United Kingdom

Post

Stamps can be bought from Post Offices, newsagents, and most supermarkets and convenience stores. Letters for any destination can be put into any red post box - there will be one on a street corner near you. As at October 2005, costs are:

• 30p for first class (next day delivery) within the UK.
• 21p for second class (2-3 days delivery).
• 42p for letters to Europe (up to 20g) or North America (up to 10g).

Mail can be sent Poste Restante free of charge for collection at an UK post office. It should be addressed to the recipient "POSTE RESTANTE, POST OFFICE" followed by the full address of the post office, or the name of a town for it to be sent to the main post office there.

Up to date prices, and full details are available from Royal Mail

Phone

The international calling code for the UK is 44.

Numbers are generally quoted in the form of an area code followed by a number, for example:

   (020) 10022121

Unless you are in the same area as the number (in this case the 020 area, which is London), you should dial the whole number as written. If you are in the area you can omit the area code and just dial the number (eg. 10022121). If you are calling from abroad you should dial the international prefix followed by the area code, but omitting the leading 0. (eg. +44 20 10022121)

Different area codes indicate special types of calls, here are some examples:

• Codes starting 01 or 02 are ordinary calls to a landline
• Codes starting 07 are calls to mobile phones
• Codes starting 09 are premium rate calls costing sometimes several pounds a minute
• 0800 numbers are free to call from most phones
• 0844/0845 numbers are described as local rate, but usually cost slightly more than ordinary calls
• 0870/0871 numbers are described as national rate but cost significantly more than ordinary calls

Calling cards are available at almost any newsagent or corner shops. Many of these offer great value on international calls, with different cards being better value for different countries. The best way to choose one is to check with other travellers which card they have found to be the best value for money.

As a visitor you generally have three options for making calls:

• Using a payphone. Call boxes are mostly operated by BT, and unless you are calling a freephone number (numbers starting 0800), these are generally quite expensive - it can be worthwhile to use a calling card even for local calls on payphones. Payphones in hostels etc. are usually owned by the owner of the hostel, and charges can be very variable indeed. Sometimes these private payphones will even charge for freephone calls.
• Using your mobile phone from home. Check tariffs with your phone provider. North American phones do not usually work in the UK.
• Buying a Pay-as-you-go phone or SIM card in the UK. The mobile companies in the UK are O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile. All of these companies offer Phones for 40 pounds or less, or SIM cards for 10-15 pounds (usually including 5 pounds of free credit) which will work as soon as they are put into a suitable phone. Almost any mobile phone shop will be able to sell you one of these. This will allow other people to call or text you at no cost to yourself, and will allow you to make reasonably cheap calls within the UK. International texts can usually be sent for around 20-25 pence each. If you take this phone to another country in Europe you will generally still be able to receive texts for free, but sending and receiving calls will be costly, and sending texts will typically cost approximately 50 pence each. It is not free to call 0800 numbers from mobile phones.

Internet

The Internet is free to use in most public libraries. There are a number of restrictions on this, however:

• You will generally need to join the library, although this is free and not generally too inconvenient.
• Libraries are often not very well located.
• The computer will usually need to be booked in advance.
• Often only a web browser is installed, so using messaging applications can be difficult.

Most towns also have plenty of Internet cafes, particularly centred around student areas. Town centre venues can be fairly expensive at 3-4 pounds per hour. easyinternet provide a consistent easy-to-use interface at locations in most large cities, and are usually at the cheaper end of the price range. See local listings on this site for more actual addresses.

UK keyboards are pretty similar to other English-language keyboards. The main symbol which Americans may find difficult to find is the "@" sign, which is above the apostrophe on the right hand side of the keyboard.