officially it is only 200 cigerettes per person. I bought ciggies for my Mum on the plane as they were really cheap (£20 for 400) - Cuba didn't have too many well known brands so you may find you can't get your usual choice.

Thanks cynical do you think we will get away with more than 200?What are the return checks at the airport like? ie are they thorough?

Return Checks....

Well, it depends on how you are flying in. When we went to Cuba we flew from Manchester to Heathrow and then on to Cuba and then the reverse when we came back. Because Heathrow was point of entry and Manchester was an internal flight, when we got to Manchester there was NO ONE at customs to even stop you.

Thanks for that, i did mean checks when you fly out of cuba though but any info is good info!!!!

I don't remember any particular checks as you leave Cuba. You pay your tax and get your sticker, go through security- one at a time- and then on through to departures where there is duty free and you can buy there. No one questioned us about what we bought. DH bought cigars. He already had his max in his suitcase but decided to buy more at the airport and had no problem.

Brilliant thanks again.I was told by a colleague that cigars were quite expensive considering, do you know if this is true? They only heard it from a friend of a friend of a friend etc!!!!!

When we were there they were CHEAP!!! DH likes his occassional cigar and at that time we were able to buy them for about 75p each!!! That was for a Cohibra (sp??)... the kind Castro smokes. But, be careful. Only buy from reputable businesses and not just any joe on the street. They are NOT the same cigar. We did a "smoke" test. Some friends bought some "dodgy" cigars and DH bought some from the hotel. They each lit one at the same time, same brand and DH's lasted about 3x longer than friend's and the men said that the proper cigar was MILES better.

Wow that's really useful to know as i'm an occasinal cigar smoker to and will probably bring some back too.Thanks again your advice has been invaluable

You won't find that wide a choice of European brands in Cuba and there will be no cigarettes etc manufactured by US owned parent companies. Re prices I bought a box of Romeo y Julietas from a reputable source for the equivalent of roughly £1 per cigar. I can't advise about other prices - I'm no cigar expert and simply bought what a friend asked me to get! There are no Customs checks as you leave Cuba and the Duty Free shops at Havana and Holguin in my experience don't bother with the usual boarding card stuff either. Also, don't rely on them for info about how much you can bring back in - they're just interested in selling you as much as you want to buy.

But be warned - this Monday morning just gone, the Customs people were out in force at Gatwick to meet the incoming flights from Havana and Holguin which landed around the same time. As I went through the Green channel there were loads of Customs officers on duty, including a handler with a sniffer dog and EVERY desk had someone who's bags were being gone through. One particularly unhappy looking couple were there with all their cases unpacked and a large pile of rolling tobacco and mulitiple bottles of rum stacked up beside their cases and dirty washing. If caught like this you run the risk of either having to pay a fair whack in duty which means that your bargains are no longer a bargain, or else having the excess over and above your allowance confiscated and the money spent on buying it wasted. With either of these options you could also still be heavily fined on top.

If only slightly over the limit you might be able to blag it by pleading ignorance of the exact quantities allowed and by simply offering to surrender the excess for the confiscation - I took the risk of an extra bottle of rum on this basis and walked through unchallenged - but if you're greatly over the limit they'll take the line that you must have known that you were well over and you won't be able to blag it.

Personally, I don't think it's worth the risk of trying to bring in quantities way over the allowances - the penalities are too great. Remember - you go through Customs after Immigration and baggage reclaim. They have plenty of time to x-ray checked baggage - and they do regularly do this from destinations outside of the EU which are well known for cheap tobacco and booze - and will then be keeping a look-out for anybody whose checked baggage contains what looks like excess booze and fags etc. And if you try to carry it through as hand luggage you stand a good chance of being pulled over by any customs officer who thinks that your bags look heavy and/or overloaded with purchases from the Duty Free. It's simply not worth it in my book.

SM

Thanks for the extra info was only gonna bring a few bots back, nothing on a grand scale, whats the limit for rum then and also we have read that smoking in public places is banned in cuba do you know to what extent this is enforced? ie is it like the uk ban?

Hi,

The allowance for spirits is only 1ltr of rum so best to make it a decent one! Which in my book is any 'anejos' Havana Club golden rum - go for the oldest you can get, the 7 yr old is comonly available and will cost around 15CUCs (approx £8 ) in the airport duty free as you leave.

As for a smoking ban I've never come across such a thing and most Cuban men smoke like chimneys if they can afford to. Cuban society is fairly conservative in outlook and few local women seem to smoke in public and will generally drink nothing stronger than beer in public too. However, I don't frequent the big tourist resort hotels - I always stay in a 'casa particulare' with a local family - so can't advise as to what policy you'll find there - they might have their own bans in place for public areas. Certainly I can't say that I was aware of any change of policy in most bars and cafes. On this trip, we did see 'No Smoking' signs up for the first time in the Casa de Musica but as part of a party of non-smokers I can't say that we paid it much attnetion nor noticed whether it was being enforced or not - it's an air-conditioned venue and so the atmosphere was never smoky in the past anyway.

SM