Cell phone usage

Guess it depends on how and how often you use your phone. I get free texts and low speed data from my carrier and that’s sufficient. I seldom need to make a call and I do most things when connected to WiFi. For navigation, I have maps of where I’m visiting downloaded for offline use in the event there is no signal. Others want to be connected all the time with high speed data access. It’s a personal preference.

You should put your phone on airplane mode the entire time. Make sure wi-fi is toggled on under Settings. When you first get to your hotel, connect to the wifi (probably have to enter a password provided by the hotel). Please DO NOT turn off airplane mode. Whenever you come back to your hotel room, you will automatically connect to the hotel wifi. You have to manually connect to wifi in public places such as train stations, museums, and restaurants. You may have to ask the restaurant for their wifi password although some chain restaurants and cafes in the UK provide free wifi after you enter your name and email address.

It really depends on your provider. Which company are you with?

Without any type of international plan, you won't be able to use things like Google Maps while out and about.

i use google maps extensively when walking around. wifi doesn't help in this situation. personal preference i suppose.

Cellphone phone plans are so cheap in the UK that I have stopped looking for and using WiFi when out and about. I do use WiFi when back in the hotel. Both Vodafone and EE offer pay as you go plans with plenty of data for £10. There are probably cheaper plans if you search around.

But if you can get by without it you can certainly just turn on airplane mode and not be billed for usage.

Terri, as Mary said, you do not have to be off airplane mode to turn wifi on.

The other thing to add is that roaming charges only kick in if you use data while roaming, or if you make or receive calls. You can just switch off data roaming in your settings to be able to still receive SMS messages. Just don't answer any incoming calls. There's no need to be in airplane mode.

The advantage of having access to your SMSs is being able to receive one time passwords (if that's how your bank sends them) and urgent messages from your bank in case of suspected card fraud.

Personally i usually either use my roaming plan or a local SIM, but plenty of people manage only with wifi.

Thanks everyone. I'd forgotten that you can still get wifi in airplane mode -- probably what I did in 2019. I've already downloaded the relevant maps and our rental car is supposed to have GPS, so I think I'm all set.

I strongly recommend getting an e-sim and using that for the entire trip. I did this last year (think I used Orange Holiday) and I used my phone as much as I wanted for less than $30.