Compare the best Duty Free prices at Border Stores, Downtown Duty Free shops or to find Tax-Refund Shopping

Search here if you want to compare Duty Free prices at the Border Stores. Or to find tax free shops that operate downtown, this section of the duty free on arrival shopping guide gives you a list of many stores by country or city.

We also provide a list of Travel Retailers and details about some of the product sectors where discounts are often available. Here you can find shopping advice about items such as mobile phones, electronics, perfumes, cosmetics and alcohol, such as whisky or wine.

Cross border shopping is very common outside Europe and especially in Latin America, where people travel thousands of miles to shop duty free. Finding the best bargains on the products you want to buy can be complicated and we list many of the stores by location. We do not sell duty free products from this site, but we do guide you to the stores and the rules at your destination.

One of the most comprehensive frontier shopping locations is the USA, with their extensive borders with Canada and Mexico. We list almost all the relevant stores by city and also the Customs regulations related to where you are travelling from and to. Exemptions are important, especially if you are thinking "can I buy cigarettes or liquors duty free?", because the Customs rules for these products are becoming more restricted all the time.

At the border travellers have more time to browse, so online duty free pre-order is not very common for these frontier stores. But, many of the retailers now have an online product list, some with prices, offers and promotions. We feature many links to these outlets.

In Asia, border stores are not quite so common as in The Americas, but Malaysian and Thai Duty Free stores have now expanded at the crossing points and China is expanding their list of stores too. The real big business in Asia is what they call "Downtown Duty Free Shopping", something generally unheard of in the USA or Europe. With downtown shopping, you can buy tax or duty free if you are a foreigner and have the goods delivered to your departure airport or cruise port. This can be very attractive, because you can visit a department store downtown at your leisure, then take advantage of the tax free savings. You don't need to do any paperwork, the goods are sold to you with the tax deducted.

Downtown shopping is a different type of business to Tax Free shopping, because for the latter, you normally have to re-claim the tax back when you return home and also have your goods inspected at the airport. There are Companies that do the work for you, but they all make a charge for doing this. The largest Firm in this field is called Global Blue. This tax free service can give you a much larger range of stores to shop in, but the downside can be the long lines at the airport for Customs inspection and getting the paperwork stamped. Much depends on where you are travelling to or from and what you want to buy.

The list of duty free products and brands goes beyond the conventional duty free shops in airports or on airlines and in these border locations you can even buy electrical products such as televisions, washing machines, celfones, computers, iPads and iPhones. Cameras and especially the GoPro, which is now the much wanted product, are widely available. Again, checking our online duty free directory should be helpful.

This leaves Europe and especially the EU Member States. In Europe, there are frontier shops when leaving the European Union to non-EU member countries like Turkey or Russia and from Greece into the Balkan states. Between EU Countries there are no duty free sales, so any border stores you find are actually tax paid shops.

dutyfreeonarrival is the world's first global search to offer you details of the border stores, downtown stores, tax refund and the Customs rules. So which ever method of travel you decide to use for your journey it can be found on this site. Planning ahead before you travel will help you to find the best duty free prices and bargains.

*last updated 6th August 2016