Gib duty limits

I thought you could only take 200 cigarettes and 1 litre of spirits into Spain per person.

Do you know what you can take to the UK from Gibraltar if you are flying out of there?

Stefan51, The lady in the duty free shop told us it is one carton of cigarettes per person,  Please note the legal age for smoking in Spain is 18 we got searched and the car, even told me to pop the bonnet please, it was a hire car and I didn't have a clue, They don't like the Brits going into Gib buying really cheap cigs ect then taking into Spain. I was a nervous wreck, but do laugh about it now, they didn't believe that my daughter was 18.

As for the alochol haven't got a clue but I did have two bottles of Vodka but they didn't seem interested in that.

When we are in Spain we make around 4 trips per week to Gib and out of that we get searched 3 times. You have to be very carefull to abide by the limit as you will get you car impounded and will cost you a lot of money to get it back. One tip is to drive through get your legal limit then go through the border, park up then walk back through and get your limit again. Its a bit sneaky but if you don't abuse the system then you should not get any problems.

Just so you are aware Si from the Spanish point of view there are supposed to be restrictions on the amount you can bring back every month. If you go four times a week when you are here you have been lucky. About three months ago they introduced a procedure whereby you had to record your duty free purchases at the office off to the left of the Guardia checkpoint. I am advised by a friend who lives there the restriction is one carton of cigarettes a month and they take passport details etc - that way it can be confirmed it is for personal use. 

No personal experience myself as I only go infrequently and never bring back fags

Regards Smiley

Thanks Smiley!

I'm in the process of kicking the habit so hopefully no need to shop for ciggys in Gib any more. Its been around 5 months since we visited Spain so was not aware of any new procedures. Cheers for the information.

You're welcome Si and good luck with kicking the butt - thought it worth mentioning as dont like the idea of anyone spreadeagled by the Guardia at La Linea

Rgds Smiley

I wouldn't bother with Gib if I were you, we had a NIGHTMARE getting in to the place, getting out of the place and then we were told we were over the limit on a few items and had to pay tax. It was our own fault of course but you always think that you won't be the one that's stopped by customs.....wrong! However, if you are in Spain for a while it's worth the visit just for Safeways.

'you'd be miserable too if you had to live on the Rock?'  forgive me for saying this but you obviously don't know what you're talking about when it comes to Gibraltar. 

Its a great place to live where everyone is friendly, safe and getting along with everyone else.   Sure Spain must be a nice place to live, but I quite like taking things like electricity, water, telephone and internet connections, and, oh ermmm, roads for granted.

I lived in the UK for many years during my studies there and i didn't personally like it and could knock it till the cows came home. But I don't.  So think twice about knocking something you know nothing about in the future.

By way of footnote, get out of Gib before 15.00hrs and you're ok.  Any time after that till about eight is a nightmare.  To get in to gib, be at the border no later than eight in the morning or, alternatively, come in after about five in the afternoon.

Cheers

Nothing personal selwynf and I guess horses for courses. Its simply that every time I go to Morrisons - the staff there who I assume are mostly locals seem to be so hap hap hap happy in their work! On the matter of roads, internet, phone and electricity personally I have never experienced any problems - water on the other hand has been cut off once while I have lived in Spain.  One also assumes that there must be some resentment of the Spanish too. In the three and a half years that I have lived in Spain I have lost count of the number of people who have warned me not to park my car on an out of the way street - "always use the car park" as it has Spanish plates and is likely to get keyed. Now I agree that could happen anywhere, but normally only when it is caused by jealousy over a luxury car. But these are ordinary cars such as a Ford Focus, VW Golf, Fiesta, Mondeo, Pug 207. The obvious downside to Spain of course is that when you get back to your car it is likely one's bumper will have acquired some radical new curves.

Rgds