BrightonCorgi Posted February 22, 2017 Posted February 22, 2017 From a perspective of price and selection, what cities do you feel are the best in the world (B&M stores only) for buying Habanos? Geneva, Riyadh, Singapore, Beirut, Havana, London...? What is your pick and why?
JohnInCleveland Posted February 22, 2017 Posted February 22, 2017 I can't evaluate based on price bc I haven't seen nearly enough countries to compare based off price. Selection? London's gotta be up there. You can get almost anything, but it doesn't come cheap...
jrusso14 Posted February 22, 2017 Posted February 22, 2017 In terms of price, my guess would be Havana. As far as selection, I will leave this to some that are more well traveled than I. 3
dominattorney Posted February 22, 2017 Posted February 22, 2017 Interested to see some ideas. From my limited perspective, nowhere in Mexico.
treberty Posted February 22, 2017 Posted February 22, 2017 From my experience I would say that for selection it would be London and Andorra - only because of the insane selection of aged/disontinued stock (especially London). For the prices it would be Havana. If you buy on the street it's even cheaper than in the LCDH! A lot of people have well connected cousins in Havana I guess... 1
chris12381 Posted February 22, 2017 Posted February 22, 2017 I enjoy Barcelona, Vienna, Havana and a few other cities in Cuba. Chris 1
rhcolbert Posted February 22, 2017 Posted February 22, 2017 18 minutes ago, treberty said: From my experience I would say that for selection it would be London and Andorra - only because of the insane selection of aged/disontinued stock (especially London). For the prices it would be Havana. If you buy on the street it's even cheaper than in the LCDH! A lot of people have well connected cousins in Havana I guess... London-large aged selection because: prices so high they don't move? expensive city/rich clientele can afford? rich history of tabbacco conesseuiers? mix of the above and/or other? Headed there for the first time next month, so very curious
cigcars Posted February 22, 2017 Posted February 22, 2017 *I would say Switzerland and Belgium...maybe Holland too. The selections in England are to die for, but you talk about H-I-I-I-I-G-G-H as Hell as far as price! My God! That's my limited buying experience here.
jschrader510 Posted February 22, 2017 Posted February 22, 2017 Having spent some time living in London, I agree that it is a great place to buy cigars, although I don't know if it is "the best". In my experience, a combination of the rich cigar history (Hunter's & Frankau) brings along with storied cigar shops and places to smoke (e.g. James J. Fox, Sautter's, Edward Sahakian lounge at the Bulgari) made it a thoroughly enjoyable experience for a cigar smoker. I had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time rummaging through aged stock and speaking with people who were unquestionable experts. That being said, prices are really steep due to taxes and if you are buying aged stock, you pay the premium for it. Spain is also pretty good, I've never been to Andorra but feel like it has a mythical aura about it. 1
Frozen North Posted February 22, 2017 Posted February 22, 2017 I'm curious about Rome? I'll be there end of May for a week.
rhcolbert Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 Thanks @jschrader510!!! while I'm only there a few days with the wife (lil trip for us two b4 I head ovserseas again), she'll have to indulge me at least going into a fabled shop there! looking forward to hitting a shop. Only cc selling shops I've been in have been Vancouver (pleased) and Mexico (yuk).
TheMonk Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 I quite like Havana and Andorra for my cigar purchases, but France, Spain and Germany have also been pretty good options IMO.
beparrish Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 26 minutes ago, Frozen North said: I'm curious about Rome? I'll be there end of May for a week. I was there two years ago, and the only shop I would trust is Fincato. It had a decent selection, but no REs/LEs when I was there. The prices weren't terrible, but they weren't giving them away either. I think I paid about 25 EUR for a CoLa and 32 EUR for an Cohiba Espy.
watches_whiskies_cigars Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 12 minutes ago, TheMonk said: I quite like Havana and Andorra for my cigar purchases, but France, Spain and Germany have also been pretty good options IMO. I feel that Andorra used to be THE place for aged/discontinued cigars but as more and more people found out about it, it got cleaned up of aged stock. To compound the problem, you can legally only bring back 75 cigars back into Spain from Andorra which precludes from bulk buying. The prices, however, are quite low. I paid €132 for a box or SLR Londsdales, as an example. 2
Frozen North Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 10 minutes ago, beparrish said: I was there two years ago, and the only shop I would trust is Fincato. It had a decent selection, but no REs/LEs when I was there. The prices weren't terrible, but they weren't giving them away either. I think I paid about 25 EUR for a CoLa and 32 EUR for an Cohiba Espy. Those prices are brutal. Thanks for the reply.
jschrader510 Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 26 minutes ago, rhcolbert said: Thanks @jschrader510!!! while I'm only there a few days with the wife (lil trip for us two b4 I head ovserseas again), she'll have to indulge me at least going into a fabled shop there! looking forward to hitting a shop. Only cc selling shops I've been in have been Vancouver (pleased) and Mexico (yuk). Do a search for "London" on the forum, I know I did when I first moved over there and found some useful information on spots to smoke and places to visit. I never made it to the LCDH which is outside of central London, but with what is in central, you don't really need to.
maxcjs0101 Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 How about Asian countries? A Cohiba Piramides in a B&M in my country (Malaysia) retails for about 60USD. A Cohiba Robusto for 44USD while a Partagas D4 is 25USD. I think its expensive here. In the airport its only around 5-10% cheaper.
rhcolbert Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 Holy crap @maxcjs0101 that is crazy expensive!
maxcjs0101 Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 2 minutes ago, rhcolbert said: Holy crap @maxcjs0101 that is crazy expensive! The tax actually makes up half the price of the cigar.
polarbear Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 38 minutes ago, maxcjs0101 said: The tax actually makes up half the price of the cigar. Sounds like Australia
maxcjs0101 Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 Just now, polarbear said: Sounds like Australia Yeah. The govt plans to introduce plain packaging. Take a guess where did they get the idea from.
polarbear Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 Just now, maxcjs0101 said: Yeah. The govt plans to introduce plain packaging. Take a guess where did they get the idea from. Yay! Misery LOVES Company
chris12381 Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 I forgot Gibraltar! Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
kuma Posted February 23, 2017 Posted February 23, 2017 A couple of places I've been where cigar smoking is part of the culture and you won't lose your shirt. Ok Monaco can be a little more coin, but great array of LE's / RE's. 1. Barcelona 2. Milano, Roma 3. Monaco 4. France no not rat infested Paris but Aix-en-Provence great cigar shop in the Old Town area off the "Course Mirabeau" near Book In Bar Bookshop! 5. Tokyo a couple of great shops w/vintage smokes up the Wa Zoo. Will re-visit topic of "Cigars of Tokyo" on another post. Cao 1
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