Duty free shopping is all part of going on holiday. The arrival at the airport gives you free reign to buy yourself a new perfume, get the latest sunglasses and a litre of your favourite tipple before you’ve even jetted off anywhere! However, if you are travelling within the EU, as lots of us do every summer, you can’t take full advantage of duty free shopping as the sale of duty free alcohol and cigarettes was abolished in 1999. This doesn’t mean that you can’t get slightly cheaper offers than you would on the high street but you won’t get the same bargain prices as those passengers travelling outside of the EU. Here’s our guide to how much duty free you can stock up on when travelling inside and outside of the EU…
Passengers Travelling from a Non-EU Country
(Allowances apply to all passengers over the age of 17.)
- 200 cigarettes or 100 cigarillos or 50 cigars or 250g of tobacco. These can be combined provided travellers do not exceed their total tobacco allowance.
- 4L of still wine.
- 1L of alcoholic beverages stronger than 22% or 2L of fortified or sparkling wine or other liqueurs. These can be combined provided travellers do not exceed their total alcohol allowance.
- 16L of beer.
- Other goods including souvenirs up to the value of £390.
Passengers Travelling With the EU
Note: Goods obtained duty and tax paid in the EU are unlimited, as long as tax was paid in the country and they are for your own use. If you bring in more than the following, customs officials are more likely to ask the reason for holding the goods.
- 800 cigarettes or 400 cigarillos or 200 cigars or 1kg of tobacco.
- 90L of still wine.
- 10L of alcoholic beverages stronger than 22% or 20L of fortified or sparkling wine or other liqueurs.
- 110L of beer.
Exceptions: Estonia – 200 cigarettes or 250g of tabacco. From Bulgaria, Hungary, Lativa, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – 200 cigarettes.
Just in case you were thinking of sneaking any meat products or endangered species into your case it is also worth noting those items that are classed as prohibited imports. These include unlicensed drugs, offensive weapons, indecent and obscene material featuring children, counterfeit and pirated goods, meat, dairy and other animal products, and pornography.
Restricted items include firearms, explosives and ammunition, live animals, endangered species, certain plants and their produce and radio transmitters.
I think I’ll just stick to buying a new bottle of perfume!
To book your next holiday visit www.panoramicvillas.com.
