Traveling to Europe. Need recommendations on cigar shops and CC's

[musk]

My first post here and I have seen some similar posts on the subject but they seem dated so I apologize in advance if this is a repeat.

In October I am traveling to Barcelona, Bucharest, and London with most of my time being spent in Bucharest. I have three questions for the cigar experts on the board.

1) Any good cigar shop or lounge recommendations for any of these cities? More specifically in Bucharest? I have done a few google searches but results seem few and far between. I am staying around old Bucharest and I won't have access to a car. I'll be staying around Rambla in Barcelona and in London in center London.
2) For any of these 3 cities does anyone recommend a place I can pick up a box of Cubans? Furthermore any suggestions on how to avoid counterfeits if I do stumble across a store? To be honest, I'm not on the hunt for Cubans. I live in Miami and it seems like I have access to almost every premium cigar blend on the market. That being said, I am interested to see if the CC hype is all it's cracked up to be. Yes, I realize I can just hijack one of the refugee boats that wash up on shore weekly and row myself to Cuba and pick up a box.....but who's got time for that?
3) Any certain brand or blend I should keep an eye out for while in Europe (Cuban or otherwise). For single's I'd like to keep it under $30 and for boxes under $300

Thanks in advance.

 

[DRed409]

J.J. Fox if you are in London, 30 for singles will get you a seat at the table, but not for a lot of boxes. UK taxes are not friendly

 

[D Quintero]

Welcome to the BotL forefront .
Happy hunting

 

[musk]

Boy I forgot about the massive European taxes. Have to pay for that "free" everything somehow I guess. Don't tourists get a tax rebate though at the airport? Thanks for the reminder.

Hopefully someone can direct me to some stores in barca and Bucharest because London is at the backend of my trip and I only have ~72 hours there. Thanks for the suggestion tho!

 

[AlohaStyle]

Spanish prices are much cheaper, look for a legit shop there. There are a few good shops in Barcelona but i dont know the area enough to recommend. Just google Estanc, Cava and or Tabac shops in Barca.

And I second James Fox in London. Go buy an aged single and smoke it there in their remodeled lounge. Then a block down, walk into Davidoff for more sticker shock, lol.


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[navyvet]

As the others have said be prepaired to pay. Wouldnt buy any boxes you can get them cheaper

 

[bwhite220]

Welcome to BOTL

 

[iergeni]

Boy I forgot about the massive European taxes. Have to pay for that "free" everything somehow I guess. Don't tourists get a tax rebate though at the airport? Thanks for the reminder.

Hopefully someone can direct me to some stores in barca and Bucharest because London is at the backend of my trip and I only have ~72 hours there. Thanks for the suggestion tho!

Out of the places you listed, Spain should be the cheapest option. I'm not sure about Bucharest but from what I've seen so far, the taxes on cigars in Eastern Europe aren't super low.

I'd save London for window shopping only.

Going to a B&M in Barcelona (with the tabac sign) is probably a good enough insurance against being duped into buying fakes. Cubans are legal over there and American tourists in Spain are looking for other things, so fake CCs aren't as lucrative a market as they are in the Carribean.

 

[MyFathersKeeper]

I'm jealous. Sounds like fun. Check out Cigar Aficionado's "Where to Smoke" app. Should help.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[icehog3]

La Casa del Habano London ...Ajay Patel is one of the greatest guys you could ever meet. Lots of goodies there if you want to try something really special.

 

[AlohaStyle]

La Casa del Habano London ...Ajay Patel is one of the greatest guys you could ever meet. Lots of goodies there if you want to try something really special.

I'd say for sure, but his shop is pretty far from the city center.


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[DanLAXX1]

Gimeno in Barcelona
Address: La Rambla, 100, 08002 Barcelona, Spain

It's on the popular (and touristy) street La Rambla.

If you go there, ask them if you could check out their walk-in humidor in the basement (watch your head walking down the stairs). You'll be able to open and inspect the boxes. When I was there in 2013, I bought a box of Montecristo 'D' EL 2005 and a box of Trinidad Ingenios EL 2007... for retail price. Not marked up. The people there are super friendly and speak English very well (at least one of them will). I'm not sure if they ship anymore (they shipped when I went in 2013), at least they didn't when I went back on my honeymoon in 2015. For that reason, I didn't buy a box on my last visit because I didn't want to risk it being confiscated. I knew I would most likely clear customs fine but it wasn't a chance I wanted to take, especially with a special box of smokes.

 

[icehog3]

I'd say for sure, but his shop is pretty far from the city center.

3 days in London, maybe worth the trip?

 

[DRed409]

3 days in London, maybe worth the trip?

I'll back that one up as well, when I first stared getting singles they were from LCDH London, then Foxes out of convenience. There is another Habanos Specialist that has some crazy esclusive sticks in stock, but I can't think of the name of it

 

[AlohaStyle]

I'll back that one up as well, when I first stared getting singles they were from LCDH London, then Foxes out of convenience. There is another Habanos Specialist that has some crazy esclusive sticks in stock, but I can't think of the name of it

Sautter is one of the best in London

 

[musk]

Gimeno in Barcelona
Address: La Rambla, 100, 08002 Barcelona, Spain
It's on the popular (and touristy) street La Rambla.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for this recommendation. I'm staying about .25m north of La Rambla and I have already decided that one morning I"m going to just walk the entire street so this place will undoubtedly be on my list. I also heard about Corte Ingles? Any thoughts on that?

I'd say for sure, but his shop is pretty far from the city center.

3 days in london....but really 2 full days. Land Friday night, West Ham game Saturday, Flight back to the states Monday. So need something within the city center for sure. Thanks for the tip tho.

 

[DanLAXX1]

YES YES AND YES!!!

When I was there I stayed within walking distance from there as well. It's a fun street. Do yourself a favor and pick up the Rick Steves Barcelona travel guides. Here are the links from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Rick-Steves-Barcelona/dp/1612386784/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=N49PCHSTC4134KES2BEM

https://www.amazon.com/Rick-Steves-Pocket-Barcelona/dp/1631213113/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1631213113&pd_rd_r=VM85M117BV6AY1NW691Y&pd_rd_w=5dUo4&pd_rd_wg=q7K4r&psc=1&refRID=VM85M117BV6AY1NW691Y

The books have a lot of the same material but I really like the pocket guide because I was able to stick it in my shorts pocket and bring it along with me wherever we went. It also has a very helpful map. He gives some great places to eat as well. We fell in love with one of them (Bar del Pla). If you have any questions, don't hesitate to PM me, or post here. I'll be more than happy to help you out. He also gives some really great walks in there and he does an amazing job at telling you the significance with every sight he mentions.

Corte Ingles is their big department store. It's definitely worth a visit!

Barcelona is really a magical city. Most of the people speak English as well so you don't have to worry about too much of a language barrier.

 

[musk]

Hey guys thanks again for the help here. Bucharest seems like a black hole for any quality cigars so that makes me happy I'm landing in Barcelona for a few days. I wanted to add one list I found on a UK Cigar Forum that seemed very comprehensive for anyone else who faces the same question as I did. This list focuses on Barcelona and is fairly detailed. Here is the link but I copied the list in it's entirety below. The post is from 2013 so its a tad dated, but I'm guessing it still helps. I will revert back with what I've purchased and any other tidbits I can add from my experience.

Hey chaps
Just back from a few days sun (and rain) in beautiful Barcelona. Whilst there I managed to visit around 30-40 Tabacs/Estancos to try and hunt out some deleted and Spanish-only stock. Of the shops I went into only a few were worthy of frequenting. A lot of the places only sold minis, tubos or the more common lines such as Monte4 etc.

GIMENOS (La Rambla,100. 08002) - great place with loads of singles upstairs and a lovely cave downstairs full of boxes. Friendly staff too. Because Gimenos is so popular, they don't have any discontinued stock left (or none that I could see). The REs were mostly in plentiful supply apart from the Por Larranaga and the Punch which were sold out.

CASA FUSTER (Rambla de Catalunya,29. 08007) - another well stocked shop with some nice rarities. It was here that I found the Cohiba 2003 LE double coronas at 20 Euros each!! They also had some RyJ 2005 petit piramides still on sale...like a time-warp!

ESTANC DUASO (Carrer de Balmes, 16. 08008 ) - what a place. Stuffed full of old and rare stock. I found Vegueros, LGC 2,3,&4, ERdM PCs and the only ErdM Grandes de Espana I saw on my entire hunt...I was hoping to track down a box. They also had Partagas de Partagas No1, full boxes of LGC 2&4 (from 2001), gold-band Fundadores too

BADIA (Calle Escudellers,1. 08002) - great range of stock with a walk-in humidor. Nice staff too

EL CORTE INGLES (Plaza de Catalunya,14) - lovely large walk-in humidor with a lot of stock but nothing unusual. I've been in this place on three separate occasions and the service has always been quite poor and rushed. The staff are harassed because people are queuing for cigarettes at the same time and want you out of the humidor asap to serve them. Shame really

There's a great shop on Avinguida Catedral with lots of old stock. In here I found RyJ Prince of Wales and Paratagas Lonsdales. Difficult to see what they have as the stock is on sliding panels which hide most of the boxes! Fortunately, the staff are very helpful and happy to bring out any stock for perusal. I had to go through most of the PoW box to find 5 that weren't brick-hard but they were from 2000!!

MAYNE (Carrer del Boters, 4. 08002) - nice shop with some decent stock. Picked up some Monte Sublimes here, the only time I saw these sticks on my entire hike

These were the shops that really stuck out for me and I'll definitely re-visit them the next time I'm in Barca...

The status of REs (April 2013) is:

2007 Vegas Robaina - lots still available. Gimenos had at least 10 boxes
2008 Ramon Allones - lots still available. Gimenos had 20 or so
2009 Punch - quite scarce. I only saw 2-3 boxes
2010 Bolivar - a few kicking around. Maybe 10-12 boxes in all
2010 Sancho Panza - very scarce. Only a couple of boxes
2012 Por Larranaga - very scarce. I only saw 4 boxes in all
2012 Diplomaticos - loads still knocking around but as they're quite cheap at E67 a box, they won't last long!!​