Which cities overlap both London and New York working hours?
If your clients are split between the UK and the east coast of the United States, you are solving a harder problem than most time zone advice admits. Europe gives you London and loses New York. Latin America gives you New York and loses London. There is a narrow band of the world where you get both, and it is not where people usually look.
This page lists every city in our dataset that shares at least five hours with a London working day and at least four with a New York one, on the same day, with no split shift.
Two regions do it. The southern cone of South America — Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, southern Brazil and Chile — sits at UTC-3 in January and gets 5h with London and 6h with New York. Cape Verde sits at UTC-1 and inverts the ratio: 7h with London, 4h with New York.
The cheapest workable option is Salta, at $800 a month. The best-connected is São Paulo. Nothing in Europe, Africa outside Cape Verde, or Asia manages it.
| City | Country | UTC | London | New York | Cost/mo | Internet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salta | Argentina | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $800 | 3.7 |
| Córdoba | Argentina | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $900 | 4.0 |
| Mendoza | Argentina | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $900 | 3.9 |
| Villarrica | Paraguay | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $900 | 3.6 |
| Ciudad del Este | Paraguay | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,000 | 3.8 |
| Encarnación | Paraguay | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,000 | 3.7 |
| Asunción | Paraguay | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,100 | 3.9 |
| Bariloche | Argentina | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,100 | 3.8 |
| Belo Horizonte | Brazil | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,100 | 4.2 |
| Buenos Aires | Argentina | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,100 | 4.2 |
| Fortaleza | Brazil | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,100 | 4.0 |
| San Bernardino | Paraguay | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,100 | 3.7 |
| São Filipe (Fogo) | Cape Verde | UTC-1 | 7h | 4h | $1,100 | 3.3 |
| Tarrafal | Cape Verde | UTC-1 | 7h | 4h | $1,100 | 3.3 |
| Mindelo | Cape Verde | UTC-1 | 7h | 4h | $1,200 | 3.6 |
| Florianópolis | Brazil | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,300 | 4.2 |
| La Serena | Chile | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,300 | 4.0 |
| Praia | Cape Verde | UTC-1 | 7h | 4h | $1,300 | 3.7 |
| Salto | Uruguay | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,300 | 4.0 |
| Rio de Janeiro | Brazil | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,400 | 4.2 |
| Santa Maria (Sal) | Cape Verde | UTC-1 | 7h | 4h | $1,400 | 3.6 |
| São Paulo | Brazil | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,400 | 4.4 |
| Valparaíso | Chile | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,400 | 4.1 |
| La Paloma | Uruguay | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,500 | 3.8 |
| Puerto Varas | Chile | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,500 | 4.0 |
| Viña del Mar | Chile | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,500 | 4.2 |
| Colonia del Sacramento | Uruguay | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,600 | 4.1 |
| Santiago | Chile | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,700 | 4.4 |
| Montevideo | Uruguay | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $1,800 | 4.3 |
| Punta del Este | Uruguay | UTC-3 | 5h | 6h | $2,200 | 4.2 |
Overlap is the number of hours a 09:00–17:00 working day in the city shares with a 09:00–17:00 working day in London and in New York on 15 January 2027, computed from the IANA time zone database with each zone’s daylight-saving rule for that date already applied. Internet is our 0–5 connectivity score, not megabits.
Why the southern cone works and Europe does not
London and New York are five hours apart for most of the year. A 09:00–17:00 day in each of them means London is working 09:00–17:00 UTC and New York is working 14:00–22:00 UTC. Those two windows share three hours: 14:00 to 17:00 UTC. Anywhere you sit, you are trying to cover a nine-hour span from 09:00 to 22:00 UTC with an eight-hour day.
That means your own working day has to start no earlier than about UTC-4 and no later than about UTC-3 if you want to be awake for the middle of both. Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil sit exactly there. Chile sits there in the southern summer and drifts in the southern winter, which is covered below.
Europe fails the test for the obvious reason: Lisbon at UTC+0 gets 8h with London and only 3h with New York. Push further west and you run out of land before you run out of time zones — Las Palmas is still UTC+0.
The Cape Verde alternative
Cape Verde is the only place that solves the problem from the other side. At UTC-1 it keeps a nearly full London day and still catches the New York morning. Mindelo and Praia both come in around $1,300 a month, which is competitive with Argentina.
The trade-off is connectivity. Cape Verde scores lower on our internet measure than any of the South American options, and it is a small island economy where a single cable fault is felt. If your work is video-heavy, that matters more than the extra hour with London.
What the overlap number does not tell you
Overlap is arithmetic. It says nothing about whether the hours it gives you are the hours anyone actually wants to meet in. A five-hour overlap with London that runs from 06:00 to 11:00 your time is worth less than a four-hour one from 10:00 to 14:00, because the first requires you to be sharp before breakfast every day for a year.
For the southern cone the London overlap lands in your morning and the New York overlap in your afternoon, which is the right way round. You would take calls with Europe from about 10:00, break, and take calls with the United States from about 14:00. That is a normal day. Check the specific city page — Buenos Aires or Montevideo — for its live clock before you commit to it.
If you only need one of the two
Most people do not actually need both. If your revenue is mostly British or European, the honest answer is to stay in the same zone and read our page on warm cities that keep a full London working day. If it is mostly American, the equivalent list is warm cities that keep a full New York day. Chasing a dual overlap you do not need is how people end up living somewhere they did not choose for any other reason.
Common follow-up questions
Which single city is the best compromise between London and New York?
Buenos Aires on balance — 5h with London, 6h with New York, an internet score of 4.2 and about $1,100 a month. Salta and Córdoba are the same time zone for less money but with thinner infrastructure.
Does this change in the European summer?
Yes, and not in your favour. When the UK moves to British Summer Time and Argentina does not observe daylight saving, the London overlap for Salta drops from 5h to 4h. Chile changes twice as much, because it runs its own daylight saving in the opposite direction — see our page on the daylight-saving gap.
Is there anywhere in Africa that works?
Only Cape Verde. The West African mainland — Ghana, Senegal, Morocco — sits at UTC+0 or UTC+1, which is excellent for London and useless for New York. Everything east of that loses the United States entirely.
Why is Mexico not on the list?
Mexico overlaps New York well and London badly. Mexico City gets 7h with New York and 2h with London in January, which fails the five-hour London threshold this page uses.