dangolf18 Posted June 27, 2016 Posted June 27, 2016 I'm headed to Europe for two weeks in August. I plan on staying in Lisbon, Paris, and London (possibly Dublin). I haven't booked any flights yet. Any recommendations on what city would have the best duty free?
TCContender Posted June 27, 2016 Posted June 27, 2016 I have had luck with good box codes and well-stored cigars in Frankfurt, but there are no ELs or REs, mostly just popular vitolas of major marcas. That said, I was able to score a box of COROs from El Laguito last month at FRA. Zurich apparently has a phenomenal duty-free, but I have been challenged in finding sufficiently reasonable airfare to warrant a trip through.
semifan1 Posted June 27, 2016 Posted June 27, 2016 Been to all 3, don't really remember any great duty free in any of them. Hit up Spain for some smokes. In Lisbon I went to El corte Ingles for some regionals. If you do a search guaranteed all these places should come up pretty easy as I asked a lot of questions before I went.
Joshtupps Posted June 28, 2016 Posted June 28, 2016 I've always had luck with the Paris duty free, they always have french regionals, I picked up a few boxes of the JL Minutos there from 2013 a few months back. Pop your head in! Tupps
kuma Posted June 28, 2016 Posted June 28, 2016 CDG in Paris has a pretty good duty free shop. Also not sure if you want to take a chance seeing how this is the height of the summer season in France and italy. But if you go south say to Nice the airport there has a good duty free shop with CC's that are in good condition. Happy hunting
dangolf18 Posted June 28, 2016 Author Posted June 28, 2016 Thanks. I'll see what happens. I'll have a layover in Stockholm as well but I doubt they'll have anything interesting.
LordAnubis Posted June 28, 2016 Posted June 28, 2016 Charles de gaul airport... terminal 2 (i think) has "La Cave a Cigares". Last time i went there (2014) i walked in, had a look around, noticed all their boxes were open. Neatly cut open that is. Strange. SO i was jsut browsing opening boxes and every single box i opened (probably about 10) was jsut perfect. Eventually i asked the guy working there why all the boxes are open and he said they inspect every box and if its not good it doesnt go on their shelf. Their quality was top notch. Cannt remeber what they had or prices though... i didnt buy anything. 1
GasGuy82 Posted June 30, 2016 Posted June 30, 2016 On June 27, 2016 at 9:32 PM, LordAnubis said: Charles de gaul airport... terminal 2 (i think) has "La Cave a Cigares". Last time i went there (2014) i walked in, had a look around, noticed all their boxes were open. Neatly cut open that is. Strange. SO i was jsut browsing opening boxes and every single box i opened (probably about 10) was jsut perfect. Eventually i asked the guy working there why all the boxes are open and he said they inspect every box and if its not good it doesnt go on their shelf. Their quality was top notch. Cannt remeber what they had or prices though... i didnt buy anything. I found their sticks to be waaaayyy over humidified. However, had a nice young fellow working there.
gweilgi Posted June 30, 2016 Posted June 30, 2016 7 hours ago, GasGuy82 said: I found their sticks to be waaaayyy over humidified. However, had a nice young fellow working there. As a matter of personal preference, I'd rather have cigars over-humidified: many airside cigar merchants do not have facilities for vacuum-sealing a box so any purchase must travel unprotected until I can get it home. That said, I had not noticed this about the CDG shop myself -- for my money, it's just about the best duty free shop in Europe in terms of quality and selection.
Fugu Posted June 30, 2016 Posted June 30, 2016 2 hours ago, gweilgi said: As a matter of personal preference, I'd rather have cigars over-humidified: many airside cigar merchants do not have facilities for vacuum-sealing a box so any purchase must travel unprotected until I can get it home. That said, I had not noticed this about the CDG shop myself -- for my money, it's just about the best duty free shop in Europe in terms of quality and selection. "...so any purchase must travel unprotected until I can get it home " Heard of plastic bags?
dangolf18 Posted June 30, 2016 Author Posted June 30, 2016 I'm gonna make sure to pack a few ziploc bags.
gweilgi Posted July 1, 2016 Posted July 1, 2016 15 hours ago, Fugu said: "...so any purchase must travel unprotected until I can get it home " Heard of plastic bags? I do try to remember to carry ziplock bags with me ... not always successfully. As I get older, senior moments do happen... Worse, ziploc bags only come in certain sizes -- try to get a cab into a ziplock and you will see the problem!
Fugu Posted July 1, 2016 Posted July 1, 2016 11 hours ago, gweilgi said: I do try to remember to carry ziplock bags with me ... not always successfully. As I get older, senior moments do happen... Worse, ziploc bags only come in certain sizes -- try to get a cab into a ziplock and you will see the problem! Mate, absolutely no need for ziplocs or vacs. A simple plastic bag will do for travels (the specific technical 'locking' design is rather irrelevant to your goods). The ones you get as a shopping bag at duty-free would work perfectly fine and you can always ask for spares. 1
TCContender Posted July 1, 2016 Posted July 1, 2016 11 hours ago, gweilgi said: I do try to remember to carry ziplock bags with me ... not always successfully. As I get older, senior moments do happen... Worse, ziploc bags only come in certain sizes -- try to get a cab into a ziplock and you will see the problem! I was in the same boat, but I found that Ziploc makes bags up to 3 feet by 2 feet. I was able to completely line a carry-on bag and transport 15 boxes without worry. (at least without worry of them drying out....
Akela3rd Posted July 1, 2016 Posted July 1, 2016 Bit of a highjack, for which I apologize, but does anybody know about Barcelona? - Planning to do a short break there next week with the Mrs. Oh, and Geneva airport has a good walk-in humidor by the way.
Perla Posted July 1, 2016 Posted July 1, 2016 2 hours ago, Akela3rd said: Bit of a highjack, for which I apologize, but does anybody know about Barcelona? - Planning to do a short break there next week with the Mrs. Oh, and Geneva airport has a good walk-in humidor by the way. Barcelona Duty Free is not very interesting. Lousy, dry quality you better walk in Gimneo close to the Ramblas www.gimenocigars.com/ there you find Regionals, but you have to show off that you are willing to buy boxes otherwise they are kindly ignore you. the ERDM petit Robusto is quite nicely. And don't forget to eat tapas, for the Missy Cava (spelling Kaba) and be aware of pickpockets :-( 1
Akela3rd Posted July 1, 2016 Posted July 1, 2016 Excellent info. Thanks Perla! Sent from my HTC One M8s using Tapatalk
GasGuy82 Posted July 7, 2016 Posted July 7, 2016 On June 30, 2016 at 0:13 AM, gweilgi said: As a matter of personal preference, I'd rather have cigars over-humidified: many airside cigar merchants do not have facilities for vacuum-sealing a box so any purchase must travel unprotected until I can get it home. That said, I had not noticed this about the CDG shop myself -- for my money, it's just about the best duty free shop in Europe in terms of quality and selection. The sticks I saw were fairly swollen and all the tubos I opened were coated with copious amounts of mold. They did, however, have a nice selection, very helpful guy and they do sell large fuente/padron style humidity bags that will fit two boxes of Piramides for about 5€ so bagging was not a concern for me.
Jeremy Festa Posted July 7, 2016 Posted July 7, 2016 LOL mate! Right here! If you are in one spot for a little while, or know you're heading somewhere specific ahead of time, just email here and get it shipped!
milo Posted July 7, 2016 Posted July 7, 2016 Went through Heathrow a few days ago and there was nothing worthwhile.
Pixa Posted July 7, 2016 Posted July 7, 2016 I'm headed to Europe for two weeks in August. I plan on staying in Lisbon, Paris, and London (possibly Dublin). I haven't booked any flights yet. Any recommendations on what city would have the best duty free? The only duty free you will get is country you fly into Europe in and the one back out of Europe. Inter EU flights does not give you a duty free allowance.
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