# Travel >> Travel Preparation >> Travel Planning

How do I Phone Illinois From the UK?

It has been more than 50 years since the Queen of England made the first long-distance telephone call in the U.K. Back then, it was a very grand and historic occasion, one that required a lot of organizing. Today, hundreds of thousands of long distance and international calls are made every day. Calling the populous Midwestern state of Illinois is very straightforward, provided you know the area code and are mindful of the time difference.

Clocks
Calling codes

Instructions

Instructions
- 1
  Check the clock before you make the call. Illinois is in the Central time zone of the U.S. and is six hours behind U.K. British Summer Time (BST).
- 2
  Contact your cell or land-line provider to find out how much it costs to make an international call. Most operators have monthly deals if you need to call Illinois on a regular basis.
- 3
  Find out the area code of the city you need to call. There are nine area codes for Illinois, and you can check which one you need by either calling your phone provider or scanning websites, such as 50states.com.
- 4
  Dial 001 then the area code followed by the telephone number. Dialing 00 from the UK is the international dialing code; 1 is the country code for the U.S.