How to Travel With and Ship Wine

With rising prices of alcohol on cruise ships, on airplanes and other travel venues many of us prefer to bring our own wine when we travel. Sometimes we are cutting costs and other times we simply prefer to have the wine of our choosing instead of simply what is currently available from their vendors. Either way there is a procedure to traveling with wine.

How to Travel with and Ship Wine by Air

1) On airplanes, you are allowed to bring wine in small quantities. You are not allowed to actually bring it with you on the airplane because, obviously, it is a liquid of more than a few ounces.

Most airlines give you the option of checking your wine in, as long as it is boxed properly. Call the airline that you will be flying with and ask for the specific procedure that they require to bring wine along on your trip.

If you bring unboxed wine with you to the airport, make sure to get there early. They will box it for you, but there is an extra fee attached.

One baggage carrier told me, on the sly, that if you are only bringing a bottle or two to wrap them in jeans and put them in your checked in suitcase. This is not what airline "officials" would tell you but he said that this is what many flyers do.

How to travel with and ship wine by sea

2) If you are going on a cruise, the regulations vary from cruiseline to cruiseline. Some allow you to bring one bottle per passenger and others allow one bottle per passenger and only on the day of embarkation and some won't let you bring any alcohol on board at all.

Again the wine must be boxed a certain way and again check with your particular cruise line to see how they prefer that you pack your wine.

One thing to think about is this, many cruise lines charge a $10 corkage fee per bottle. If you get a nice wine steward and tip him well, he may lend you his.

How to travel with and ship wine by train

3) If you are traveling cross country by train, here is what I observed. I just got off a trip on the autotrain from Sanford to Long Island. None of the luggage in my car was checked and they did not check our carry on luggage either.  I could have had cases of wine in my car and no one would have known.

How to Ship Wine Across the US

4) Or if you are thinking of shipping wine from one state to another, you need to know the regulations of the state that you are shipping from and even more importantly the state that you are shipping to. There are several states, like Kentucky, which will not allow you to ship wine in. Even the wine of the month clubs are kept from shipping to these states. Do an online search to see if your wine will be allowed to go through.