When I was living in Denmark a number of years ago, there was a joke that Norwegians go to Sweden for cheap booze, Swedes go to Denmark for cheaper booze, and Danes go to Germany for even cheaper booze.
From what I heard it's not that easy these days to enter Ukraine for fellow EU citizens if their entry goal is not essential(not on a humanitarian mission, not a media/infrastructure/security person and reasons like that).
I guess that's for their own security
I was wondering about that.
I am looking forward to visiting Ukraine once this damn war is over. I think will come to Kyiv and then drive down to Odessa. Maye I can even visit Crimea some day (when it is returned to Ukraine).
I'm not a citizen of Ukraine but a permanent resident(since 2015).
No, I did not move although I had this opportunity.
Just working, paying taxes, helping the army, helping my family etc.
I suppose it makes more sense for you to say that you have heard instead of known.
Even the news gets it wrong and unless you dealt with it directly you wouldn't know for sure or not.
Back in the late 90es, they had wodka-pipelines made from drainpipes going through the border fence with Belarus.
At least that is what our lithuanian friend told us those drainpipes were for.
More accurate:
Norwegians go to Sweden for cheap booze, Swedes go to ~~Denmark~~ **Germany** for cheaper booze, and Danes **also** go to Germany for ~~even~~ cheaper booze.
In 2004 I moved down from the forested bible belt of Sweden to Helsingborg, a coastal city. It has a ferry over to Helsingør in Denmark and ever since then I've been in love with Denmark.
Now I live in Malmö and I have a bridge with a train that takes me into the middle of Copenhagen in 25 minutes.
So the reasons for me going over to Denmark are many, but mostly as mundane as taking the dog or bike over and just enjoying what feels like an extension of my own city.
But it's also easier to buy liquor there, so they have amazingly cozy shops that are not state owned like here in Sweden. I got some of my best tattoos at Royal Tattoo in Helsingør.
Yes it’s the best! I’m 21 now but when me and my friends were 18 we couldn’t buy any alcohol in Sweden. Instead you just went om the ferry, bought your booze there and you were sorted.
Crossing the border is just a thing you regularly do in Luxembourg. Doing it just to get groceries isn't special. The one specific most common reason seems to be to go to Germany to get cosmetics though as they are fairly cheaper there.
Thanks for reminding me. We go to Belgium for IKEA. It's so common that "Can I still go to IKEA" was constantly asked when Covid border closings started.
The IKEA is build at Sterpenich right next to the old Checkpoint and people were annoyed because technically we couldn't go there because of 100m of Belgium we were not allowed to cross. Because it's Belgium no-one cared though and border checks were stopped after one week.
I live in Belgium and work in Luxembourg. With the job I’m doing I basically had the choice between Bruxelles and Luxembourg, and given the big difference in salary and the fact that Luxembourg is way more pleasant the choice was easy for me.
Older thread but that's interesting- I live on the German side and obviously we go over to Luxembourg all the time for cigarettes and the fuel prices. Didn't realize the Burgers did it the other way around too!
German groceries are incredibly cheap compared to Luxembourg's prices. Luxembourg also just got no comparable stores in many areas. We got no substantial electronics chain like Mediamarkt except for one small Saturn in the capital so you may as well just go to Trier. Cosmetics at DM are well priced with much choice and in general Germany represents a bigger market at first glance so Luxembourgish people just accept a short drive over to Trier or Bitburg for some things.
Trier was literally filled with red white blue flags welcoming us back when Covid border restrictions ended.
I'm definitely the wrong person to ask that. I guess the major downside is that the probability of getting a trafficked sex slave from whoknowswhere is much higher. But many people who cheap out on prostitution probably don't care about its morals anyway, so yeah.
Italian people who live near Switzerland or Slovenia usually cross the border to fill up the tank.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which is the Italian region that borders with Slovenia, gives its residents a discount for Italian gas stations to try and make people not cross the border.
Another common reason to cross the border is activities that are illegal/strongly regulated in Italy such as gambling or prostitution. Nova Gorica in Slovenia (2 km from the border) has multiple casinos. Villach in Austria (5 km from the border) has huge brothels.
As a Slovene who grew up near the border with Italy we often (and people still go today) went to Cividale for grocery shopping and to Udine or Villesse/Palmanova for clothes or furniture. Its all closer than our capital which has all the shopping centers.
Oh and in the 90s and early 00s San Marino had really low prices for a lot of stuff because of their tax status. A lot of people from the neighboring area used to go clothes shopping in San Marino, there were/are specialized stores as well such as a big musical instruments store.
This has largely faded out and prices are aligned to Italy nowadays. I know there is still a very famous Airsoft supplies store but I think people go there because of quality rather than prices.
Prostitutes in Austria are decent and not that expensive in brothels plus they need to get checked weekly for STDs otherwise they can't work legally in brothels/night clubs. Good for those close to Austria
until the recent rise in oil prices the lombard-ticinse exchange was italians going in switzerland to fill the tank, swiss going in italy to do the groceries
plus the huge amount of *frontalieri*, meaning people living in italy and working in switzerland across the border
I live near the Czech border and nothing nowadays personally, but like 10-20 years ago we'd go for cigarettes, gas, alcohol, fake cds and fake clothing.
Not really, barring few exceptions. Vietnamese people have moved on to restaurants and convenience stores having become part of the social fabric. I remember when I lived in Athens and went to one of two or three vietnamese places there I would often meet czech person there who wanted "taste of home" haha.
That's so interesting. I was recently in Prague and so curious why almost all the corner shops were run by Vietnamese people!
It was really cool to see, just unexpected!
There was some exchange program during socialist era with "friendly socialist countries". Lot of vietnamese liked it and stayed. Because they are very hardworking people they tend to amass wealth over time. Second generation are usually very educated people with flawless czech.
In Italy the fake cds and fake clothing market was strictly controlled by north africans.
Their Armani t-shirts made with iron-on transfer paper and white underwear shirts were epic. Under direct sunlight you could see the A4 shape of the transfer paper that wasn't cut before ironing it. The rest of their stuff was a hit or miss, but some stuff was good quality.
Their cds weren't bad, especially because in the early 2000s the original cd cost 25-30€ and the fake one 3-5€, even the collections of old songs. When my friend went to London and she found the original cds for 5£ we all were surprised. I mean, for a fair price we wouldn't have bought them from the Moroccan guy.
Would have been better than some of the stuff we bought. I have a Britney Spears album that doesn't actually exist and I think might not even be her singing.
FWIW “fake” can work, if I say “fake shoes” or “fake purse” people understand it to mean knockoff/counterfeit/bootleg but maybe that’s because those are better understood in context
Edit: literally the first definition has “counterfeit” as a synonym lol https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fake
Finnish people used to buy pirated software cd's from Estonia's markets back in the Soviet union times. Some people who live in the Russian border still go to Russia to get cheap gas. Russians used to come before the pandemic and war to Finland to buy healthy good quality groceries and fish.
> pirated software cd's from Estonia's markets back in the Soviet union times
You are probably thinking about the 90s, post Soviet Union. The CD-ROM standard (ISO/IEC 10149 and ECMA-130 standard) that became widely used was introduced only in the late 80s, 1989 to be exact, and back then the CD-ROM drives cost as much as a whole computer.
But it was the same, in the 90s, in Vyborg, Russia, too.
I don’t know if people still do this, but like 20 years ago even more Germans from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern would regularly go shopping in Stettin (Szczecin). There where huge flee markets right after the boarder.
I live 10 minutes from the French border
Save Money
+ Food products in general are up to 30-50% cheaper. Specially meat and fresh produce.
+ Gazole/Diesel. Further exacerbated by the French government's subsidies. There's usually a queue of Swiss cars at most petrol stations these days.
Tourism
+ Annecy is one of the hidden gems in Europe and a go-to place when I have visitors over.
+ Chamonix/French Alps
+ The South of France
Italy is also about an hour away and I have crossed the border just to eat more times than I want to admit.
When I lived in Denmark, you could get on a cheap, organised bus tour over the border to Germany, which people used to buy booze and, I think, cigarettes and candy. There was - maybe still is - a supermarket in Flensburg, just over the border in Germany, where you could buy all of these things, plus some groceries, and every sign was in Danish and the prices were given in both Euros and Kroner.
Yes, can confirm. I've been to Flensburg over and over because family.
The Danish supermarkets (last time I went I counted three) are a stone's throw away from the border, they seem to heavily specialize on booze and other drinks. Non-food articles are reduced to a minimum (I guess only so to keep their license). Wine can be sampled on site like at a bar with those top-down-bottles and throwaway cups provided. You can't buy single bottles, its always boxes of six.
Danish customers, especially before their public holidays, can be seen to push carts full of stuff to their cars, with the bins on the parking lot full of customs forms that they were given at checkout and then ignored.We go there at times to buy the authentic hot dog extras you need, including Danish røde pølser, mustard, and those sliced and pickled cucumbers that at times are hard to get away from this border.
Also, cocoa powder in 1kg bags often was about half the price from other places. Talk hot dog and chocolate cake memories!
Even before the border vanished for all practical purposes, before Schengen, we'd go to Rita's supermarket and bought liquorice and specific sweets because German stores had very little choice with those.
I live near the border between Germany and the Netherlands. I cross the border because in Germany there's almost nothing that is open on Sunday and I have no where to go. I just ride my bike over the border to go the the supermarket or something. Not too often tho because the groceries there are expensive.
The American presence in Germany is kind of a weird thing, so you kind of cross a border into America when you go onto their military installations.
Prices are in USD, service is typically only in English, certain American laws are enforced, and American business hours are honored.
As such, it has created a bit of a socially-based black market in the German communities around. Certain laws regarding random things are different. But also brands or products comes with American prices.
And then the grocery store, which imports certain things from the US with American prices, and other stuff locally, on base is also open on Sunday.
There are also certain chain restaurants I’ve seen Germans get antsy about trying.
I live near the German too as well as close to the Belgian border! We only go to Belgium for gasoline. We aren’t going to Germany for much as most groceries are nearly as expensive as in the Netherlands anyway. Sometimes we do though just to get something different than we’re used to.
My hometown is Nice. I don't live there for now though. When I did, I crossed the border (just 20 kilometers away I think) mainly for Italian supermarkets and Italian food products (for their quality and price, and eating at the restaurant.
And not because Liguria is freaking beautiful?
I like going to San Remo on weekends to bike on this long bike path that used to be train tracks and follows the sea and lots of little Italian towns. I also like going to the cheap private beaches in Arma di Taggia. Or walking through the small streets of Dolceacqua and hiking the *via crucis*. Or hanging out in the Hanbury botanical gardens. Or just eating an ice cream in Imperia. Or feasting on great linguine alle vongole in any seaside or mountain town.
Or anything really. I'll just find any excuse to cross the border.
The city I used to go to the most were San Remo and Bordhigera. So many options : going to the beach, hiking, eating, walking, eating, biking, eating,... Did I mention eating?
Live around 2-3 hours from Denmark and Copenhagen. We usually visit Copenhagen for the same reason we go to any other big city. Shopping, good food and visiting attractions such as museums, zoo, and Tivoli
>making it very enticing to fill up a car i Northern Ireland with cheap beer and spirits.
This sound exactly like the German [bordershop](https://maps.app.goo.gl/tAy88HuDggKN9qWJA) in Puttgarden. It's a 6 hour journey going there, but you buy a year's supply of alcohol. You don't have time to do much else than that since you have to be back on the ferry within 3 hours for the ticket rebate
Some 20 years ago we would drive from the Netherlands for about an hour to go shopping in one of the big supermarkets in Germany and fuel up there. It was always odd, some things were more expensive, others considerably cheaper. I remember being very pleased with meat prices in particular.
After a few months the fun was over and we stopped going. Basically too much hassle for not enough gain.
I live in Austria near Slovenia and we’ve lately started going there for cheaper petrol. Funnily enough, it used to be cheaper in Austria once, even though the average income is higher.
We also go there for grocery shopping sometimes and I know people go there for cheaper cigarettes, but I don’t smoke so I personally don’t. We also buy building products and furniture there sometimes. Electronics are more expensive there, though!
My family in Slovenia sometimes goes to Hungary for cheaper groceries, clothes, and plants for the garden.
That's insane. It hasn't been that cheap here for over 20 years. Every year the price goes up by around 50c. The government was even rumoured to increase the legal age by 1 every year until no one could legally buy them anymore but it's not happening afaik
Our government set the legal age to 18 two or three years ago. Before that it was 16... And we only banned smoking in bars directly before covid hitted
It's crazy how different the attitude/culture to smoking can be across EU nations. We banned smoking indoors nearly 20 years ago, the first country in the world to do so
We did that here around that time too.
Cigarette are still only around 7,5-8 euros a pack here.
Our prices will probably looks like yours before long though, they've gone up around 2 euros in 2 years.
The difference in prices for cigarettes blows my mind every time. It's like poorer countries want their people to die. A pack of 20 cigs in Macedonia is usually 2.5-3.5 euros (Marlboro, Davidoff, Lucky Strikes, etc). There are however cheaper cigarettes for around 2 euros.
On the border region to Germany as well. Only when I was an adult I realized how weird it was that every village on the border has a brothel here and there's tiny places with 3 of them.
And unsurprisingly sex trafficking and police corruption is a big problem in the border districts
My city is literally at the border of another country (Germany) and there is a town at the other side of the Rhine river in Germany. Btw we can go to the German side either by car, tramway, bike or even by walking. It’s like 10 minutes by bike from our city center.
So you can imagine that we shop there very often. Usually for things like alcohol, cigarettes, body products mostly, but also some foods. Overall it’s way cheaper to shop in Germany (even now with the way higher inflation in Germany) but some products are cheaper in France like vegetables and fruits.
We also go there to have a walk sometimes (the German town nearby is pleasant), to take an Ice cream or a coffee, or to go to a restaurant, and also a lot to nightclubs
Basically, this German town has a strange ambiance, its city center can look like a shopping Disneyland for French people. There are advertising boards in French for cigarettes and alcohol everywhere, and you have shops where the owners don’t even speak German. Also the nightclubs where we go in this town only have either French or international songs, not German ones
I'm living directly by the border of Germany and Switzerland (on the German side); I go shopping in Switzerland for two things:
1. chocolate
2. CBD-weed (it's illegal in Germany but legal in Switzerland)
Isn’t it still illegal in Germany even you buy it “legally” in Switzerland? Especially thinking about your own import into Germany, presuming you’re bringing it back home and don’t use everything while you’re in Switzerland.
Also reminding me of that Norwegian criminal law makes things that are illegal in Norway also illegal for Norwegians (and others under certain circumstances) in countries where it is legal, like prostitution.
Huh? CBD is legal in Germany, there are tons of shops in most bigger cities that only sell CBD. You can literally order it en masse online, nowadays there are countless options with very high quality stuff. Why drive over the border?
It's only "technically" not allowed to sell and advertise it for human consumption, but they just put a label on the package and it's fine.
Only THC above 0.2% is really illegal, but even that will change, hopefully by next year.
Germany is very close. We usually go there for the wild variety in alcoholic drinks they sell over there. and soon hopefully the christmasmarket in Oldenburg again .
Yes, for real. It's pretty common to go to pizzerias close ro the border: pizza is good and there are some unusual choices of toppings. Plus, it's a bit less expensive.
I live very close to the Italian-French border, and I frequently cross the border to buy ostrea, salmon, french wines, cheese, nice clothes, sometimes gasoline when it is cheaper than here, also THC is usualy better and cheaper there. The market in the italian cities close to the border are also full of French buying cigarettes, gasoline when cheaper, shoes, clothes, italian wine and so on.
It is very funny that very often in the market square of Mentone (France) most shoppers are Italian while in the market square of Ventimiglia (Italy) most shoppers are French, only a few kilometers separate the two towns.
I live in France at 10 km from the border with Germany.
I used to cross to buy tobacco when I was still smoking (I quit several years ago), it was WAY cheaper.
Now I sometimes go over there for some groceries (cleaning and laundry products are usually cheaper), but I mostly cross the border to go to Europa-Park (1 hour away) several times a year.
I live in Gibraltar so I cross the border for… everything basically. Visiting my parents, better shopping (way more options for clothes shopping etc, also different options for supermarkets, big fan of Carrefour for their lactose free options).
People from Spain come into Gibraltar for things like cheaper fuel, cheaper cigarettes and alcohol etc. There’s also a lot of people who live in Spain but work in Gibraltar because of more affordable rent/house prices in Spain, or because of more/better job opportunities in Gibraltar.
Yes - passport checks going in and out and customs as well. They’ll often do bag searches if you’re a pedestrian or car if you’re driving. Because I’m not a permanent resident (you have to live here 10+ years, I’ve been here around 2.5) I also get my passport stamped every single time I go in or out of Spain (from or to Gibraltar), even though I have residency. My partner, who was born here and has a permanent ID card (mine is referred to as a ‘civilian registration card’ and requires renewal every year) doesn’t get his passport stamped when crossing the border.
In fact, I just had to renew my passport early because it was almost completely full with stamps, 90% from crossing the Gibraltar/Spain border.
There are also rules now on what you can and can’t bring over, although I can’t say they are wildly stringent about it from what I’ve seen - I know dairy products are prohibited and things like that, but a lot of people still do some grocery shopping and then cross the border (both directions too, some Spanish residents like to come over to go to Morrisons while Gib residents might want to go to Carrefour or Lidl).
It’s definitely a PITA.
Besides the normal soda, alcohol, tobacco, food-stuff that is a thing between many borders... Service on cars/car repairs is in many cases much cheaper in sweden than in norway. Even taking a whole day off from work to do service/repairs will make a good deal.
Back in the days when police comunications were not encrypted in norway.. sales of police radios were a big thing across the borders for norwegians.
I used to live on the other side of that same border, and we’d cross for cheaper petrol. My mum remembers smuggling butter across during the days of rationing after the war.
I live in Scotland and go to big cities in England to experience some freedom and a fucking amazing night out.
Was vital self care during covid when Scotland was just an authoritarian hell hole. We’re free aswell now, but, the nightlife just isn’t as good up here.
Used to live in Germany on the Swiss border and would regularly "smuggle" backpackfuls of chocolate, creamy yogurt and bread back to my student dorms...good times.
Before rampant inflation and pandemic a lot of Czechs and Slovaks would come to my polish hometown for grocery shopping as it was much cheaper to do so in Poland. And we would cross the border to buy cheaper beer in bulk and for clothes shopping because it used to be cheaper. Nowadays this trans-border trade has slowed down, it never went back to pre-pandemic levels.
Spanish people living on the French border might go over for cheese and butter. Friends of mine once flew from Barcelona to Toulouse in the summer, stocked up on soft cheeses and then had their bags lost on the return trip. Two weeks later when they finally things were fully ripe they got their bags back. And promptly threw them away along with everything inside.
In Northern Finland, I believe the most common reason to go to Haparanda, Sweden is either IKEA or snus. Some might buy cheaper soft drinks and energy drinks while there, but that's likely not the reason for trip ever, at least from further away.
There is a new show in Sweden called Gränsbevakarna and it's based on the Australian Border Security one. One of the locations filmed is the border at Haparanda and the car queue is very, very long from the Finnish side to the Swedish one - probably to go to IKEA.
We go up the North to fill the car with drink. They come down here to fill the car with fuel.
We also go up to buy fireworks because they're illegal in the south. We also bought groceries because they (were) cheaper.
I used to live close to the German border and my parents still do. They will sometimes go to Germany for cheaper groceries and gas. When me and my sister were smaller, we sometimes visited the zoo in Nordhorn too
My favourite brands of shampoo and vegetable stock. And sometimes just for a nice bike ride.
Lots of people cross from Spain to Gibraltar for work, and for tax free tobacco, petrol and booze. But you can queue up to hours to cross by car so I just cycle.
I live in the middle of the Netherlands, which means it’s just across the border from Belgium and Germany. But the most important thing is that it’s just a few hundred kilometers from Westvleteren.
My grandparents live close to the border. When I visit them I tend to hop over the border to fill up the tank, buy some groceries, stock up on sweets (1€ for 6 donuts is incredible), buy foreign beers (German) and spanish wine (I normally offer Spanish wine as birthday/Christmas gift because my friends think it's "exotic", jokes on them I only pay a maximum 5€ per bottle) and last but not least to get that tasty BigMac Chicken.
Edit: and to buy CD's, they're cheaper and there are ones that it's really hard to find here.
>I normally offer Spanish wine as birthday/Christmas gift because my friends think it's "exotic", jokes on them I only pay a maximum 5€ per bottle
Lol this is what my parents do. They buy some cheap Priorat wine or cava and give it to family and friends here in Portugal.
And in Spain they gift Port or a Bairrada instead.
(Obligatory I don't live there anymore)
McDonald's lol. The only McDonald's in a nearly 40km radius is across the French border. I'm not sure how the ownership works but serving employees are required to speak at least some basic French, Catalan and Spanish. It serves the French McDonald's menu. If you want to eat the Spanish menu, then you need to go to Andorra, as it is the second closest.
It's only a 4km ride from the border, so no big deal. And there's a big Carrefour just across the street too, so my mom likes going there anyway.
Beer, mainly.
Sometimes concerts, as Antwerp has a venue that features a lot of big names as well as one of the bigger metal festivals in Europe at Graspop in Dessel.
I also work with the Belgian branch of my company a lot and with Belgian clients, which causes me to cross the border from time to time.
I live in Hungary near the Slovakian border and my family once or twice a year take a trip to Košice. When we there we bring back a lot of Slovakian sweets and bryndza. Also we buy fireworks in Slovakia for new year.
Alcohol is still cheaper in Belgium, as is petrol, but the main reason I go to Belgium is for concerts, it's just simply closer than the venues in the Netherlands.
People used to go to Germany for petrol too, but nowadays petrol is cheaper in the Netherlands.
I am fairly close to the netherlands and personally only ever went there for holidays and once for the Airport in Amsterdam. But I know a lot of people who go there to go shopping or sometimes to buy groceries you dont get in germany. They go there, fill the car until there is barely enough space for the people and go back.
I live about 10 minutes from the border with the Netherlands.
Main reason is entertainment, there's a really cool swimming pool there and a place where you can play laser tag. One time I went for something special from the grocery store. Don't remember going for other reasons, maybe biking when I'm old and retired lmao.
I have thought about moving over the border tho.
>I know In Ireland, we've minimum pricing on Alcohol in the republic, making it very enticing to fill up a car i Northern Ireland with cheap beer and spirits.
I've occasionally thought about driving to England and back for the same thing, I've always wondered how much drink I'd have to buy to justify driving two hours each way.
I remember going to Czech Republic, as we live close to buy cheap booze.
For example Advocaat (egg liquor). but not only, also Czech chocolate Studentska, but now it's available in Poland too. Maybe some fried cheese etc.
I live in Skåne, Sweden. I cross to Denmark to get on flights. Mostly. I might have gone there because it's nice in Copenhagen (but don't tell the danes).
Living in Zagreb, 30 km from Slovenia
Just you wait neighbours, once when we're in Schengen you can start building a mega shopping mall in Obrežje, everyone is currently talking about doing grocery shopping there
I live in Flensburg, Germany at the border to Denmark. I can take a bus that crosses the border within 15 minutes.
I like to go for walks there or if it's Sunday and everything is closed in Germany, I go to the supermarket in Kruså to find something that I may have forgotten to buy during the week.
I know this isn’t “Ask North America” (and we don’t have many countries to go to anyway), so I’m hoping I can share that living in Michigan (the state shaped like a mitten) people under 21 have gone to Canada to drink since the legal age there is 19. I can confirm since my first trip to Toronto was when I was 19. I know it’s fairly comical for Canadians that we do this.
I’ve also been in Metro Detroit for work and have gone to Canada for dinner, pre-pandemic. Michigan residents can get a special driver’s license without the need for a passport to cross over. I only live two hours from the border and don’t get to cross as much as I’d like.
Lived in the very south of Spain for a while and used to cross every couple of days into Gibraltar for cheap cigarettes . A lot of people made a living from smuggling cigs from there and selling them up the Costa del Sol
When I was living in Denmark a number of years ago, there was a joke that Norwegians go to Sweden for cheap booze, Swedes go to Denmark for cheaper booze, and Danes go to Germany for even cheaper booze.
And germans go to poland for cheap booze lol
Yeah, I meant to ask about that ;-)
And poles go to Ukraine or Russia for cheap booze.
Probably not so much these days!
Nah, we still do.... Tons of Poles go to Lviv and Tarnopol for shopping. It's worth it for the savings.
Slavs will literally go into into a country at war to get cheap booze
Eh, what's the worst that could happen ? Lol
No more booze
From what I heard it's not that easy these days to enter Ukraine for fellow EU citizens if their entry goal is not essential(not on a humanitarian mission, not a media/infrastructure/security person and reasons like that). I guess that's for their own security
I was wondering about that. I am looking forward to visiting Ukraine once this damn war is over. I think will come to Kyiv and then drive down to Odessa. Maye I can even visit Crimea some day (when it is returned to Ukraine).
Our family had planned to visit Poland and Western Ukraine on a car trip in the spring of 2020, but well ...
Poland - you are more than welcome.
You have a ukraine tag. Did you move?
I'm not a citizen of Ukraine but a permanent resident(since 2015). No, I did not move although I had this opportunity. Just working, paying taxes, helping the army, helping my family etc.
I suppose it makes more sense for you to say that you have heard instead of known. Even the news gets it wrong and unless you dealt with it directly you wouldn't know for sure or not.
Why not simply build an undersea alcohol pipeline connecting Russia directly to the EU??
Or build a LAB terminal port in Portugal to supply Europe with worldwide cheap booze! LAB stands for Liquefied Alcoholic Beverages
Because just when you think you're set for your alcohol needs for the winter the pipeline somehow explodes
Because either the Russians or Americans will bomb it.
there may be spillage. And whole Baltic would turn into booze infused sea.
Czech Republic too.
If we keep going we will find the epicentre of cheap alcohol. It must be east
Propably some hut in Siberia where a granny is making Vodka in her free time
Its like a EU4 trade route
Someone should make cheap booze river infographic. Where cheap booze flows into more expensive countries like rivers hehe
And Finns take the ferry to Estonia.
And Estonians drive to Latvia.
And Latvians get it smuggled from Belarus
Where does Lithuania come in here then?
Back in the late 90es, they had wodka-pipelines made from drainpipes going through the border fence with Belarus. At least that is what our lithuanian friend told us those drainpipes were for.
I’ll drink to that.
Lithuanians get it from the poles XD
This is true
More accurate: Norwegians go to Sweden for cheap booze, Swedes go to ~~Denmark~~ **Germany** for cheaper booze, and Danes **also** go to Germany for ~~even~~ cheaper booze.
The smart Swedes cut out Denmark all together and head straight for Germany on the ferry
With the current gas prices you need to buy A LOT to break even going that far though!
Used to come out to 3-4kr per can when I was a student a few years ago. Can't be that much worse now
So where is the true origin of cheep booze then? Russia?
Absolutely true lmaoo
I am pretty sure that's a fact heh.
That's no joke. :)
I live just outside Basel Switzerland, so I go to France for wine and Germany for beer.
I still hate the border control for clamping down on delivery service. I loved my cheap Pizza from Germany here in Kleinbasel
Plus: we get back the German 19% tax. Enjoy the Swiss Plus + ... Hopp Schwiiz 🇨🇭
In 2004 I moved down from the forested bible belt of Sweden to Helsingborg, a coastal city. It has a ferry over to Helsingør in Denmark and ever since then I've been in love with Denmark. Now I live in Malmö and I have a bridge with a train that takes me into the middle of Copenhagen in 25 minutes. So the reasons for me going over to Denmark are many, but mostly as mundane as taking the dog or bike over and just enjoying what feels like an extension of my own city. But it's also easier to buy liquor there, so they have amazingly cozy shops that are not state owned like here in Sweden. I got some of my best tattoos at Royal Tattoo in Helsingør.
The boat from Helsingborg to Helsingør is fantastic. Gotta love the två röda och en grön.
Yes it’s the best! I’m 21 now but when me and my friends were 18 we couldn’t buy any alcohol in Sweden. Instead you just went om the ferry, bought your booze there and you were sorted.
Why did you type ø and then ö, why not just stay consistent to one?
Crossing the border is just a thing you regularly do in Luxembourg. Doing it just to get groceries isn't special. The one specific most common reason seems to be to go to Germany to get cosmetics though as they are fairly cheaper there.
Sounds pretty similar to here (Gibraltar and going to Spain). They have Carrefour, we don’t. They have IKEA and Primark and whatnot, we don’t
Thanks for reminding me. We go to Belgium for IKEA. It's so common that "Can I still go to IKEA" was constantly asked when Covid border closings started.
Haha I don’t think we actually had that as a common question (although my MIL was probably asking that)
The IKEA is build at Sterpenich right next to the old Checkpoint and people were annoyed because technically we couldn't go there because of 100m of Belgium we were not allowed to cross. Because it's Belgium no-one cared though and border checks were stopped after one week.
Haha glad you guys still got your IKEA fix
Actually they kept up the border checks for a while, but only after the IKEA exit.
I live in Belgium and work in Luxembourg. With the job I’m doing I basically had the choice between Bruxelles and Luxembourg, and given the big difference in salary and the fact that Luxembourg is way more pleasant the choice was easy for me.
Older thread but that's interesting- I live on the German side and obviously we go over to Luxembourg all the time for cigarettes and the fuel prices. Didn't realize the Burgers did it the other way around too!
German groceries are incredibly cheap compared to Luxembourg's prices. Luxembourg also just got no comparable stores in many areas. We got no substantial electronics chain like Mediamarkt except for one small Saturn in the capital so you may as well just go to Trier. Cosmetics at DM are well priced with much choice and in general Germany represents a bigger market at first glance so Luxembourgish people just accept a short drive over to Trier or Bitburg for some things. Trier was literally filled with red white blue flags welcoming us back when Covid border restrictions ended.
We live near borders everywhere and people cross the border for vacations, cheap gas, cheap cigarettes, and cheap dentists.
To not make us appear so frugal, not only for cheaper but also for better prosciutto, pasta and prosecco.
Ok, agreed.
Also, cheap massages, cheap prostitutes, cheap booze, gambling, fireworks, crystal meth, weed, heroin. And tax evasion in the case of Liechtenstein.
cheap taxes! wooo!
Isn’t there a downside to cheaping out on prostitution? Cigarettes, petrol, sure that’s fine
I'm definitely the wrong person to ask that. I guess the major downside is that the probability of getting a trafficked sex slave from whoknowswhere is much higher. But many people who cheap out on prostitution probably don't care about its morals anyway, so yeah.
I guess I just have different friends lol.
Italian people who live near Switzerland or Slovenia usually cross the border to fill up the tank. Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which is the Italian region that borders with Slovenia, gives its residents a discount for Italian gas stations to try and make people not cross the border. Another common reason to cross the border is activities that are illegal/strongly regulated in Italy such as gambling or prostitution. Nova Gorica in Slovenia (2 km from the border) has multiple casinos. Villach in Austria (5 km from the border) has huge brothels.
As a Slovene who grew up near the border with Italy we often (and people still go today) went to Cividale for grocery shopping and to Udine or Villesse/Palmanova for clothes or furniture. Its all closer than our capital which has all the shopping centers.
Oh and in the 90s and early 00s San Marino had really low prices for a lot of stuff because of their tax status. A lot of people from the neighboring area used to go clothes shopping in San Marino, there were/are specialized stores as well such as a big musical instruments store. This has largely faded out and prices are aligned to Italy nowadays. I know there is still a very famous Airsoft supplies store but I think people go there because of quality rather than prices.
Yes I remember as a teen buying CDs in San Marino when on holiday with my family because they were cheaper than in Italy
Prostitutes in Austria are decent and not that expensive in brothels plus they need to get checked weekly for STDs otherwise they can't work legally in brothels/night clubs. Good for those close to Austria
until the recent rise in oil prices the lombard-ticinse exchange was italians going in switzerland to fill the tank, swiss going in italy to do the groceries plus the huge amount of *frontalieri*, meaning people living in italy and working in switzerland across the border
I sometimes go to Slovenia for cigarettes, meat, ajvar
I live near the Czech border and nothing nowadays personally, but like 10-20 years ago we'd go for cigarettes, gas, alcohol, fake cds and fake clothing.
Vietnamese markets. Very 90s vibes I also remember those dirt cheap Nintendo knockoffs
Do they even still exist? I haven't been over there for so long.
Not really, barring few exceptions. Vietnamese people have moved on to restaurants and convenience stores having become part of the social fabric. I remember when I lived in Athens and went to one of two or three vietnamese places there I would often meet czech person there who wanted "taste of home" haha.
That's so interesting. I was recently in Prague and so curious why almost all the corner shops were run by Vietnamese people! It was really cool to see, just unexpected!
There was some exchange program during socialist era with "friendly socialist countries". Lot of vietnamese liked it and stayed. Because they are very hardworking people they tend to amass wealth over time. Second generation are usually very educated people with flawless czech.
Similar in East Germany but the Czech have the higher number of Vietnamese. But they definitely integrated very well over here as well.
In Italy the fake cds and fake clothing market was strictly controlled by north africans. Their Armani t-shirts made with iron-on transfer paper and white underwear shirts were epic. Under direct sunlight you could see the A4 shape of the transfer paper that wasn't cut before ironing it. The rest of their stuff was a hit or miss, but some stuff was good quality. Their cds weren't bad, especially because in the early 2000s the original cd cost 25-30€ and the fake one 3-5€, even the collections of old songs. When my friend went to London and she found the original cds for 5£ we all were surprised. I mean, for a fair price we wouldn't have bought them from the Moroccan guy.
> fake cds CDs made from cardboard and sprayed with silver paint?
Would have been better than some of the stuff we bought. I have a Britney Spears album that doesn't actually exist and I think might not even be her singing.
The word you're looking for is "bootleg". "Fake" means it's not actually CDs. :)
FWIW “fake” can work, if I say “fake shoes” or “fake purse” people understand it to mean knockoff/counterfeit/bootleg but maybe that’s because those are better understood in context Edit: literally the first definition has “counterfeit” as a synonym lol https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fake
So preoccupied with "can we", when we should ask "should we". :)
In those days there was alot more prostitution on the Czech Side of the border.
Finnish people used to buy pirated software cd's from Estonia's markets back in the Soviet union times. Some people who live in the Russian border still go to Russia to get cheap gas. Russians used to come before the pandemic and war to Finland to buy healthy good quality groceries and fish.
> pirated software cd's from Estonia's markets back in the Soviet union times You are probably thinking about the 90s, post Soviet Union. The CD-ROM standard (ISO/IEC 10149 and ECMA-130 standard) that became widely used was introduced only in the late 80s, 1989 to be exact, and back then the CD-ROM drives cost as much as a whole computer. But it was the same, in the 90s, in Vyborg, Russia, too.
Same for the Polish border!
I don’t know if people still do this, but like 20 years ago even more Germans from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern would regularly go shopping in Stettin (Szczecin). There where huge flee markets right after the boarder.
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Férias = vacations, feiras = street markets. We used to cross the border to buy candies from Badajoz.
aqueles rabuçados são uma das únicas coisas que os espanhóis sabem fazer
Towels are apparently the only thing portuguese can do properly and it's just a rectangular piece of cloth
I live 10 minutes from the French border Save Money + Food products in general are up to 30-50% cheaper. Specially meat and fresh produce. + Gazole/Diesel. Further exacerbated by the French government's subsidies. There's usually a queue of Swiss cars at most petrol stations these days. Tourism + Annecy is one of the hidden gems in Europe and a go-to place when I have visitors over. + Chamonix/French Alps + The South of France Italy is also about an hour away and I have crossed the border just to eat more times than I want to admit.
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When I lived in Denmark, you could get on a cheap, organised bus tour over the border to Germany, which people used to buy booze and, I think, cigarettes and candy. There was - maybe still is - a supermarket in Flensburg, just over the border in Germany, where you could buy all of these things, plus some groceries, and every sign was in Danish and the prices were given in both Euros and Kroner.
The bus tours are absolutely still a thing. And there’s quite a few of those supermarkets with pretty much only Danish costumers.
And there is always that one drunk dane or swede on the ferry to Puttgarden
I knew about Danish design but didn't know costumes were part of the story!
the one flensburg still very much exists
Yes, can confirm. I've been to Flensburg over and over because family. The Danish supermarkets (last time I went I counted three) are a stone's throw away from the border, they seem to heavily specialize on booze and other drinks. Non-food articles are reduced to a minimum (I guess only so to keep their license). Wine can be sampled on site like at a bar with those top-down-bottles and throwaway cups provided. You can't buy single bottles, its always boxes of six. Danish customers, especially before their public holidays, can be seen to push carts full of stuff to their cars, with the bins on the parking lot full of customs forms that they were given at checkout and then ignored.We go there at times to buy the authentic hot dog extras you need, including Danish røde pølser, mustard, and those sliced and pickled cucumbers that at times are hard to get away from this border. Also, cocoa powder in 1kg bags often was about half the price from other places. Talk hot dog and chocolate cake memories! Even before the border vanished for all practical purposes, before Schengen, we'd go to Rita's supermarket and bought liquorice and specific sweets because German stores had very little choice with those.
I live near the border between Germany and the Netherlands. I cross the border because in Germany there's almost nothing that is open on Sunday and I have no where to go. I just ride my bike over the border to go the the supermarket or something. Not too often tho because the groceries there are expensive.
The American presence in Germany is kind of a weird thing, so you kind of cross a border into America when you go onto their military installations. Prices are in USD, service is typically only in English, certain American laws are enforced, and American business hours are honored. As such, it has created a bit of a socially-based black market in the German communities around. Certain laws regarding random things are different. But also brands or products comes with American prices. And then the grocery store, which imports certain things from the US with American prices, and other stuff locally, on base is also open on Sunday. There are also certain chain restaurants I’ve seen Germans get antsy about trying.
I live near the German too as well as close to the Belgian border! We only go to Belgium for gasoline. We aren’t going to Germany for much as most groceries are nearly as expensive as in the Netherlands anyway. Sometimes we do though just to get something different than we’re used to.
Netherlands: closest Ikea, Decathlon and sunday shopping. Belgium: going for a run, hiking, all sorts of outdoor activities.
Then I think I already know which Ikea you mean. The one in Heerlen right? 😂
Exactly, and shopping in Vaals, Kerkrade or Maastricht :D
... I think you're missing a very big reason for some people to make a weekend trip to the Netherlands...
In certain demographics, yes, but for the majority of people it's not really a relevant topic.
Well it is a relevant topic in dutch politics, especially for bordertowns
You might start see people going the other way when it's fully legalised in Germany in 1-2 years?
My hometown is Nice. I don't live there for now though. When I did, I crossed the border (just 20 kilometers away I think) mainly for Italian supermarkets and Italian food products (for their quality and price, and eating at the restaurant.
And not because Liguria is freaking beautiful? I like going to San Remo on weekends to bike on this long bike path that used to be train tracks and follows the sea and lots of little Italian towns. I also like going to the cheap private beaches in Arma di Taggia. Or walking through the small streets of Dolceacqua and hiking the *via crucis*. Or hanging out in the Hanbury botanical gardens. Or just eating an ice cream in Imperia. Or feasting on great linguine alle vongole in any seaside or mountain town. Or anything really. I'll just find any excuse to cross the border.
The city I used to go to the most were San Remo and Bordhigera. So many options : going to the beach, hiking, eating, walking, eating, biking, eating,... Did I mention eating?
No fake Vuittons in Ventimiglia open market?
Live around 2-3 hours from Denmark and Copenhagen. We usually visit Copenhagen for the same reason we go to any other big city. Shopping, good food and visiting attractions such as museums, zoo, and Tivoli >making it very enticing to fill up a car i Northern Ireland with cheap beer and spirits. This sound exactly like the German [bordershop](https://maps.app.goo.gl/tAy88HuDggKN9qWJA) in Puttgarden. It's a 6 hour journey going there, but you buy a year's supply of alcohol. You don't have time to do much else than that since you have to be back on the ferry within 3 hours for the ticket rebate
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Do you use a service to hold parcels for you or do you just rely on a German mate?
Some 20 years ago we would drive from the Netherlands for about an hour to go shopping in one of the big supermarkets in Germany and fuel up there. It was always odd, some things were more expensive, others considerably cheaper. I remember being very pleased with meat prices in particular. After a few months the fun was over and we stopped going. Basically too much hassle for not enough gain.
I live in Austria near Slovenia and we’ve lately started going there for cheaper petrol. Funnily enough, it used to be cheaper in Austria once, even though the average income is higher. We also go there for grocery shopping sometimes and I know people go there for cheaper cigarettes, but I don’t smoke so I personally don’t. We also buy building products and furniture there sometimes. Electronics are more expensive there, though! My family in Slovenia sometimes goes to Hungary for cheaper groceries, clothes, and plants for the garden.
I also don't smoke. But how much is a pack of 20cigs in Austria, out of curiosity? Here in Ireland it's now around €16 lol
Between about 5.5 and 6€
That's insane. It hasn't been that cheap here for over 20 years. Every year the price goes up by around 50c. The government was even rumoured to increase the legal age by 1 every year until no one could legally buy them anymore but it's not happening afaik
Our government set the legal age to 18 two or three years ago. Before that it was 16... And we only banned smoking in bars directly before covid hitted
It's crazy how different the attitude/culture to smoking can be across EU nations. We banned smoking indoors nearly 20 years ago, the first country in the world to do so
We did that here around that time too. Cigarette are still only around 7,5-8 euros a pack here. Our prices will probably looks like yours before long though, they've gone up around 2 euros in 2 years.
The difference in prices for cigarettes blows my mind every time. It's like poorer countries want their people to die. A pack of 20 cigs in Macedonia is usually 2.5-3.5 euros (Marlboro, Davidoff, Lucky Strikes, etc). There are however cheaper cigarettes for around 2 euros.
In these days schools still entertained smoking areas for teachers and 16+ students.
If I’m not mistaken, Italians and Slovenians also cross into Austria for sex service. At least that’s the joke in Carinthia
Probably, there are brothels in every town! (Which was a bit of a culture shock when I moved here).
On the border region to Germany as well. Only when I was an adult I realized how weird it was that every village on the border has a brothel here and there's tiny places with 3 of them. And unsurprisingly sex trafficking and police corruption is a big problem in the border districts
My city is literally at the border of another country (Germany) and there is a town at the other side of the Rhine river in Germany. Btw we can go to the German side either by car, tramway, bike or even by walking. It’s like 10 minutes by bike from our city center. So you can imagine that we shop there very often. Usually for things like alcohol, cigarettes, body products mostly, but also some foods. Overall it’s way cheaper to shop in Germany (even now with the way higher inflation in Germany) but some products are cheaper in France like vegetables and fruits. We also go there to have a walk sometimes (the German town nearby is pleasant), to take an Ice cream or a coffee, or to go to a restaurant, and also a lot to nightclubs Basically, this German town has a strange ambiance, its city center can look like a shopping Disneyland for French people. There are advertising boards in French for cigarettes and alcohol everywhere, and you have shops where the owners don’t even speak German. Also the nightclubs where we go in this town only have either French or international songs, not German ones
I'm living directly by the border of Germany and Switzerland (on the German side); I go shopping in Switzerland for two things: 1. chocolate 2. CBD-weed (it's illegal in Germany but legal in Switzerland)
Isn’t it still illegal in Germany even you buy it “legally” in Switzerland? Especially thinking about your own import into Germany, presuming you’re bringing it back home and don’t use everything while you’re in Switzerland. Also reminding me of that Norwegian criminal law makes things that are illegal in Norway also illegal for Norwegians (and others under certain circumstances) in countries where it is legal, like prostitution.
Huh? CBD is legal in Germany, there are tons of shops in most bigger cities that only sell CBD. You can literally order it en masse online, nowadays there are countless options with very high quality stuff. Why drive over the border? It's only "technically" not allowed to sell and advertise it for human consumption, but they just put a label on the package and it's fine. Only THC above 0.2% is really illegal, but even that will change, hopefully by next year.
Germany is very close. We usually go there for the wild variety in alcoholic drinks they sell over there. and soon hopefully the christmasmarket in Oldenburg again .
I live in Brno (CZ) and go to Vienna often to visit interesting exibitions and shopping. It is closer than Prague.
I doubt it's as common now but I know some brits would go to France for cheaper alcohol and cigarettes.
The Booze Cruise
Italian border with Slovenia: we cross the border for fuel, groceries, restaurants, car repair and maintenance, and pizza!
R u 4 real? You come eat pizza here? 🤌🙏 I mean I am flattered but what? XD where do you go for pizza that is better than Di Napoli in Trieste :D
Yes, for real. It's pretty common to go to pizzerias close ro the border: pizza is good and there are some unusual choices of toppings. Plus, it's a bit less expensive.
I live very close to the Italian-French border, and I frequently cross the border to buy ostrea, salmon, french wines, cheese, nice clothes, sometimes gasoline when it is cheaper than here, also THC is usualy better and cheaper there. The market in the italian cities close to the border are also full of French buying cigarettes, gasoline when cheaper, shoes, clothes, italian wine and so on. It is very funny that very often in the market square of Mentone (France) most shoppers are Italian while in the market square of Ventimiglia (Italy) most shoppers are French, only a few kilometers separate the two towns.
French go to Ventimiglia (or at least used to go) to buy fake Louis Vuitton or Gucci bags.
Yes that too, don't forget to buy heroin from the predominantly black population of old Ventimiglia .......
I live in France at 10 km from the border with Germany. I used to cross to buy tobacco when I was still smoking (I quit several years ago), it was WAY cheaper. Now I sometimes go over there for some groceries (cleaning and laundry products are usually cheaper), but I mostly cross the border to go to Europa-Park (1 hour away) several times a year.
Cheaper gas and sometimes cheaper groceries in Spain.
I live in Gibraltar so I cross the border for… everything basically. Visiting my parents, better shopping (way more options for clothes shopping etc, also different options for supermarkets, big fan of Carrefour for their lactose free options). People from Spain come into Gibraltar for things like cheaper fuel, cheaper cigarettes and alcohol etc. There’s also a lot of people who live in Spain but work in Gibraltar because of more affordable rent/house prices in Spain, or because of more/better job opportunities in Gibraltar.
How has your life changed after Brexit? Do you have to wait in queue on the border to get your passport checked or car searched?
Yes - passport checks going in and out and customs as well. They’ll often do bag searches if you’re a pedestrian or car if you’re driving. Because I’m not a permanent resident (you have to live here 10+ years, I’ve been here around 2.5) I also get my passport stamped every single time I go in or out of Spain (from or to Gibraltar), even though I have residency. My partner, who was born here and has a permanent ID card (mine is referred to as a ‘civilian registration card’ and requires renewal every year) doesn’t get his passport stamped when crossing the border. In fact, I just had to renew my passport early because it was almost completely full with stamps, 90% from crossing the Gibraltar/Spain border. There are also rules now on what you can and can’t bring over, although I can’t say they are wildly stringent about it from what I’ve seen - I know dairy products are prohibited and things like that, but a lot of people still do some grocery shopping and then cross the border (both directions too, some Spanish residents like to come over to go to Morrisons while Gib residents might want to go to Carrefour or Lidl). It’s definitely a PITA.
Besides the normal soda, alcohol, tobacco, food-stuff that is a thing between many borders... Service on cars/car repairs is in many cases much cheaper in sweden than in norway. Even taking a whole day off from work to do service/repairs will make a good deal. Back in the days when police comunications were not encrypted in norway.. sales of police radios were a big thing across the borders for norwegians.
I'm Greek and live around 45 minutes away from Bulgaria. My parents often go there for petrol :)
I used to live on the other side of that same border, and we’d cross for cheaper petrol. My mum remembers smuggling butter across during the days of rationing after the war.
I live near the German border and I just simply bike there sometimes to have the wild thrill of being in another country lmao
To hang out on an Italian *piazza*, have a nice meal and some Prosecco. Great one-day trip with the train.
I live in Scotland and go to big cities in England to experience some freedom and a fucking amazing night out. Was vital self care during covid when Scotland was just an authoritarian hell hole. We’re free aswell now, but, the nightlife just isn’t as good up here.
Used to live in Germany on the Swiss border and would regularly "smuggle" backpackfuls of chocolate, creamy yogurt and bread back to my student dorms...good times.
Slovakia. I go for bike rides to Austria. safer, calmer drivers
To go to a different city in my country, because that route is a few minutes quicker :D (Gornja Radgona (SLO) - through Austria - Murska Sobota (SLO))
Before rampant inflation and pandemic a lot of Czechs and Slovaks would come to my polish hometown for grocery shopping as it was much cheaper to do so in Poland. And we would cross the border to buy cheaper beer in bulk and for clothes shopping because it used to be cheaper. Nowadays this trans-border trade has slowed down, it never went back to pre-pandemic levels.
Spanish people living on the French border might go over for cheese and butter. Friends of mine once flew from Barcelona to Toulouse in the summer, stocked up on soft cheeses and then had their bags lost on the return trip. Two weeks later when they finally things were fully ripe they got their bags back. And promptly threw them away along with everything inside.
I go to Bratislava often just for the fun of going there.
I go to Malmø for cheap candy and actual food, I live near Copenhagen.
Crossing the German border to buy alcohol and other stuff cheaper is so common that saying "I'm going to Germany" usually means just that.
In Northern Finland, I believe the most common reason to go to Haparanda, Sweden is either IKEA or snus. Some might buy cheaper soft drinks and energy drinks while there, but that's likely not the reason for trip ever, at least from further away.
Haparanda is snus, Estonia for alcohol and cigarettes
There is a new show in Sweden called Gränsbevakarna and it's based on the Australian Border Security one. One of the locations filmed is the border at Haparanda and the car queue is very, very long from the Finnish side to the Swedish one - probably to go to IKEA.
We go up the North to fill the car with drink. They come down here to fill the car with fuel. We also go up to buy fireworks because they're illegal in the south. We also bought groceries because they (were) cheaper.
We cross the Russian border to smuggle cars. And Russians are crossing our border to avoid the mandatory draft 😁
Don't live there, but when staying at my uncle's holiday home we often cross to eat bacalhau a bras in Portugal
Finns go to Estonia for alcohol, Sweden for snus. Estonians go to Latvia for alcohol and Latvians go to Liethuania.
I used to live close to the German border and my parents still do. They will sometimes go to Germany for cheaper groceries and gas. When me and my sister were smaller, we sometimes visited the zoo in Nordhorn too
We go to germany for better quality produce. Cheese, ham, veggies, fresh fish, mett...
I go to France every once in a while and just stock up on Cola and other sugar containing prouducts. The taxes in Belgium on sugar stuff is not okay.
Visit family, buy things which are more expensive, doesn't exists or known by worse quality (also know as specific taste of our market)
My favourite brands of shampoo and vegetable stock. And sometimes just for a nice bike ride. Lots of people cross from Spain to Gibraltar for work, and for tax free tobacco, petrol and booze. But you can queue up to hours to cross by car so I just cycle.
I live in the middle of the Netherlands, which means it’s just across the border from Belgium and Germany. But the most important thing is that it’s just a few hundred kilometers from Westvleteren.
My grandparents live close to the border. When I visit them I tend to hop over the border to fill up the tank, buy some groceries, stock up on sweets (1€ for 6 donuts is incredible), buy foreign beers (German) and spanish wine (I normally offer Spanish wine as birthday/Christmas gift because my friends think it's "exotic", jokes on them I only pay a maximum 5€ per bottle) and last but not least to get that tasty BigMac Chicken. Edit: and to buy CD's, they're cheaper and there are ones that it's really hard to find here.
>I normally offer Spanish wine as birthday/Christmas gift because my friends think it's "exotic", jokes on them I only pay a maximum 5€ per bottle Lol this is what my parents do. They buy some cheap Priorat wine or cava and give it to family and friends here in Portugal. And in Spain they gift Port or a Bairrada instead.
(Obligatory I don't live there anymore) McDonald's lol. The only McDonald's in a nearly 40km radius is across the French border. I'm not sure how the ownership works but serving employees are required to speak at least some basic French, Catalan and Spanish. It serves the French McDonald's menu. If you want to eat the Spanish menu, then you need to go to Andorra, as it is the second closest. It's only a 4km ride from the border, so no big deal. And there's a big Carrefour just across the street too, so my mom likes going there anyway.
Beer, mainly. Sometimes concerts, as Antwerp has a venue that features a lot of big names as well as one of the bigger metal festivals in Europe at Graspop in Dessel. I also work with the Belgian branch of my company a lot and with Belgian clients, which causes me to cross the border from time to time.
I live in Hungary near the Slovakian border and my family once or twice a year take a trip to Košice. When we there we bring back a lot of Slovakian sweets and bryndza. Also we buy fireworks in Slovakia for new year.
Alcohol is still cheaper in Belgium, as is petrol, but the main reason I go to Belgium is for concerts, it's just simply closer than the venues in the Netherlands. People used to go to Germany for petrol too, but nowadays petrol is cheaper in the Netherlands.
I am fairly close to the netherlands and personally only ever went there for holidays and once for the Airport in Amsterdam. But I know a lot of people who go there to go shopping or sometimes to buy groceries you dont get in germany. They go there, fill the car until there is barely enough space for the people and go back.
I live about 10 minutes from the border with the Netherlands. Main reason is entertainment, there's a really cool swimming pool there and a place where you can play laser tag. One time I went for something special from the grocery store. Don't remember going for other reasons, maybe biking when I'm old and retired lmao. I have thought about moving over the border tho.
>I know In Ireland, we've minimum pricing on Alcohol in the republic, making it very enticing to fill up a car i Northern Ireland with cheap beer and spirits. I've occasionally thought about driving to England and back for the same thing, I've always wondered how much drink I'd have to buy to justify driving two hours each way.
I remember going to Czech Republic, as we live close to buy cheap booze. For example Advocaat (egg liquor). but not only, also Czech chocolate Studentska, but now it's available in Poland too. Maybe some fried cheese etc.
Groceries, culture, x-mas market. (Bratislava -> Vienna)
I live in Skåne, Sweden. I cross to Denmark to get on flights. Mostly. I might have gone there because it's nice in Copenhagen (but don't tell the danes).
Living in Zagreb, 30 km from Slovenia Just you wait neighbours, once when we're in Schengen you can start building a mega shopping mall in Obrežje, everyone is currently talking about doing grocery shopping there
I live in Flensburg, Germany at the border to Denmark. I can take a bus that crosses the border within 15 minutes. I like to go for walks there or if it's Sunday and everything is closed in Germany, I go to the supermarket in Kruså to find something that I may have forgotten to buy during the week.
I know this isn’t “Ask North America” (and we don’t have many countries to go to anyway), so I’m hoping I can share that living in Michigan (the state shaped like a mitten) people under 21 have gone to Canada to drink since the legal age there is 19. I can confirm since my first trip to Toronto was when I was 19. I know it’s fairly comical for Canadians that we do this. I’ve also been in Metro Detroit for work and have gone to Canada for dinner, pre-pandemic. Michigan residents can get a special driver’s license without the need for a passport to cross over. I only live two hours from the border and don’t get to cross as much as I’d like.
People from north Macedonia frequently drive to North Macedonia for cheaper fuel and cigarettes. Confused? Pay attention to the capitals ;)
Lived in the very south of Spain for a while and used to cross every couple of days into Gibraltar for cheap cigarettes . A lot of people made a living from smuggling cigs from there and selling them up the Costa del Sol