British travellers continue to visit Calais to purchase wine, driven by a price difference compared to the UK and the option to claim back VAT. A minimum spend of €100.01 (£86) in participating stores allows visitors to claim a refund by scanning documents at the ferry terminal.
The current personal allowance for bringing alcohol into the UK is 18 litres of wine or 42 litres of beer. Beyond Calais supermarkets and specialist wine stores, savings on well-known wine brands can also be made by purchasing duty-free on board ferries, with some operators offering price matching with leading French supermarkets.
Calais itself has undergone recent cultural renewal, including a seafront development completed in 2023. This features a kilometre-long recreational promenade and a 10-metre-high mobile dragon.