# Which categories are worth buying airside

Duty falls unevenly. That single fact decides most of what is worth putting in a bag at the airport, and it is why a blanket rule about duty free being good value or poor value is always wrong. Here is the shape of it, category by category, as a place to start before you check the actual numbers on your own route.

## Spirits: usually the strongest case

Spirits carry the heaviest excise duty in most countries, so removing it moves the price the most. The gap is widest where home duty is high and narrowest where it is low. Within spirits, the case is strongest on the categories that are expensive to begin with, because the duty is charged on alcohol rather than on value and the saving is a larger share of a modest bottle's price, while the airport range at the top end includes bottlings you will struggle to find at home. Start with [whisky](/alcohol/whisky), [cognac and brandy](/alcohol/cognac-brandy) and [tequila and mezcal](/alcohol/tequila-mezcal).

## Sparkling wine: worth a look, rarely a landslide

Wine duty is lighter than spirits duty almost everywhere, so there is less to remove. Champagne is the exception worth checking, because airport ranges carry the prestige bottlings at concession prices and the home comparison is a full price retailer rather than a supermarket promotion. [Champagne and sparkling](/alcohol/champagne-sparkling).

## Fragrance and cosmetics: the tax, and only the tax

There is no excise on fragrance or cosmetics in most places, so what comes off is sales tax. That is a real reduction against full list price and an unreliable one against a discounter at home. Travel sets and airport sizes complicate the comparison, sometimes in your favour. [Perfume](/beauty/perfume), [makeup](/beauty/makeup) and [skincare](/beauty/skincare).

## Tobacco: heavily taxed, heavily limited

Tobacco carries the heaviest duty of all, so the reduction is large, and the allowances are correspondingly tight. The limit will usually bind long before the saving becomes interesting, and a number of countries restrict what may be brought in at all.

## Confectionery and gifts: convenience, not value

Airport confectionery is priced as convenience and gifting. Large novelty formats exist mostly at airports, which makes them hard to compare and easy to overpay for. Buy them because you want them, not because the shelf is duty free.

## The rule underneath all of it

Category tells you where to look. Only the actual observed prices tell you whether this bottle, at these airports, this month, is worth buying. That is what the comparison is for: [set the airports on your route](/savings) and look at the real numbers, each with the date we saw it.