Hey friends,
I'm heading down to Playa next week for some fun in the sun. I plan to bring most of my cigars from home to smoke, but I wonder whether any of you may have recent experience with LCDH or the Paratagas Cigar shop on 5th Ave?
I'm looking for a box of Ramon Allones SS and some TeAmo Revolutions, which I can't find here in Toronto.
Your thoughts are always appreciated!
Cheers!
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Alright, so I'll provide the update to this post.
I just came home from a nice week in Playa. I took with me a very nice selection of cigars, which I thoroughly enjoyed. If you're heading down there, definitely pack your own smokes.
The resorts have the usual Cohiba, HdM, RYJ, MC#2 & MC#4, and Te-Amo singles, and that's it. They were priced high and not all of them were maintained in proper humidors.
I ventured into the town of Playa. 5th Ave is where all the action is. There is one LCdH at the north end. Selection was pretty good, prices were equivalent to what I pay here in Canada. Basically insanely high. I picked up a Romon Allones SS and a huge mojito to enjoy while walking the strip.
The strip had lots of cigars shops & touristy cigar factories. The factories sold cigars, mostly local Mexican A.Turrent/Te-Amo stuff...alongside some Cuban stuff, which I assume was fake. None of which were in any sort of humidor at all. Open air shelving right off the street.
I was offered lots and lots of Cubans in glass top cigar boxes off the street, which of course were all fake.
At the south end of 5th ave, I stopped into La Casa Paratagas. This was definitely a proper cigar shop with proper humidity controlled humidor and a large selection. Prices still high. I picked up a couple new release A.Turrent Centrenario to try. The Cuban stuff all appeared to be legit, based on the accurate box labeling and appearance of the cigars.
Final cigar stop was the duty free in Cancun terminal 2. Cigar selection was weak. Te-Amo boxes, Cohiba, MC, RyJ, and Davidoff boxes. Humidor hygrometer was indicating 52%. A little disappointing...I rolled the dice and grabbed a 4 pack of Davidoff 2000 Tubos $54USD. Never see Davidoff stuff in Canada. They're going to rest in my humidor for 6 months or so. I'm sure they'll be fine.
The duty free pricing was pretty bad. A box of 3 MC#2 Tubos was $93USD. That's more than what they cost me in Toronto. Stick to the booze in there. The Flor de Cana 7 was really nice at $16 USD a bottle if you bought 2.
Ramon Allones
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My Wife, who I am slowly leading down the path to the good life one cigar at a time...
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Wish I had seen this sooner. Used to go to Playa del Carmen a couple times a year, love it there. You should skip the resort, some of the boutique hotels there are pretty nice, and you can hit the nightlife there much more easily, as well as hit the restaurants...
I don't think I ever went into Casa Partagas... I think I went into Morgan's cigar store, saw a couple "cubans" with labels that looked a little hinky and decided not to trust any of them.
There's some boston (I think) themed restaurant and cigar bar along 5th... I've been there a couple times, their cigars looked legit, but a lot of them were in bad condition (torn wrappers etc)...
La Casa Del Habana (I know... I know... seriously suspicious name) surprisingly enough has always been a favorite of the gf's for their hookahs. Real nice glass hookahs with good thick hoses/wooden mouthpieces. I've looked through their cigars and tried a couple, didn't seem to be fakes, but weren't any cheaper.
I usually brought my own down there.
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I visited a Casa Partagas in Playa about 3 years ago. The smokes I looked at/bought were legit. The lady helping me did have some misinformation when describing some of the cigars I was inquiring about, which made me suspicious. But upon lighting, there was no doubt to provenance. Expensive? Yes. But I figured it was worth the price, given the situation I was in. I'm not in Mexico very often (about once a decade).
I wish I could tell you what the shop looked like from the outside, but apparently my photographic memory doesn't go that far back.
:-)
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