Spill the beans...on what to buy duty-free

sivorny

I bought my Fianc!e's engagement ring Duty free from Tiffany's at Heathrow. Saved me enough for the flights to Australia.

Paul_Red

I always find it cheaper to buy the goods from the airport I am returning from. Boston, New York, Singapore and Bangkok are always cheaper than UK airports.

onlineo

I find when travelling that everything is cheaper in the country you come from than the airport no matter if it is duty free. Bought our last bottle of Vodka for $12.99 for 1.75L from Walmart in Florida. It would have been over $20 in the airport. Looking at getting a cheap bottle of wine in Valencia airport 2 days ago, the cheapest I could find was €6. When it was €0.75 for a bottle of nice wine in the mini supermarket next to the metro station. I have never seen cheep chocolate in an airport, and it has been many years since I have seen perfume cheaper in an airport than online.

jenjenmunro

I really wanted some red GHD hair straighteners - I did my research beforehand and ended up getting them almost £30 cheaper at the Manchester Airport Duty Free than I would have anywhere else - and I got 3 free mini bottle of wine!

simonfirth

A couple of years ago I bought one of the new Sony laptops in the Sony center in T5 Heathrow, I saved myself a couple of hundred pounds (550 at the airport, 750 elsewhere), unfortunately the store has gone now, it was useful as it sold other sony accessories cheaper than Amazon.
I also note ipads are only a fraction cheaper than apple at Dixons but I would not want to gamble with the insecurity of warranty for a few pounds if something ever went wrong.
Generally, Duty Free prices are poor, I do occasionally buy spirits if they are on offer, but you need a smart phone to check prices.

Tarry

Why on earth does duty free always have giant toberones anyway? I don't really like them.

I normally just buy perfume

cz7gdm

Not much of anything is a bargain in 'Duty Free' these days - 'duty' free but not 'profit' free. I recently bought a pair of headphones at Dixons Heathrow, only to find that I could have got them 10% cheaper on the UK High Street or 40% cheaper on Amazon.... Even the booze is often cheaper at Tesco or Sainsbury.

Doshwaster

I almost never buy anything in airport duty frees (Well, OK, sometimes I get tempted by special offers on whisky - especially after a few drinks in he bar). I fly to Spain and the US regularly and it's always cheaper to buy in the shops there.

Golden_Anemone

Doshwaster wrote: »

I fly to Spain and the US regularly and it's always cheaper to buy in the shops there.

Normally I would agree with you about Spain. I go most years and the duty free is almost always a bit dearer than in the local supermarkets or tobacconists but I flew back at the beginning of this month from Malaga and Aldeasa, the big duty free store, has a 20% off sale on. Spirits that were 10 and 11 Euro in the supermarkets were 8.15 Euro in duty free. Not sure how long the 20% off sale is on for.

phatbear

Anything with a fixed price, ie apple products.

And perfume/aftershave etc.

I work at an airport so I'm able to check prices before I take the plunge