Duty free on eurostar

monaghan_prints

I'm taking a trip to paris within the year, and would like to take advantage of cheap cigarettes abroad

does the eurostar offer duty free, or is it cheaper to buy in paris high streets?

how much am i looking to spend on 200 fags or 1kg of tobacco?

alanrowell

There's no duty free between members of the EU.

Pelican_eats_pigeon

Unless you happen to call in at a territory that is outside the customs zone, i.e. Gibraltar, Åland islands or Heligoland

spiro

The french in north west France tend to go over the border to Belgium to buy tobacco products as they are much cheaper there.

pompeyrich

spiro wrote: »

The french in north west France tend to go over the border to Belgium to buy tobacco products as they are much cheaper there.

As do the English,

richardse6

I've only been on Eurostar a couple of times, but friends travel regularly and I'm pretty sure you can't buy cigarettes on the train, or at least not in 200 cartons. You might be able to get single packets in the buffet.
You'll have to use a Tabac in Paris, but I smoke Embassy and purely British brands are hard to find. Yes, going over the border to Begium might save you £5.00 a carton but the common way to do it is to take the car ferry and drive to Adinkerke. As another poster has pointed out these are EU Duty paid, and I've usually found that for UK brands the prices tend to be the same wherever you buy them. I think this could be that duty needs to be calculated at the time of import. As duty has been paid the unofficial customs limit of 3200 cigarettes applies. Anything over this and you might have a hard time satisfying them that they are for personal use only. I hope that helps.

richardse6

Sorry - just seen the last bit of your post regarding prices. A 200 carton in France was around £45 and in Begium around £39.00 the last time I looked, so still a substantial saving on the £64.00 or so you'd pay in a supermarket over here. If you want to get an idea of current prices I'd suggest you look on the P & O website and follow the links to On Board shopping where they list their current prices, which are usually Duty Paid in the country the ferry is going to. For Begium if you Google "Adinkerke Tobacco" you'll see links to the many shops there. Their prices are all the same. Richard.

topmum

http://www.daytripper.net

You can get the prices of French cigarettes and tobacco on this site.

cullin

No point in going to Adinkerke at the moment for some brands of Tobacco ie Golden Virginia Amber Leaf or Cutters Choice as at the Stop & Shop My O/H was asked if she had pre- ordered it, replied no but said she would now do so for Friday (this being last Wed) was then told time-wise it had to be a fortnight's notice, goodbye Adinkerke. We don't smoke anyway, unlucky relatives.

datostar

>>> No point in going to Adinkerke at the moment for some brands of Tobacco ie Golden Virginia Amber Leaf or Cutters Choice <<<<

Correct. It's only those UK brands affected, as a result of threats from the UK Government to heavily fine tobacco companies who don't strictly control their exports. My son smokes some powerful Dutch stuff - Van Nelle Zware - so has no problem at all. I've been a long-term Golden Virginia smoker and couldn't get any this Tuesday so settled for what is obviously a Belgian substitute - Flandria Golden Blend English Style Virginia - cheaper than GV and smokes fine. Shame that the bootleggers and smugglers have spoiled it for the legitimate cross-border shoppers, but collective punishments are very much in favour nowadays.