Staying Connected via Mobile Phone or Hot Spot?

The last time I was i Scotland, which was a few years ago, I had an iPhone with AT&T. I upgraded to the international plan for the trip and used in minimally to check on reservations or connect with travel colleagues. I don't remember the exact costs but it did not bust the budget. The trick was to use wifi except when call someone. I've done the same more recently in England. It's not been an issue. You need to use wifi for internet access and email.

Do you know where you are staying? Most places offer wifi these days.

PAm

I spoke to one of those rental places and even a week rental was much more than buying outright.
You can getting WiFi dongles for about £30 here, and data plans for 1GB for £10.
A decent enough smartphone minght be £45, and a month plan with hundreds off mins call time and data that is tetherable so you can use the tablet would be £20 top price

I was going to speculate about what Richard confirmed - it's not necessarily expensive to get a local cell phone with data. If you just make sure that both the phone and plan allow tethering, you can then use your tablets, too.

The company I use ,Giffgaff , allow tethering on all it's monthly packages except the £20 unlimited one.
Actually they had a shake up a few weeks back so £10 gets you unlimited UK txt, 500 mins UK call time and 2GB of data and registering the SIM gives you a introduction bonus of £5 credit.
The credit can be used for non UK calls..Or extra data .

Kim,

While in London a couple years ago, I purchased a pay-as-you-go SIM from O2 for a very reasonable price. It came with cheap (~5p a minute) airtime to the USA, cheap texts to/from the USA and plenty of data for web searches and mapping. You should be able to pick up an inexpensive unlocked GSM (Quad Band) smart phone before leaving. If you have a GSM capable phone already, another option is to call your phone provider and have your phone unlocked for the period of travel (it's probably already unlocked for overseas service) so you can use it with a pre-paid SIM.

If you plan on future overseas travel, you might consider purchasing a dedicated phone for travel. I have seen new unlocked GSM smart phones for around $100 at warehouse clubs. Other options are independent phone stores and purchasing used factory reset phones from Apple.

You will be surprised at how common WIFI is in the UK. You probably won't need a hotspot for internet access.

Lastly, when I looked at the various "travel phone" companies (mobal, telestial, ect.) I found their plans to extremely expensive. A pre-paid plan from a local provider is a much better deal...

We're going to Scotland in June and have the same dilema as we will be two weeks mostly out in the Highlands where free wifi will be rare and coverage will be spotty not matter what carrier we use.

After much research, I've found a pay-as-you-go phone (Alcatel Pixi 4 - smartphone) and 2gb data (+500 min talk) on the Vodaphone network at Carphone Warehouse for about 50 pounds ($63 US). Compared to the cost of AT&T International or any other plans I've found, this is the best route for us. We mostly want the phone for emergencies and for bookings. What little 'net we will be using will likely be in the evenings at out campsites (which usually have free wifi or at s small cost).

We're hoping we can donate the phone to a women's shelter or similar at the end of our stay.

I have an iPhone and Verizon. Verizon has Travel Pass. It is $10/day (24 hrs) in most countries and uses your regular bucket of data, texts and minutes. It roams on networks that partner with Verizon. If you want to use the phone for emergencies only, just don't turn on Cellular Roaming and you won't be charged. Travel Pass is $2/day in Mexico and Canada, or no charge if you have an XL or XXL data plan. The convenience of using my own phone is worth $10/day for me.