Wikivoyage:Time and date formats

This page in a nutshell: Times should be displayed in the local timezone using the 12 or 24 hour format, whichever is the predominant local usage. Days of the week should be abbreviated to three letters. Dates should use the format "dd Mmm yyyy", except that ISO 8601 is preferred in lastedit fields.

When giving times and dates, such as for opening and closing times of attractions, restaurants and bars, use the formats below.

• Preferably use an en dash rather than a hyphen for ranges: 2–5PM, rather than 2-5PM; 09:00–13:00, rather than 09:00-13:00. In the running text, "from X to Y" is sometimes better, such as in the rare cases where the time specifications themselves are complicated.
• Omit spaces before and after the dash or hyphen: 10:30AM–5PM, not 10:30AM – 5PM; 10AM–noon, not 10AM – noon; Mon–Fri, not Mon – Fri.

En dashes can be found below the edit box in the "Wiki markup" section, typed in keyboard-setting-specific ways such as AltGr+hyphen or compose hyphen hyphen dot, or encoded as –.

• Use one of these formats: 09:30–17:00 or 9:30AM–5PM. Do not use both 24- and 12-hour formats within one article. Choose between formats by following predominant local usage. Ask yourself which format visitors will see in timetables, on shop doors and in newspapers.
• It can be assumed that time is in the local time zone; when discussing time zones, use offset from UTC.
• For establishments that don't close, use: 24 hours daily

• Always use two digits for the hours and two digits for the minutes (hh:mm). Include a leading zero for numbers below ten: 09:00, not 9:00, 09:0 or 9:0.
• Use a colon as the separator: 17:30, not 17.30, 17-30, 1730 or 1730h.
• Use 00:00 for midnight and 12:00 for noon.

• Use upper case "AM" and "PM".
• Minutes are not shown for full hours: 5PM, not 5:00PM.
• Where minutes are shown, use a colon as the separator: 5:26PM, not 5.26PM or 5-26PM.
• Omit periods (full stops) in "AM" and "PM": 10:30AM–5PM, not 10:30A.M.–5P.M.
• Use noon and midnight, not 12PM and 12AM.
• Don't use a space between the number and the AM/PM sign: 2PM, not 2 PM.
• Use "AM" and "PM" only once for a range when the start and end times are both AM or both PM: 8–11AM, not 8AM–11AM.

• Abbreviate to three letters – Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun – in lists and where space is short.
• Spell out when it is part of a named day, as, for example, Good Friday or Fat Tuesday.
• If the abbreviation looks odd or is ambiguous in a particular context, spell it out.
• Separate two consecutive days with a space only, as, for example: Sun Mon, not Sun–Mon or Sun, Mon.
• Separate days that are not in a range (for example, when a shop is open Mon, Wed and Fri, and closed on Tue and Thu) with spaces only. In this example: Mon Wed Fri 08:30–17:30 or Mon Wed Fri 8:30AM–5:30PM.
• When combining days with time, put the days first: Mon–Fri 10AM–2PM, not 10AM–2PM Mon–Fri.
• For establishments open all seven days of the week, use: daily, not "every day" or "Sun–Sat".
• For establishments open six days a week, it is often clearer to state the day they are closed: 10AM–6PM (closed Tue), not Wed–Mon 10AM–6PM.

Previously, until 2026, date formats on Wikivoyage used the minimum number of letters possible (e.g. M Tu W). This was changed, with listing templates fixed by a bot. However, some instances of the one- or two-letter format may remain outside listing templates.

• In reader-visible text, use the date format of dd Mmm yyyy, e.g., 10 Jan 2003.
• Abbreviate months to three letters – Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec – in lists, listings and where space is at a premium, such as in a table.
• Avoid using dates such as 10/1/03, 10-1-03 or 10/1/2003, as these can mean 10 Jan 2003 or 1 Oct 2003 to different people.

Some of our Mediawiki templates, such as {{listing}} and {{warningbox}}, expect a lastedit date according to ISO 8601: yyyy-mm-dd (2026-10-31). They may accept also the dd Mmm yyyy format. See the individual template's documentation for details and possible exceptions.

• Decades should be shown in digits, i.e., the 1920s, and not "the twenties" or "the 1920's".
• Centuries should be shown in digits, i.e., the 19th century, and not "the XIX century", "the nineteenth century", or the "19th Century".

Also consider whether to use, for example, "the 1800s" instead of "the 19th century".

Durations should not be written as points of time. In running text, consider spelling out the figure (if it is simple) and the unit: "two weeks".

• Year or years: yr
• Week or weeks: wk
• Hour or hours: hr
• Minutes: min
• Hours and minutes: either 5 hr 15 min or 5¼ hr – decimal hour values can easily be confused with minutes

• Wikivoyage:When to use dates
• Wikivoyage:Abbreviations