Great What to Buy in Duty Free Hunt

3 or so weeks ago there was a massive Pimm's promotion in duty free - 2 litres for £15. A week earlier I'd bought 1 litre at Tesco on special for £11.99 so realized it was quite a good deal. I can't remember (I wonder why...) if it was World Duty Free or some other shop but the same offer was on at Heathrow and Gatwick. Good deal if it is still on.

More generally, I'd say browse around the supermarket sites before you go so you have an idea of current prices and offers. Then you'll know what's a bargain.

As for me, I'd rather be shot in the square than drink Pimm's ever again...

We are off to Florida in a few weeks time.

So I thought I would ask for advice for great bargains in Florida compared to the UK.

Interested in anything really....as long as its a lot cheaper over there than here!

TIA

but confused with this. But if I buy a camera at dixon duty free to go on holiday to the usa, when I return is the camera part of the stuff I have bought while awhile, so if all my purchases go over £145 I have to declare them? Or is the camera excluded and I can show them my receipt and they are happy that I bought it in the UK.

I got back from Croatia on Monday, and to be precise, Rijerka airport. As I'm aware Croatia is out of the EU. Peering around their shops and stuff there wasn't that much that can eb found for too much cheaper than at home. Obviously the local spirits such as sljivovjica are cheaper, but not much else. As a vodka drinker 2 things did stand out to me though. 1 litre of Absolut vodka I paid 10 euros (£6.84 according to xe.com) which is less than half its price here (generally about £14ish) and a half litre botle of smirnoff vodka was 5 euros or £3.42 which is pretty good considering you'd struggle to find a 33cl bottle for less than a fiver! I was very happy with this, but not many other bargains I have to say. Chocolate and electricals were much more expensive.

I am no expert on VAT & Duty Free, and have little experience of countries beyond the Eastern edge of the EU, but here are a few pointers.

- Duty Free started because in the days of sailing ships passengers took items for the voyage (eg edible food) BUT nobody knew how long the passage would take under wind power; So to avoid punch ups in customs on arrival, the concept of "Duty Free" was invented for the excess.

Small items, such as CD's can be ordered over the internet and shipped into UK VAT & Duty free from the anomaly places, such as The Channel Islands. (Tesco is getting a bad press from the governement for exploiting this loop hole) - I buy replacement "button" batteries this way.

Perhaps someone can give us the details on the following list of
asomaly countries, that are sort-of part of Europe:

N.Cyprus
Andorra
Liechenstein
Monaco
San Marino
Isle of Man
Channel Islands
Canary Islands
Ceuta
Switzerland
etc.

I have been to these over the years and all offered anomaly bargains in one way or another, but it is a shifting scene.
(They should be able to offer offer "pop over the border" savings on tobacco, alcohol & road fuel.)

Inside mainstream European Union each country has different rates of duty and VAT. Somewhere like Estonia has gone for simple low taxes in the hope that Scandinavian money will make it rich.

Cigarettes are relatively cheap in Luxumbourg and Belgium, to name places within easy reach of UK (drive north up the coastal motorway from Calais (with its confusing numbering system) and turn towards the coast,just inside Belgium, to find Aardenkerke;
a small town dedicated to selling tobacco products).

I will be on holiday in central Europe in September (destination Slovakia), the Mondeo car will need 4 new tyres and litres of diesel: Anybody know of a web site giving comparative prices for these in European countries ?

(It looks like the Mondeo will be getting new 205/55 R 16 Tyres from China at
about 40 GBP fitted)