guacamole

Hello,

My partner and I will be arriving at LHR (Heathrow) in the morning sometime in June. We will be picking up a hire car and driving straight to Glastonbury (actually Pilton) in Somerset where we will be camping in a rather large field with a few hundred thousand other people (Glasto music festival for those who have no idea what I'm talking about) for a week. We need two phones and two sim cards. We are not in a place at the moment where we can buy phones as the phones are locked in our current country of residence.

Can I buy phones and sims at LHR (I think we're flying into Terminal 4)?

Alternatively, does anyone know if one can purchase phones and sim cards at service stations along the way? We'll be driving West along the M3 and then on to the A303.

We're driving away from the urban sprawl into the fields, and I'm wondering whether it is going to be possible to get phones and sims?

Very grateful for any tips/knowledge on this matter.

Thank you.

hd6524

You can definitely find phones and sims in Heathrow! It's a very big airport.

Or failing that and Tesco's or Sainsbury's (the two major supermarket chains in England) will sell both of these things very cheaply.

Have fun!

sparkchaser

ASDA sells PAYG sims and phones as well.

guacamole

@hd6524 & @sparkchaser - thanks to both of you. Supermarkets are probably going to be the cheapest way, right?! If we need to make a slight detour into a town along the way, then so be it.

Cheers,
guacamole

sparkchaser

They're aren't necessarily the *cheapest* but they sound like the most convenient. Then again, we're only talking about a few pounds difference.

If you live in the U.S., you can ask your carrier to unlock your phone because you are going overseas. They should be able to accommodate you.

flanneruk

I don't think you CAN buy phones or SIMs at Heathrow: though it's got hundreds of shops (very, very, few of which are at T4, which is miles from anywhere else), most are airside and inaccessible to arriving passengers (almost all of whom have mobile phones already). There might be a SIM shop in the T4 arrivals area: but people making sweeping assurances about them really ought to provide stuff like their name rather than potentially misleading waffle.

The overwhelming majority of supermarkets (and the very, very overwhelming majority of Sainsburies) DON'T sell phones, and it's a dreadful idea to drive into (and deal with the parking complications of) an English town centre if you don't need to. The Tesco at Tidworth (SP9 7NR) is off the A303, has its own carpark and doesn't require navigating through a town. The Asda at Andover (SP10 2RW) is just off the A303 as well, but needs slightly trickier navigation, and though there are instructions at the Asda website, you might prefer not to bother if you haven't got a satnav.

Both these two are big enough to sell phones.

guacamole

Thanks for the suggestions Flanneruk. I had a look and the Tesco at Amesbury has a phone shop and it's literally by the A303.