www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Headed down this summer and wondering if there are any good tours for cigars?

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Only one place you need to go and that is Zona2. Bruce has a shop in the front that will save you time and have what you want at a fair price. Don't buy anything off the street they are all knockoffs.

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If you let the devil ride, he's gonna want to drive

You don't even have to leave SJ to see Don Benigno's men roll cigars. He has a house about 20 min taxi ride away from the HDR that has cuban rollers in it.

http://www.benignocigars.com/ +506 2296-8111

There is a tall skinny taxi driver that hangs out at the HDR, Just outside the door or right across the street in the parking lot that drives a van that knows Don Benigno & speaks excellent English that will take you there & translate for you. ( I know, I know...that doesn't help a bit, there are a million of them but if you find a tall skinny one just ask, "Sabes donde esta la fabrica de puros de Don Benigno?" as he was the only one we found that knew of him!)

When we went, we got lucky & met Don Benigno himself. He bought a house & started rolling cigars from actual cuban leaf, did so well he bought the house next to it & uses it for his showroom/store & entertaining customers. He speaks very fast Cuban Spanish so it was very hard for me to understand him, which unless you are very fluent in Espanol (I can speak fairly well but when they get rolling, I get lost quite easily) you will need a translator. He will be able to tell you if they are rolling, open or closed & if Don Benigno will be there or not.

He sent his driver for a bottle of Brandy & we sat at this little outdoor bar area he has for entertainment & drank Brandy & each got 2 sample cigars on the house just for sitting there talking with him for an hour or so. I don't drink Brandy but one of the wings did & he said it was top shelf.

We each wound up buying a different box of 25 cigars, & split them up so we could each sample different cigars. The prices are written in stone on a pamphlet so there is no haggling or worrying about getting ripped off. He has a fully stocked Humidor & I believe you can buy a single or a box. The 2 boxes cost just over $300 so about $6/cigar & well worth it.

The highlight of the event was talking to Don Benigno, drinking brandy with him & sampling his cigars while listening to his stories about his journey from Cuba to CR. It was an awesome suprise 2 hour excursion out of the gulch & we got some great cigars from him. No issues what so ever bringing them back as they have a DB wrapper on them & are made in CR not Cuba.

I know the Humidor Room is close & in the Gulch but $35+ for one cigar is out of my price range by about $30. No offense Hum Room.

Do yourself a favor & go visit Don Benigno , you won't regret it.

CostaReeker

You need to drop by the HHR and samples their custom-rolled (in Costa Rica) Nicaraguan puros - the label is Trenza de Nicaragua. They are excellent sticks and the bundle price is exceptional (I'll let Bruce quote prices - but it isn't $35 a stick).

They are the cigarro de casa at the lodge - one gratis per angler per day.

I understand you don't want to pay market price for habanos (and probably not for Padrons either), but I can tell you honestly that their prices for habanos are reasonable. I also seek out sub-$10/8/6/5 a stick gems and my humidor in the US is filled with the HHR's TdN sticks.

Heck one of my wealthy anglers - a guy that has a walk-in humidor full of high-end sticks in his cigar smoking room (complete with a cigar bar-level smoke extraction system) has bought over 200 TdN sticks.

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Any opinion or observation in the post above is purely presented for entertainment purposes and does not promote "sexual tourism" or "human trafficking". The laws of Costa Rica apply to all activities in Costa Rica. No warranty is expressed or implied. Void where prohibited by law. Your experience, observations or perspective may be different.

In exile in pu*sy prison

[/quote]
(I'll let Bruce quote prices - but it isn't $35 a stick).
[/quote]
I should have been more specific. I was there in Feb & whatever Cubans we asked about were $35-$40 per stick. Like I said, way out of my range for one cigar! I don't know if the guy was the owner or someone that was just watching the place. Anyway, I was referring to the real Cuban cigars, not the rest of them. Sorry

CR

Genuine Cubans from $14 on up. Cabinets of 25 La Tranza De Nicaragua robustos are $95. Very good smokes

(I'll let Bruce quote prices - but it isn't $35 a stick).
[/quote]
I should have been more specific. I was there in Feb & whatever Cubans we asked about were $35-$40 per stick. Like I said, way out of my range for one cigar! I don't know if the guy was the owner or someone that was just watching the place. Anyway, I was referring to the real Cuban cigars, not the rest of them. Sorry

CR[/quote]

Yes, if you ask about Cohiba Petit Behikes or some other higher end habano it is going to be expensive. My habanos of choice are the H. Upmann Magnum 50; the Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill and the Partagas Serie D No. 4. All top out around $20 a stick. Obviously I don't smoke one every day.

My favorite Padron Family Reserve 6x50 is $35 a stick. Obviously I don't smoke one every day.

And, as WiseAsh said, the real habanos - not the fake street vendor habanos - at HHR start at $14 a stick.

Obviously I don't smoke one every day. But the TdN robusto, which is $3.80 a stick (bundle price) is a fabulous smoke and actually rarer than a habano because you can only get them at the HHR.

My daily smokes include inexpensive sticks like the Consuegra Rothschild #9 and such.

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Any opinion or observation in the post above is purely presented for entertainment purposes and does not promote "sexual tourism" or "human trafficking". The laws of Costa Rica apply to all activities in Costa Rica. No warranty is expressed or implied. Void where prohibited by law. Your experience, observations or perspective may be different.

In exile in pu*sy prison

Bruce at http://havanahumidorroom.com is the best place to pick up a quality Cuban cigar as well a select few non-Cubans.

The advice about Bruce is very good advice.

If you have any interest in cigars, you don't need to go anywhere else. Bruce's shop is located inside of Zona 2, at the corner of Avenida 9 and Calle 3A.

In one place, you'll have all of the cigars, girls and drinks that you can handle.

Go there. You won't be sorry.

I should have been more specific. I was there in Feb & whatever Cubans we asked about were $35-$40 per stick. Like I said, way out of my range for one cigar! I don't know if the guy was the owner or someone that was just watching the place. Anyway, I was referring to the real Cuban cigars, not the rest of them. Sorry

CR[/quote]

Yes, if you ask about Cohiba Petit Behikes or some other higher end habano it is going to be expensive. My habanos of choice are the H. Upmann Magnum 50; the Romeo y Julieta Wide Churchill and the Partagas Serie D No. 4. All top out around $20 a stick. Obviously I don't smoke one every day.

My favorite Padron Family Reserve 6x50 is $35 a stick. Obviously I don't smoke one every day.

And, as WiseAsh said, the real habanos - not the fake street vendor habanos - at HHR start at $14 a stick.

Obviously I don't smoke one every day. But the TdN robusto, which is $3.80 a stick (bundle price) is a fabulous smoke and actually rarer than a habano because you can only get them at the HHR.

My daily smokes include inexpensive sticks like the Consuegra Rothschild #9 and such.[/quote]
So that's 14 a stick for regular cubans , non big brand?

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Bundle price is 95? Thats pretty cheap

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And you can tell your amigos "That cigar is rarer than a habano."

Which is true You can only get them from the HHR!

Everyone that I've given one to has assumed they were $15-20 sticks.

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Any opinion or observation in the post above is purely presented for entertainment purposes and does not promote "sexual tourism" or "human trafficking". The laws of Costa Rica apply to all activities in Costa Rica. No warranty is expressed or implied. Void where prohibited by law. Your experience, observations or perspective may be different.

In exile in pu*sy prison

Have any of you shipped a box of habanos back to US? I heard its easy to get through?

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Shipped? No. Hand carry? If you aren't sketchy (match whatever profile Customs has) so that they pull you aside and do a colonoscopy then its only an issue of it being illegal.

People do it.

There's a lot of misunderstanding over the current rules since Obama "attacked*" Cuba. IF you go legally to Cuba on a non-tourist visit ('person-to-person engagement' or whatever), then you can bring back $100 worth of Cuban cigars - not 100 cigars.**

Otherwise, the allowed amount is 100 (non-Cuban) cigars and the excise duty above that is 52.75% of sales price but not to exceed $402.60 per 1,000 to a maximum of $4026.

* At the recent 8th Party Congress, both Raul and Fidel made blistering speeches about how Obama's visit was an attack disguised as a gesture of friendship. So far, we given the Cubans every concession they've demanded and the Cubans have rejected every US negotiating point.

**https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/36/~/importing-cuban-cigars

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Any opinion or observation in the post above is purely presented for entertainment purposes and does not promote "sexual tourism" or "human trafficking". The laws of Costa Rica apply to all activities in Costa Rica. No warranty is expressed or implied. Void where prohibited by law. Your experience, observations or perspective may be different.

In exile in pu*sy prison

Any good local cigars like the la tranza ? Other brands?

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