If you're a smoker...

If you’re a smoker you’ll be wondering how much cigarettes cost in Portugal, or if you can smoke in the bars, or also more simply where to buy cigarettes!

In this post I’ll attempt to provide answers for these simple questions, because some things weren’t even clear to me at the beginning, and I had to do a bit of research.

How much do they cost?

I don’t want to disappoint you, but a pack costs exactly the same as it does in Italy. However, that’s good news, because in countries such as France they cost a lot more and smoking becomes more of an expensive “hobby” (as if it wasn’t already! )

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Where can I buy them?

In Italy, we are used to buying cigarettes from tobacconists, recognisable by the “T” outside the shop. I spent half a day searching for any door with the infamous T, but I didn’t find a single one. However, I saw people smoking so there had to be a T somewhere. There were none! No T’s, there were people smoking everywhere and the T’s did not exist! And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. Often within bars one can find a bulky vending machine to purchase cigarettes. You must present some form of ID to prove your age, and the cashier will activate the machine (unlike in Italy, where all you need to do is insert your tax code! ).

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The weirdest thing? You could even find these machines in some supermarkets.

In other cases, however, you can find normal tobacconists (as I’ve already told you don’t have the letter T outside). Some souvenir shops even sell cigarettes!

Can you smoke inside bars?

As is well known, Portugal also has laws banning indoor smoking, at minimum so that the environment is not equipped with designated smoking rooms. Same as Italy.

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Something not the same is that no one respects the ban and practically everyone smokes in all the bars. Not in the restaurants, but it’s quite common in the bars. Maybe this will make people happy but, at least for me, it was a real nuisance. In fact, from the moment that everyone starts smoking without problems, and that the air is not able to circulate, you end every evening with every inch smelling like smoke! So the clothes stink and have to be washed every time (and I’m hopeless when it comes to using the washing machine so for me it was a huge pain in the neck) and that’s not all! Because the hair smells also, and it gets dirty faster, and the skin becomes disgusting (I had hoped to detox from the smog in Milan! )

And if you smoke tobacco?

I know little about tobacco, Bru smokes tobacco and I know that it’s exhausting finding the small filters! Obviously, the vending machines I previously mentioned don’t sell filters or the other things needed to roll a cigarette.

That’s the only thing I can say on the matter!

And I want to leave you with this last photo of the cigarette brand VENTiL, that I’d never seen before in Italy (probably because we don’t have it there! ). Isn’t the packaging beautiful? Especially that of the cartons given that cigarette packets are all ruined by the horrific images.

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Good day to all smokers! (and non-smokers too)

Alessia

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