Looking for rum shops in San Diego

[Kristian]

Once again, I'm going to visit the good old U.S. and this time San Diego. And, as usual, I'm turning to this forum to inquire about liquor stores with a good selection of rums that I should visit during my stay. I will be staying near the centre (close to some conference hotels), but I can always take a taxi if the better stores are located (as they seem to do in the U.S.) outside the centre of the city.

Please, share your knowledge!

[khoiberg]

You should go and visit Tijuana and look in some of the liquors stores along Ave. Revolucion. There are a couple there with some good rum that is hard to find in the U.S. and also cheaper than the U.S.. Keep in mind you can only bring 1 bottle back per person.

[Markus Lewalski]

Hi Kristian,

Just a suggestion: If you have an address in the US (friend, hotel etc.) just order by internet and let it be sent to this address. That's at least what I did.

I have a colleague who goes to Florida next week. I ordered two weeks ago at Hitimewine (some good special offers, e.g. Barbancourt 15 yo 26.98, Pyrat XO 29,98, Zacapa 29,98 etc.) and they sent it to a friend of my colleague. She picks it up there and brings it back to Germany.

So you have a huge choice, you get what you want, you have low shipping rates and no costs for taxis and waste of time with shops that carry only 20 or so rums.

Bye

Markus

[Kristian]

Good idea, Markus!

Now, a bunch of questions from a first-timer:

Any idea which internet shop to use? How long will it take for them to deliver the order (meaning how much before my trip should I place the order)? And, do the hotels keep the goods safe if they arrive before I do? Do I need a full address (i.e. a room number) or will the hotel address and my name suffice?

Khoiberg: We'll probably visit Tijuana as well (as part of some group trip), so I'll see if I can fit in a bit of rum searching. Thanks for the tip!

[Markus Lewalski]

Hi Kristian,

For me it was also the first time but I had no problems at all.

As I normally order in Germany I only know two online shops:

http://www.samswine.com and http://www.hitimewine.net

There should be much more and maybe our American users can help here.

My order from California to Florida took around one week (ground shipping) but it depends of course on the distance. So an order two weeks before your arrival should be sufficient (if the shop has everything on stock).

If you want to let it be sent to a hotel I would contact the hotel in advance to check how this can be handled the best way. I don't think that a room number is necessary. Maybe it can be sent to the attention of the person you phoned with.

But shipping to a hotel with a lot of staff might be a bit more difficult than my case where I had a private address and this person was informed about everything. There is no risk of loss or so.

But some German internet shops also ship to Finland for a reasonable shipping rate (if you order not only one or two bottles). As Finland is part of the EU there are nearly no limitations (like at the arrival at the airport where officially only 1 Litre of liquor is allowed per person) and there are no further taxes or other duties.

Might be even easier than the way described above. I only did it that way because the Pyrat XO is +/- 115 EUR in Germany and the Zaya is only available in the US.

Greetings

Markus

[Jason Perlow]

http://www.bevmo.com/storeinfo.asp?area=storeloc&store=12

Beverages and More, which is a huge liquor store chain and carries a large variety of rums, should be local to you. I went to their stores in the San Francisco area a while back and was able to pick up some pretty nice things there.