxor's West Bank, it's worth confirming local timings with your operator rather than assuming they match your phone's automatic updates.
The winter shift also has a practical upside for sightseers: sunset arrives an hour earlier in clock terms, which pulls forward the golden hour at the pyramids and makes early evenings cooler for exploring bazaars and night markets. Museums and ticketed sites keep their own opening hours, so a quick check before you go will save you a wasted taxi ride.
For anyone planning a Red Sea break in Hurghada or Sharm el-Sheikh, the longer evening trading hours at the end of the week mean resorts and promenades stay lively late on Thursday and Friday nights. And with Ramadan dates moving each year, the standard winter schedule is generally the most predictable time to visit for travellers who want full days of sightseeing.
In short: set your watch back one hour before bed on Thursday 29 October, expect earlier sunsets, plan evening shopping around the 10:00 PM mall closing (11:00 PM on weekends and holidays), and enjoy dinner reservations that can run to midnight.
Story via Egyptian Streets.
