Booze cruise is an English colloquial term for a brief trip from Britain to France or Belgium with the intent of buying personal supplies of alcohol or tobacco in bulk quantities. Functional group of an alcohol molecule. ... Species Nicotiana acuminata Nicotiana alata Nicotiana attenuata Nicotiana benthamiana Nicotiana clevelandii Nicotiana excelsior Nicotiana forgetiana Nicotiana glauca Nicotiana glutinosa Nicotiana langsdorffii Nicotiana longiflora Nicotiana obtusifolia Nicotiana paniculata Nicotiana plumbagifolia Nicotiana quadrivalvis Nicotiana repanda Nicotiana rustica Nicotianasuaveolens Nicotiana sylvestris Nicotiana tabacum Nicotiana tomentosa Ref: ITIS 30562 as of August 26, 2005...

Actually: it's the best night EVER and involved a boat, canal, free bar and a very low ceiling!!!

The background

Generally, alcohol and tobacco taxes are lower in France than in Britain, and it can make economic sense for people to buy their supplies of wine, beer, spirits and tobacco in bulk in France instead of Britain. There is keen competition between ferry operators and the Channel Tunnel Eurotunnel Shuttle, so day fares to Calais, normally around £60 per vehicle, are sometimes discounted to as little as £10 at off-peak times, while beer often costs little more than half the English shop price. At worst, the savings defray the cost of a day out. . ... Map of the Channel Tunnel. ... Interior of a Eurotunnel Shuttle passenger vehicle train Interior of single deck train with carriage doors open Interior of single deck train with carriage doors closed Eurotunnel Shuttle (previously known as Le Shuttle) is a shuttle service between Calais/Coquelles in France and Folkestone in the UK. It conveys road... Location within France The Burghers of Calais, by Rodin, with Calais Hotel de Ville behind J.M.W. Turner: Calais Pier Calais (Dutch: ) is a town in northern France, located at 50°57N 1°52E. It is in the département of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a...

Serving this market has become big business around the major ferry ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk in France and Ostende in Belgium. Even longer routes from Cherbourg, Normandy and Brittany generate business, boosted by ferries from Ireland where alcohol duties are even higher. The exit route from Calais ferry port passes several large warehouse retailers, English-owned, that serve the market, and some large British supermarket chains have alcohol-only branches selling bottles identical to those in Britain, but at deep discounts. The French have opened an enormous shopping precinct adjacent to the Channel Tunnel (Cité-Europe) that attracts large numbers of British shoppers. Following large increases in tobacco duty in France, it is now very common for smokers to make a detour to the small town of Adinkerke just over the border in Belgium, where tobacco duty is lower. Boulogne-sur-Mer is a city and commune in northern France, in the Pas-de-Calais département of which it is a sous-préfecture. ... Carnival in Dunkirk. ... The esplanade with the Thermae Palace, the former Royal Residence and the casino For other uses, see Ostend (disambiguation). ... ]]) | arrondissement=Cherbourg-Octeville| canton= Chief town of 3 cantons | insee=50129|cp=50100 and 50130 |maire= Bernard Cazeneuve|mandat= | intercomm= Communauté Urbaine de Cherbourg (CUC)| longitude= 01°38 W|latitude= 49°3822 N|alt moy= |alt mini= |alt maxi=127 m (Montagne du Roule) | hectares= |km²=6. ... Mont Saint-Michel, one of the famous symbols of Normandy. ... Traditional coat of arms Modern flag (Gwenn-ha-du) Historical province of Brittany région of Bretagne, see Bretagne. ... Adinkerke is a town in north west Belgium close to the French border. ...

It is important not to confuse Booze Cruisers with professional smugglers. Genuine Booze Cruisers see themselves simply as purchasing their own personal supplies from competitive 'Shop A' (in France) instead of uncompetitive 'Shop B' (in Britain). Booze Cruisers normally travel as a family or group of friends, and often take the opportunity to generally have a 'day out' in France and indulge in recreational 'channel shopping' for French produce and unfamiliar foods, clothing and other goods while they are there. In addition to alcohol and tobacco, many other items, including - bizarrely - mundane household items such as washing powder and cooking oil are also much cheaper in France than the UK.

The costs of getting to France have risen in recent years, due to fuel surcharges. (The fares for foot passengers remain low, however, and Calais (in particular) is very well-served by public transport.) French tobacco duties have also risen, reducing further the economic advantage of a "booze cruise". Unless one is close to the Channel ports, it's unlikely to be financially beneficial. The motivation is changing, therefore, from purely economic to leisure and variety of choice.

Economic impacts

As with many activities, there are winners and losers, arguing for and against change.

The current situation benefits individuals living close to the English south coast who retain an economic advantage by shopping in France. It benefits the entrepreneurs who have businesses around the French ports dependent upon bulk purchases and also other local businesses that benefit from passing trade. The Calais area suffers high unemployment (around 20%) and benefits from the service jobs created by the influx of English day-trippers. The ferry and tunnel operators also benefit from the extra traffic, in a situation that might otherwise be over-supplied.

On the downside, UK taxes (especially on tobacco) seem to have risen beyond the point of diminishing returns, so the British Exchequer loses substantial revenue that might otherwise have been collected to the economies of France and Belgium. Shops (particularly in the English South-East) also report that their trade suffers because taxes make their prices uncompetitive with either legal or illegal imports.

Legal Issues and UK Customs

EU Directive 92/12 Article 8 states: "As regards products acquired by private individuals for their own use and transported by them... excise duty shall be charged in the member state in which they are acquired".

In answer to a legal challenge; a European Court of Justice ruling on 23rd November 2006 surprisingly overturned their own Advocate-General's advice and reconfirmed that: "only products acquired and transported personally by private individuals are exempt from excise duty in the member state of importation".

This ruling effectively thwarted the hoped-for option of ordering goods (particularly tobacco), via the internet, from low duty states in the European Union and having them posted to a United Kingdom address, causing discussion in the British media about how a supposed 'Free Trade Area' seems to work for the benefit of some but not others.

The current position is: British citizens may personally bring into Britain with them unlimited amounts of alcohol and/or tobacco from another EU member state, provided that they have been legally purchased (with the relevant local rate of duty paid) in the member state of origin, and are for either personal consumption, or as a genuine gift to another. Importing goods for resale at a profit, or even 'not for profit' proxy purchases on behalf of non-travelling third parties is not permitted.

Although fully aware of this, HM Customs (faced with widespread abuse by smugglers), impose 'guidelines' - limits based on what they are prepared to believe are reasonable amounts for personal consumption (nominally six months' supply). Most travellers are unaffected, but there are instances of infrequent trippers forward-buying large supplies of (for example) their favourite brand of cigarette, and falling foul of the 'limits' intended to deal with professional smugglers. Her Majestys Customs and Excise (HMCE) was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government in the UK. It was responsible for the collection of Value added tax (VAT), Customs Duties, Excise Duties, and other indirect taxes such as Air Passenger Duty, Climate Change Levy, Insurance Premium Tax...

HM Customs have the power to stop and search any vehicle. They can (and usually do) use their own common sense regarding unconcealed (i.e. openly-carried) goods above their 'limits' if they are happy that the goods are genuinely for personal consumption. However, there have been reported cases of more extreme treatment (especially where people have unnecessarily concealed extra goods in vehicle cavities, spare wheel wells etc.), with family cars and contents being confiscated on the spot and the travellers left stranded at Dover in the dead of night. This has led to legal challenges to the powers of HM Customs, citing the heavy-handedness and inconsistency of some actions, and their dubious legality under European law. Her Majestys Customs and Excise (HMCE) was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government in the UK. It was responsible for the collection of Value added tax (VAT), Customs Duties, Excise Duties, and other indirect taxes such as Air Passenger Duty, Climate Change Levy, Insurance Premium Tax...

In the Media

The ITV comedy drama The Booze Cruise featured the antics of a group of men from England going on a booze cruise. The Booze Cruise was a feature length comedy drama written for British television on the channel ITV1, shown in 2003. ...

One episode of the US version of The Office was called "Booze Cruise". The Office (known in Britain as The Office: An American Workplace) is an Emmy Award-winning American television comedy about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictitious Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company. ... Booze Cruise is the 11th episode of the second season of The Office (U.S. version). ...

Other countries

Travelling to buy cheaper alcohol in other counties also occurs elsewhere, especially the Nordic countries. Swedes travel to Denmark and Germany, Finns to Estonia, and Norwegians to Sweden and Denmark. The ferries offer special discount fares for cars on day trips. From 2004, according to EU rules, as much alcohol can be taken over the border that is reasonable for personal use. This is not valid into Norway (not a member of the EU), which has 1 litre of spirits and 4 litres of beer as limits, but there are few checks at least from Sweden. Finland chose to lower its alcohol taxes when the amount limit was lifted, since Finns took advantage of the frequent ferry departures to purchase in Estonia, which has substantially lower alcohol taxes. Sweden has refused to lower its taxes. The Nordic countries (Greenland not shown) The Nordic countries is a term used collectively for five countries in Northern Europe. ...

Norway has the highest shop prices (5 % beer from € 2:40 per 33 cl, 40 % spirits from € 40 per litre), then comes Sweden (5 % beer from € 0:80 per 33 cl, 40 % spirits from € 30 per litre).

Other Meanings

'Booze Cruise' is also a Scottish colloquial term for a pleasure cruise on a passenger vessel such as The Second Snark or the Waverley, usually in the evening, where the main objective is drinking in pleasant surroundings such as the Firth of Clyde. The Second Snark serves on the ferry service from Gourock pierhead. ... PS Waverley steaming down the Firth of Clyde - additional views at Image:PS Waverley off Brodick castle 1989. ... Map of the Firth of Clyde and area The Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. ...

See also

• Rip-Off Britain
• Border trade

Rip-Off Britain is an expression coined in the late 1990s to describe dissatisfaction with certain products costing more in the United Kingdom than in the some other countries, especially certain members of the EU and the United States. ... Border trade is the increased trade in areas near a national border caused by a price difference, either generally or only for particular products (especially alcohol and tobacco products), in the two countries. ...

External links

• day-tripper.net — site highlighting good deals, price comparisons and disputes with HMRC
• Current guidelines and useful advice from HM Customs
• Calais Bus Map
• Booze Cruising for Bad Sailors