On this page (10 sections)
The first hour at Heathrow
The arrival sequence is the same at all four terminals: airbridge or bus to the immigration hall, passport control (eGates or staffed desks), baggage reclaim, customs, then through into the arrivals hall. The whole thing usually takes 25 to 45 minutes including the walk from the gate, longer at peak (typically 06:00 to 09:00 and 13:00 to 21:00).
Two things to know before you start. First, if your nationality requires a UK Electronic Travel Authorisation, you should already have applied; without one you may be denied boarding before you reach Heathrow. The fee is £20 and the authorisation is valid for two years; the detail is on Heathrow passport control. Second, the eGates are usually the faster route through immigration if your nationality is eligible (the United Kingdom, all European Union member states, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States, plus Registered Traveller Service members).
Past immigration you collect your bag at baggage reclaim, then go through customs. The green channel is for arrivals with nothing to declare; the red channel is for anyone over the personal allowance or carrying restricted items. The full allowance figures are on UK customs at Heathrow. The arrivals hall is past customs and has the meeting points, taxi ranks, and rail stations for onward travel; Heathrow arrivals covers the live arrival times and meeting points by terminal. If you need a quiet moment after a long flight, every terminal has a multi-faith prayer room, landside and airside, open to all faiths and none.
Money and payments
Currency
The UK uses pound sterling, written £. Notes come in £5, £10, £20, and £50 denominations; coins in 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1, and £2. The pound is not the euro and is not interchangeable with it. If you land without pounds, cards cover almost everything; for changing cash and the honest word on airport rates, see Heathrow currency exchange.
Cards and contactless
Cards and contactless are the default everywhere in the UK. Visa and Mastercard are accepted universally; American Express is taken in most chain venues and many independent businesses but is the least universal of the three. Apple Pay and Google Pay are widely accepted. The single-transaction contactless limit is set by your bank rather than by a national rule; most UK cards still apply a £100 cap, with a cumulative no-PIN ceiling around £300 before a PIN is required. Foreign cards typically follow your home bank's limits. Chip-and-PIN is the fallback for amounts above your card's contactless cap.
Cash and ATMs
Cash is still useful for small payments, tips, and the occasional cash-only place. ATMs (cash machines or cashpoints in UK English) are widely available at Heathrow and in town centres; free-to-use ATMs are common in supermarkets and on high streets. ATMs that charge a fee are usually marked as such on the screen before you commit.
Changing currency at Heathrow
Currency exchange counters at the airport offer poor rates compared with withdrawing from an ATM with a card. Some debit and credit cards charge no foreign transaction fee at all; check before relying on this. If you need cash on arrival, change the smallest useful amount at the airport and use an ATM for anything more.
Phones, SIM cards, and Wi-Fi
UK SIM cards
SIM Local is Heathrow's official airport partner for SIMs and eSIMs, with outlets across all four terminals including a 24/7 self-service eSIM kiosk at Terminal 5. Staffed locations open from around 06:00 to 22:00, with arrivals-hall desks often from 05:30. WHSmith and Boots across the terminals also stock pay-as-you-go SIMs from Three, EE, Vodafone, and Lebara. A 30-day data bundle is usually the right call for a one to three-week visit.
eSIMs
If your phone supports eSIM (most iPhones from XS onwards, many recent Android handsets), an eSIM activated before you fly is often cheaper and faster than buying a physical SIM at the airport. Several international providers (Airalo, Holafly, others) sell UK data plans by the day or week, activated by scanning a QR code.
EU roaming after Brexit
European Union and EEA visitors no longer have free roaming in the UK as a regulatory entitlement; charges depend entirely on your carrier. As of 2026 most UK and EU networks apply a daily fee of around £2 to £5; a minority of plans still include UK roaming. Check your home operator before you fly. For trips longer than a few days a UK SIM or eSIM is usually cheaper.
Free Wi-Fi at Heathrow
Free Wi-Fi is available across all four terminals. Connect to the Heathrow Wi-Fi network and follow the sign-in process; no time limit.
Getting from Heathrow to your destination
Four ways to get from Heathrow into central London, in rough order from cheapest to most expensive.
The Piccadilly Line (the London Underground) is the cheapest direct route at around £5.90 from any zone 1 station, taking 50 to 55 minutes from Kings Cross. Trains run every 4 to 10 minutes and stop at every Heathrow terminal.
The Elizabeth Line is the direct rail route via central London at £15.50 from Paddington, around 30 minutes, with six trains an hour. Stops at all four terminals.
The Heathrow Express is the fastest, 15 minutes non-stop from Paddington, every 15 minutes, £25 walk-up or from £10 booked in advance. It stops at the central Heathrow station (Terminals 2 and 3) and at Terminal 5; T4 passengers change at the central station for the free Elizabeth Line shuttle.
Black cabs and pre-booked car services run from each terminal's taxi rank or designated pick-up zone. A licensed black cab to central London runs roughly £75 to £110 daytime, taking 45 to 75 minutes. Ride-hailing through Uber, Bolt, or FREE NOW is usually cheaper, around £40 to £70 off-peak. For the wider picture across modes see Heathrow airport transfers.
Plugs, chargers, and voltage
UK mains is 230 volts, 50 hertz, with the Type G three-pin plug. The plug is fused (3 or 13 amp) and every wall socket has its own on-off switch; flip the switch to on before expecting power. The third pin (the long one on top) opens the safety shutters over the two power pins, so you cannot push anything into a socket without a proper Type G plug.
Most modern phone chargers, laptop power supplies, and electric shavers handle 100 to 240 volts and only need a plug adapter, not a voltage converter; the small print on the charger lists the voltage range. Hair dryers, hair straighteners, and small kitchen appliances rated only for 110V need a converter as well as an adapter. Plug adapters are on sale at Heathrow shops if you forget one, but at higher prices than at home.
Weather and what to pack
London weather is variable through the year. Summer (June to August) is mild to warm with daytime highs typically 18 to 25°C and occasional warmer spells. Winter (December to February) is cold but rarely sub-zero in central London, with daytime highs around 4 to 8°C. Spring and autumn are mild with day-to-day variation.
Rain is common in any season but usually light. A light waterproof jacket or a compact umbrella handles most of it; heavy rain gear is rarely needed. Layers work better than single thick garments because indoor heating in winter is set warm and indoor cooling in summer is not universal. Outside London the picture varies by region: Scotland is cooler and wetter, the south coast is the warmest, and the Lake District and Wales are the wettest.
Tipping and service charges
Tipping in the UK is never legally required and the expectations are softer than in the United States.
Restaurants: 10 to 12.5% if a service charge is not already on the bill. Many restaurants add a discretionary service charge of 10 to 12.5% automatically; you can ask for it to be removed if the service was poor. The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2024 requires employers to pass 100% of tips to staff, so a tip added to a card payment now reaches the people who served you.
Pubs: no tip for bar service. Offering the bartender 'and one for yourself' or rounding up is optional and friendly but not expected. Pub food brought to the table follows restaurant convention if you want to tip.
Taxis: round up the fare or 10% for longer trips. Not strict.
Hotels: a small tip for porters carrying bags (£1 to £2 per bag) and for housekeeping (£1 to £2 per night) is appreciated; service is usually included on the bill for room service.
Everyday British conventions
At the pub
Order at the bar, pay at the bar, take the drinks to the table yourself. Food orders are usually placed at the bar in traditional pubs; staff bring the food to the table. Gastropubs and some chain pubs have full table service throughout; the menu at the door usually says which. There is no physical queue at the bar; the bar staff follow the order in which people arrived. Round-buying is customary in groups.
On public transport in London
Stand on the right on London escalators and walk on the left. Tap in and tap out at the gates on the Underground, Elizabeth Line, Overground, DLR, and trams; tap in only on buses (no need to tap out). Contactless cards and mobile wallets are charged identically to Oyster pay-as-you-go, with daily caps that apply automatically (zone 1 to 2 Tube cap is £8.90 in 2026; bus and tram cap is £5.25).
Tap water in restaurants
Restaurants in England, Wales, and Scotland that are licensed to sell alcohol must give you free tap water on request. Asking for 'tap water' rather than just 'water' signals you do not want bottled and saves the bottled-water charge.
On the road
The UK drives on the left. If hiring a car at Heathrow the rental staff brief the basics; the airport approach roads are well signed and there are no tolls on any Heathrow road.
Useful apps to download
Five apps worth installing before or shortly after you land. Citymapper for door-to-door directions in London with live transport status. TfL Go is the official Transport for London app with similar functionality plus disruption alerts. The Heathrow app covers live flight information, terminal maps, and the pre-order food and drink service for departures. A weather app (the Met Office app is the UK's national forecaster, but anything works). A ride-hail app if you use one (Uber, Bolt, and FREE NOW all operate at Heathrow). An offline maps option (Google Maps offline area, or Maps.me) is useful if your data connection is patchy in the first hour.
Health and emergencies
The UK emergency number is 999, and 112 also works (both connect to the same operator). Call from any phone, free of charge, for police, fire, or ambulance. The non-emergency medical number is 111, the NHS line for advice that does not need an ambulance; they can tell you whether you need A&E, a pharmacist, or a GP.
NHS treatment at Accident and Emergency departments (A&E, the UK equivalent of ER) is free at the point of use for everyone regardless of nationality. So is treatment at NHS Urgent Treatment Centres. Non-emergency hospital treatment for non-residents is charged at 150% of the standard NHS tariff (100% for holders of EU Settlement Scheme status); urgent and maternity care is given first and billed after. Travel insurance with health cover is the practical answer for non-emergency care. The Immigration Health Surcharge applies only to visa applications for stays longer than six months; short-stay visitors do not pay it.
NHS prescriptions in England cost £9.90 per item, frozen at the same rate as 2024 to 2025. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland NHS prescriptions are free for everyone, including visitors filling a prescription in those nations. Pharmacies (chemists in everyday speech) are widely available; Boots is the largest chain and most central London branches open 09:00 to 18:00 with some 24-hour and Sunday-opening sites.