United Kingdom

England is connected to France by the Channel Tunnel. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland. The UK is not a member of the European Union or the Schengen Agreement, which means that travel to and from EU countries (except Ireland) involves systematic passport checks at the border and separate visa requirements. A Schengen visa does not allow entry to the UK, so if required for your nationality, you will need to obtain a separate UK visa. Entering the UK from a Schengen country will invalidate a single entry Schengen visa.

The currency throughout the UK is the pound (£) (ISO code: GBP). It's more properly called the pound sterling to distinguish it from other pounds, but rarely in everyday speech. It is divided into 100 pence (singular penny) (p). You may also hear the slang term quid for pounds. People often will just say 'pee' instead of pence. "Fiver" and "tenner" are common slang for £5 and £10, respectively.

, one of Great Britain's busiest stations]] Train travel is very popular in Britain, as Britain invented it—you'll find many services busy, and passenger numbers have been rising steadily. It is one of the fastest, most comfortable, convenient and enjoyable ways to explore Britain and by far the best way to travel inter-city. From High Speed 1, which connects London to Kent and mainland Europe, to preserved railways operating historic steam trains through idyllic countryside, to modern inter-city services and the breathtakingly scenic lines of Scotland, Wales and northern England, the train ca…

English is spoken throughout the United Kingdom, although there are parts of major cities where immigration has led to many other languages being spoken as well. The English spoken in the UK has many accents and dialects, with some words that are unfamiliar to other English speakers. It is not unknown for residents of different regions in the UK not to understand each other at first; do not be afraid to ask someone to repeat themselves. The different dialects can be extremely different in both p…

In general the UK is a safe place to visit; you won't go far wrong heeding the general advice and the advice for Europe. In any emergency call 999 or 112, the unified emergency phone number for the United Kingdom. All emergency calls are free and will be answered by an emergency services operator who will ask you which services you need (police, fire, ambulance, coastguard or mountain and cave rescue) and for your location. Be as precise as possible, and don't forget to say the town or city, as the operator may be based remotely.

If you have a life-threatening medical emergency, telephone . In the UK, emergency medical response is prioritised on a clinical basis, and the operator or dispatcher will ask relevant questions to determine what responses are needed and how urgently. Answering the questions will not delay a response. You can also go (or be taken to) the nearest hospital with an Accident & Emergency (A&E) department.

The UK's country code is +44. The first part of the phone number is the dialling code (area code), which domestically is always written with a leading 0 for the trunk code (long-distance prefix), so that a London phone number would be written as '020 xxxx xxxx'. (In international format, it would be written '+44 20 xxxx-xxxx', since the leading 0 is only used when calling from inside the UK.) Dialling codes have varying numbers of digits, and spaces or dashes are sometimes misplaced due to persi…

Greetings are dependent upon the situation. In anything but a business situation, a verbal greeting such as "Hello, (name)!" will suffice. Younger people will usually say "Hi," "Hiya," or "Hey" though the latter is also used to attract attention and should not be used to address a stranger as it would be considered impolite. The British often use the words "Alright?" and "You all right?" as greetings, not to inquire about your mood. The usual way to respond is to just say back "Alright" - to someone you're more familiar with you might reply "not too bad, yourself?" no matter your mood!

GOV.UK provides a list of the bank holidays for each year. Bank holidays are days when many schools, businesses and retailers are closed or operate at limited opening hours. During the Christmas and New Year holiday period much of the country shuts down.