Practical Information for visiting England

Coverage is continuous in the cities, the towns and along the motorways and main lines, and thins where the country empties: the Lake District's valleys and fell-tops, the Pennine dales, the North York and Northumberland moors, Dartmoor and Exmoor, the Cornish peninsula's coves and the Isles of Scilly, where a downloaded map and a paper Ordnance Survey sheet are still standard kit. A working phone with contactless payment is London's transport ticket -- touched in and out on every bus, tube, train and boat -- and the same card works for the pay-and-display parking apps the countryside now runs on, Stonehenge's included. Free WiFi is in the museums, stations, most pubs and cafés and the trains, patchily; NHS 111 online is the health service's front door for anyone over five; and an unlocked phone takes a UK SIM or eSIM from any high-street shop. Autumn storms take the power and the masts down for hours in the west and the hills, and the Canadian advisory notes that public WiFi can be compromised, so bank on your own data.

Canada advises a high degree of caution in the United Kingdom because of the threat of terrorism: the national threat level is "severe", four on a scale of five, and past attacks have been knife and vehicle attacks and explosions in public places. Demonstrations are frequent, especially in London, and can turn violent. The everyday risks are ordinary and urban: pickpocketing and bag-snatching are common, phone theft is common in London's tourist areas, theft from parked cars happens at tourist sites and lay-bys, and mugging and knife crime occur in the larger cities; use only licensed, marked taxis and private hire cars, since assaults have happened in unlicensed ones, and watch drinks and snacks, which may be spiked. Violent crime rarely touches visitors, and there are no firearms to speak of.

The physical hazards are weather and water. Heavy rain floods coastal and riverside areas and closes roads; autumn and winter storms bring hurricane-force gusts to the south coast every few decades; fog, black ice and snow close the Pennine roads; the Jurassic Coast's cliffs fall without warning, tides race in across Morecambe Bay and the Lindisfarne causeway, and the fells kill unprepared walkers in rain and winter. Traffic drives on the left and pedestrians from abroad step off kerbs looking the wrong way. Emergencies: 999.

Dial 999 for a life-threatening emergency and NHS 111, by phone or online, for urgent advice, an out-of-hours GP, an emergency dentist or an emergency supply of your regular medicine. The National Health Service is free at the point of use to residents, and for visitors the rule is precise: A&E treatment, a GP consultation as a temporary patient, family planning and treatment of most infectious diseases are free to anyone; admission to hospital is charged to visitors who are not ordinarily resident, unless an EU visitor presents an EHIC; prescriptions, dental care and eye tests are charged as for residents. Travel insurance that covers hospital treatment is therefore the only sensible way to come. Tap water is drinkable everywhere, food hygiene is regulated, no vaccinations are required, and the risks are modest: ticks in bracken and long grass from April to November (Lyme disease, and tick-borne encephalitis in some forested areas per the Canadian advisory), summer heat that a country of un-air-conditioned buildings handles badly, hypothermia on the fells, and the sea, which is cold in August. Pharmacies are on every high street; hospitals are good and busy.

Drive on the left, at 30, 60 and 70 mph, sober to 35 µg per 100 ml of breath; no turn on red; pay the London congestion and ULEZ charges or the fines follow the hire car. Smoking is banned in every enclosed public place, workplace and vehicle of public transport, pubs included since 2007. Alcohol: 18 to buy, sold in pubs licensed to serve often past eleven since 2003, and drinking in public is restricted by local order in many town centres. Drugs: penalties for possession, use or trafficking, cannabis included, are severe. Countryside law: footpaths and open access land are rights, fields and gardens are not; the Countryside Code is enforceable manners; wild camping is legal only on Dartmoor; do not touch the stones at Stonehenge or dig for fossils in the cliffs. Bank holidays in 2027 fall on 26 and 29 March, 3 and 31 May and 30 August, with shops on short hours and trains full.

Manners are the national sport: queue and never jump one; say please, thank you and sorry more than seems necessary; stand on the right of the escalator; do not talk to strangers on the Tube but do talk to them in the pub; buy your round; tip about 10 per cent in restaurants where service is not already added, round up a taxi, and never tip at a bar (tips by law go to the staff in full); take your shoes off if the host does; and treat the weather as the safe opening of every conversation. A cathedral is a church first: be quiet during services and cover up for them.

Emergency numbers: 999 for police, fire, ambulance and coastguard (112 also works); NHS 111 for urgent medical help that is not life-threatening.

Consular: High Commission of Canada, Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London SW1Y 5BJ, +44 (0) 207 004 6000; Canada's Emergency Watch and Response Centre toll-free 00-800-6633-0000. Other countries' embassies are in London. Natural hazards: flooding of rivers and coasts after heavy rain, autumn and winter gales, snow and ice on the hills, fast tides on the causeways and sands, cliff falls on the south coast; monitor the Met Office and Environment Agency warnings and follow local instructions. Threat level: "severe", the fourth of five steps, with a public alert system reported on local media.