daisya2

My husband and I are travelling to Thailand (Bangkok-Oriential & Koh Samui- Four Seasons) in 2 weeks. I have read about the outrageous wine prices. Can anyone give me an exact idea of how much wine costs. Our idea of a good dinner, usually includes a nice bottle of wine.

Tim_and_Liz

I read in a trip report on this site that Robert Mondavi's Woodbridge wines sell for US$60 in Thailand! They are about US$6-7/bottle here in Minneapolis.

Tim_and_Liz

Can anyone comment on whether there is reasonably-priced duty free wine available at the BKK airport? Or is that taxed as well?

KimJapan

Here's the drinks list from the Loy Nova dinner cruise. Wine prices here should be representative of what they might be in restaurants, with the most expensive restaurants having a nicer selection. http://www.loynava.com/barlist.html

In staying and eating at the Peninsula, Conrad BKK, and other less well known places in Thailand, we have always had wine with our dinner and though the prices are higher than the US, it kind of balances out by the lower cost of food in most places. One memorable dinner at the Peninsula, though, our food cost for 3 of us was 1/4 the wine cost...but we knew that when we ordered. There were more reasonable wines on the list, we just picked a spendy one.

Elizabeth_S

Now I *know* we're kindred spirits in more than just name!

We bought Hardy's (or maybe it was Penfold's) Chardonnay and Merlot in 1 litre bottles in the BKK airport duty free store every time we passed through it (and that was several times) - it was about $9/bottle US - and there were several comparable wines at similar prices.

And we bought some wine at a 7-11 near our hotel near Wat Pho and the prices weren't as insane as I had come to expect (bearing in mind, however, that we live in Ontario and our wine prices aren't as good as yours).

Good news though - wine is really cheap in SR!

MichaelBKK

Wine prices in Bangkok's duty free are reasonably priced. However, note that the duty free allowance is only one liter per person, and customs is on the lookout for people trying to bring in more than their allowance.

moremiles

Is anything else a good buy at BKK duty free or NRT duty free for that matter?

Kathie

About the only thing we ever buy at duty free in Bangkok is liquor or wine. Of course, with the restrictions on carrying liquids, we were not able to bring back our usual bottles of Cognac from Bangkok.

Thailand imposes a 400% duty on wines, so any wine you buy will be at least 5x the price you are accustomed to paying.

Many people feel that Thai food lends itself better to beer than wine. Think flexibly about what to drink with dinner. I find I don't often opt for a bottle of wine in Thailand. I drink very good wines at home, so the idea of paying $50 for a mediocre bottle of wine in Thailand doesn't thrill me. We'll bring in some wine or champagne from duty free, and we might order a bottle of wine with a special dinner or two, but otherwise we drink other things in Thailand.

Tim_and_Liz

Since this is daisy's post (sorry daisy!) does anyone know if she will be able to purchase duty-free wine at the Koh Samui airport?

LizS- I have the same feelings toward you. I think you and Richard are our SE Asia trip rolemodels, if such things exist! We loooove wine. We plan on enjoying it in SR and will pick up one liter each at the BKK airport on our way into BKK.

Kathie

I don't believe Koh Samui is an international airport, I think all flights are domestic. (someone will correct me if I'm wrong.) The airport is owned by Bangkok Air. So any duty free would need to be purchased at the duty free in Bangkok, and would not be available on domestic flights.

Tim_and_Liz

Kathie-

I know there are nonstop flights from HK to KS, so I guess it would be an international airport... But I obviously haven't been there, so I don't know about duty-free!

Liz

Tim_and_Liz

Or if the duty-free shops would be available to those coming from BKK, as I assume daisy is.

Bisbee

Koh Samui (USM) is an International Airport.

Hanuman

You guys can always search online for wine prices in Thailand and here're some web site that you can find the information that you need:

My favourite website for wine prices comparison and you can input Thailand for the merchant's location:
http://www.wine-searcher.com/

Good selection of California wines:
http://www.wine.co.th/index.php

rhkkmk

THERE ARE A NUMBER OF PLACES IN thailand where you can purchase cheaper wine---grocery stores and some of the more up market wines.....but the prices are very steap....
my wife often has one glass of wine with dinner in thailand and it costs about $6-12 depending on where you have it....usually it is not the most delicious wine you have ever had...

i stick to beer and love it with the thai foods, especially the very hot ones....

Kathie

I defer to Hanuman as the local expert on wine prices in Thailand.

I've shopped for wines in Bangkok a number of times, but really found the prices so high that I wasn't willing to buy them! Even in grocery stores you'll pay 5x (at least) of the price in the US. So if I want a nice wine, I do buy something at duty free on the way in to Thailand. I should mention that we always stay in the club floors at the Royal Orchid (called the Towers), so we get free drinks - including ok Australian wines every evening.

JamesA

I am no wine expert but enjoy a glass once in a while.
We buy cheap Italian house wine at B 360 ( USD 11 ) for I think it is 2.5L bottle.
For decent wine I get Jacobs Creek ( Austalia ) at about B 680 a bottle ( USD 20 ).
The mark up depends very much on the restaurant, in general the higher up the standard of the restaurant/hotel the mark up increases.