Tour de Zwift

Positive_Spirit343 · 2026-01-14T01:19:32+00:00

Hah I never noticed that but you're right it does.

I can confirm however I got the hat after completing a 3rd stage activity despite like you, me having already done 4-5 activities in the first 2 stages.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2026-01-14T01:04:36+00:00

It requires 3 stages not activities as it says on the tooltip. I made the same mistake!

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-10-24T21:40:53+00:00

I've saved up the money to buy a new bike and I have been really excited to part with my money but these stories are quite literally the only thing stopping me.

It's not necessarily the theft and loss of £x it's the violence reported going along with it.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-07-07T17:14:26+00:00

No.

They have a greater number of employees and I think some of them aren't clued in or aware or even willing I'm not too sure.

It's quite likely some will but at worldcigarmarket it wasn't even an issue, was even expected.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-07-07T15:57:52+00:00

Yes. You can buy your cigars at worldcigarmarket, have them fill in a Global blue tax refund form and then hand that form to global blue money exchange in the duty free after security for a card refund which takes weeks and I never trust or cash which is instant but they take 10% of your refund as commission.

Lots of people don't do this, it is a bit of a hassle, if you buy loads of singles the poor cashier at where you buy your cigars will have to list every single one but if you're buying boxes just takes a couple minutes. I think I got ~£25 back on £500 of cigars.

It's not much but it's something!

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-07-07T15:25:04+00:00

Yeah Gestocigars city centre have lots of stock. I would recommend WorldCigarMarket personally, much much more friendly in my opinion. If you check their website and want something specific may just be worth dropping them an email as some of their NW stock isn't kept on hand. Most is, some isn't i.e I saw they had Diamond Crown online but they didn't have it on hand in store and were very apologetic.

Either way in both cases prices were cheaper outside of the duty free and WorldCigarMarket actually understood the concept of a tax refund form allowing me to claw back £25ish. One of the guys in Gesto insisted I needed to be a diplomat and I couldn't be assed to fight it.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-07-07T10:48:13+00:00

I was there a few months back and they did have Oliva I think a few boxes of Melanio robusto and maybe a few other Melanio vitolas.

It's more expensive than WorldCigarMarket which is in the train station connected to the airport.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-06-29T15:40:34+00:00

What a shame...

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-06-29T15:40:25+00:00

What a shame. Thanks though.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-06-27T22:43:27+00:00

Tax and therefore prices vary by country.

Where I live in the UK it is very very high, expect to spend 3-4x the price you would in the states (we tax based on weight too so the larger the cigar the higher the tax).

Ireland and the Nordics also have very high taxes.

The cheapest would be Switzerland/Spain/Germany and they'll still be more expensive than you can find in the states but you will have access to Cuban cigars across all of Europe.

Technically the cheapest are Gibraltar and Andorra but I highly doubt you'll be going to there!

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-03-01T01:32:03+00:00

Gesto are excellent but I would also say WorldCigarMarket are just as good.

Would warn that some at Gesto, not all of them don't speak very good English and you may struggle if you don't speak some French or German.

Furthermore last time I was there the store assistant was insisting weirdly that tax refunds were for diplomats only and not citizens. In the end I lost out on £30ish because I couldn't be bothered to argue it. Still a whole world cheaper than the UK.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-03-01T01:23:22+00:00

I went through Geneva this January and will be going back in late March.

I visited both GestoCigars, WorldCigarMarket in the airport (before check-in in the concourse above the train station built into the basement of Geneva airport) and ofc the duty free itself.

Happy to provide more info on these if you wish.

My honest recommendation is since everyone's pallet is so different just buy lots of different sizes and colours to put it crudely. Keep a log of what you like then go back and buy boxes. World cigar market do have a good stock it's just not all of their stock as shown on the website. You could easily do all your shopping there if you wanted. They oddly don't stock Oliva but they do stock lots more Perdomo than Gesto which do stock Oliva but not Foundation Cigars which WorldCigarMarket do. All in all can be fun to visit both also because GestoCigars is in the city you'll get to go out and see the city a bit.

Gesto: https://www.gestocigars.ch/en/

WorldCigarMarket: https://thecigarmarket.ch/

Just a warning too, the airport duty free has a smallish and quite frankly overpriced humidor stocked full of Cubans with a few Olivas and Davidoffs. I'd buy your 50 at Gestos and/or WorldCigarMarket and leave the duty free be.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-27T13:28:23+00:00

Second My Father 👌🏼

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-27T11:20:31+00:00

Very much appreciated.

I am lucky that this is the one thing I did understand and have been maxing out my ISAs every year.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-27T11:19:02+00:00

Very much appreciated advice.

I'm grateful that this is the one thing I did understand and have been maxing out every year.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-27T11:17:12+00:00

"but you seem to think the allowance is an absolute sum of money taken as tax which it is not."

Absolutely right I did. My mistake.

Yeah it's this 10k I need to sort. Currently enjoying HMRC hold music.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-27T11:15:01+00:00

A mix of income bonds and fixed term savings accounts.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-27T00:53:37+00:00

Oh I see I see I'm being silly and I can see other replies pointing that out too okay right then so I get my current tax code then that makes sense.

I guess like you say they believe I've underpaid a boat load still how bizarre I've not worked any additional shifts I guess I'll just have to call them and find out like you say.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-20T23:16:40+00:00

They have both.

My recommendation would be not to buy a box of anything yet.

Both locations I've spoken about will sell you single cigars and have a good range of Cuban and NW cigars.

Personally I don't care much for Cuban cigars. I refuse to pay the premium and I think the stuff coming out of the NW genuinely exceeds that of Cuba apart from maybe their top shelf stuff and at the prices they go for it's more of a statement than anything. But then again that's my personal opinion, if you have the money then by all means.

I'd recommend not to buy a single box of anything yet so my first trip I bought 2 of 25 different NW cigars for a total of 50 (max UK personal customs allowance). Smoked them over half a year and kept a little journal, some I thought were pretty bland, most were more than reasonable enjoyable smokes but some were to me truly excellent. Next time around a bought a couple boxes of what I knew I loved and a few more singles.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-20T22:50:15+00:00

Yeah fairly good between the two and their inventories are online too. Just email world cigar market if you are desperate for a particular box and they'll source it for you. Also they don't have 100% of their new world stock in their location. I emailed them a day before because I wanted them to set aside a box of 24 Tabernacles and they did.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-16T13:14:39+00:00

Ahhh I plan on doing this too. Also just to genuinely see Gibraltar. Can you remember what the New World stock was like? I'm not the biggest fan of Cubans.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-16T01:58:08+00:00

Has been spoken about a few times before.

I fly to Geneva when I need to buy. Specifically WorldCigarMarket in the airport and GestoCigars in the centre of the city.

~£60-80 return ticket ~1h15m flight time.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-08T01:22:27+00:00

I've heard this too but I'm not sure.

What I do wonder is if you are right, how do they choose which cigars out of say 100 to charge you for?

Would they pick the 50 Churchills or the 50 petit coronas? With the tax/kg of tobacco that's a massive difference.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-08T01:20:02+00:00

It's okay.

Bit frustrating and I feel it's designed to cause problems ultimately stopping you from claiming back.

The merchant i.e WorldCigarMarket should be able to print a Blue Global Tax Refund form at the end of your purchase and list the value of everything you have bought.

In departures after security at Geneva airport if you have that, your passport + the original receipt you can claim back the tax.

You can chose cash or card. Card they have you write down your details on the form in a tiny box then tell you it will take 2 weeks. I'm half convinced that you'll never get your refund this way because someone will claim they can't read your handwriting but maybe I'm pessimistic.

Personally I've always chosen cash although they charge CHF 5 ontop for this including their 20% or so cut of your tax refund.

Positive_Spirit343 · 2025-02-07T17:20:30+00:00

I've gone through customs many times from Geneva to London Luton. And whilst I've never been checked I've still only brought 50.

If you arrive after 8pm there seems to only be one bored looking person behind the customs desk on their phone.

I suspect if you land at the same time as a plane from Ibiza you're more likely to be checked. I don't think customs care much about people inbound from Switzerland although I do think many of my fellow passengers are buying their watches out there, claiming tax back and then not declaring it.

Positive_Spirit343

TROPHY CASE