UK tourist SIM – pre-paid SIMs for travellers visiting the UK

If you’re visiting the UK as a tourist then you might be tempted just to use your standard SIM card here, but a better option could be to get a new, pre-paid SIM card from the UK.

Doing this avoids potentially expensive roaming rates, or restrictive limits if you have inclusive UK roaming.

Of course, you probably can’t easily have a SIM card posted out to you as you’d need a UK address to send it to, so your options really are either buying one from a shop or – better yet – getting an eSIM.

An eSIM is installable on your phone (if your phone supports eSIMs) without anything physical being sent out to you, so you can receive it and set it up instantly, making it a great option for short-term travel.

So below, we’ve detailed the best pre-paid eSIM options available in the UK at the time of writing. Note though that these plans should all be available in stores too if you’d rather grab a physical SIM card.

Three

Three offers a small selection of pre-paid, one-month data packs, all of which also include unlimited minutes and texts.

Note that there are also ‘auto-renew data packs’ which cost less, but these will recur every month, so if you choose one of those you’ll have to remember to cancel it at the end of your trip.

In any case, you can get anywhere from 10GB to unlimited data, and these are available as an eSIM – just select the eSIM option at checkout.

Three has widespread UK coverage, and tests suggest its 5G speeds are among the best, so you should have an excellent network experience in the UK on Three. And you can also tether your phone to other devices with these plans.

Vodafone

Vodafone is another major UK network that offers pre-paid SIMs, and has an eSIM option for them.

All of these pre-paid SIMs come with unlimited minutes and texts, so you’re just choosing your data allowance, which at the time of writing can be anywhere from 27GB to unlimited.

Just make sure that you select the eSIM option at checkout if ordering online, and you’ll probably also want to turn auto-renew off at checkout (unless you’re going to be in the UK for more than a month).

You can also tether on Vodafone, so you can use your SIM card to get other devices online too.

Lyca Mobile

Lyca Mobile is a travel and international calling focused network, so the latter could be useful if you want to call home while you’re in the UK, as its pre-paid SIM cards include international minutes to dozens of destinations.

They also include either 1,000 or unlimited UK minutes and texts, and a data allowance of between 5GB and unlimited data.

As with the other highlighted plans you can of course buy these in a physical store in the UK, but you can more easily place an order online and select an eSIM to remove the need for visiting a store.

In any case, Lyca Mobile has the same UK coverage as EE, which is one of the best networks for coverage, and it supports tethering.

iD Mobile

iD Mobile offers a selection of pre-paid plans with up to unlimited data, and they also have unlimited minutes and texts. They don’t recur either, so there’s no need to worry about cancelling them.

They’re available in both physical SIM and eSIM versions, and iD Mobile uses Three’s network, so it has identical UK coverage to Three.

As with other options you can also tether with iD Mobile, so if you get a decent data allowance you can comfortably share it with your laptop or tablet too.

Giffgaff

Pick a Pay As You Go plan on Giffgaff and you’ll have a pre-paid allowance of minutes, texts, and data. All of these bundles include unlimited minutes and texts, while data tops out at 150GB. Or there’s an 80GB ‘Always On’ plan, which gives you unlimited data but drops the speed to 384kbps from 8am to midnight after you’ve used 80GB.

Giffgaff runs on O2’s network, which means its coverage and speeds aren’t quite as good as networks using Three or EE (going by most third-party tests), but you should still be able to get at least 4G in most places, and 5G in a growing number.

You can also tether on O2, and its Pay As You Go plans don’t automatically recur. However, if you want an eSIM rather than a physical SIM card don’t order from Giffgaff’s website. Instead, download the Giffgaff app, select the eSIM option on the dashboard, and then order a plan from there.