Iceland’s duty free limit is relatively generous, and bringing wine into the country with you can be a big money-saver.
Saving money in Iceland
Iceland is an astonishingly expensive place to visit. This is particularly the case if you like a drink or two, as prices for a basic drink in bars and restaurants will make visitors from almost everywhere weep.
Therefore, if you would prefer to spend money on experiences such as Northern Lights tours, ice cave adventures and glacier hikes, it pays to bring drinks into the country with you.
Iceland’s duty free allowance
In fact, one of the best money-saving tips for an Icelandic holiday is to maximise your duty free allowance on the way in. And, thankfully, Iceland’s duty free allowance is fairly generous.
Under Icelandic law, travellers can bring in up to six units of duty free alcohol. Fortunately, these units do not correspond at all to the units of alcohol used for weighing up whether someone is safe to drive.
How many beers can you bring into Iceland?
If you’re flying into Iceland, you’re allowed to bring 72 half litre beers per person before having to pay extra tax. Six beers is one unit under Icelandic duty free regulations.
Obviously, that’s not going to be practical for most travellers, so you’re better off looking at how many bottles of wine you can bring into Iceland duty free.
How many bottles of wine you can bring into Iceland
Under the same somewhat bizarre units rule, a single 0.75L bottle of wine is one unit. Therefore, each person can bring six bottles of wine with them into Iceland. Drinking a bottle of cheap supermarket wine from back home is going to work out substantially cheaper than ordering at the hotel bar.
Iceland’s duty free limits: Spirits
If you’d prefer the harder stuff, or are simply going to struggle to carry six bottles of wine each, the units limit is slightly less generous on spirits. But every traveller can bring 1.5L of spirits duty free into Iceland.
More Iceland travel ideas
Other Iceland travel stories on Planet Whitley include:
- Snorkelling between continents in the Silfra Fissure.
- Into the Glacier tour review.
- Inside Vidgelmir – Iceland’s giant lava cave.
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