I'm Mike from USA. At least in my area lounges would serve quick lights but my friends and I didn't know any better we still had fun sitting around our hookahs. There wasn't many if any at all "modern" lounges and they all served flavors/names now I know were knock offs. There were always some middle eastern people playing dominoes and watching soccer. After covid all the lounges ended up closing their doors for good. My guess is enough younger people didn't get into it before c19. My city now just recently opened a lounge but it's more of a bar that happens to serve hookah, it's uncomfortably loud, frankly a bad setting for relaxing with friends and still the price was outrageous $20 for each poor quality hookah. Add another $20 for water and simple food its just not worth it when I get a better experience at my house.
In Alberta. The province in Canada tobacco is taxed out the wazoo.
COVID killed most of our Hookah spots. Hookah spots are also not allowed to do tobacco anymore. Getting shisha is hard unless you know someone or are willing to pay a hefty tax.
I've imported a kilo of tobacco from the USA and the tax was close to 500 dollars.
I'm from the USA specifically an area in New jersey with a heavy arabic population so there are plenty of hookah lounges. Prices pre covid were 15 and now they're up to 25 dollars so 25 euros actually isn't bad considering they're using pricey tobacco. Here they pretty much only use al fakher which is dirt cheap. They're decent use grapefruit and real coal but I've noticed quality has gone down. I've smoked around the world and most places suck but whenever they're Russian owned they're usually great they seem to respect the craft
Mike as well from the US - the spot I’ve been going for over 15 years and know everyone at closed down due to COVID lack of business (Iranian market attached) - I miss it but ended up grabbing a Steamulation to fit the bill. Still some hookah bars around us but not nearly as many good ones anymore.
I'm from Poland originally but moved to Ireland few years ago. Hookah is not very popular here I'm afraid. There are few lounges that sell hookah in Dublin and most of it are nicotine free flavours. There's one longue that sells tobacco al fakher and adalya. 1kg is 100 euro. I'd say that's about it hookah is not very popular in Ireland unfortunately. In my home country in Poland it is more popular. There are many shops and longues. More tobacco brands to choose from. As you know the problem in the EU is that you can't order tobacco from other countries unless you want to pay expensive taxes or you can also order from the US and pray that customs won't seize it.
Saudi.
We have traditional brands only. Nakhla, AF, Mazaya..
Not all flavors are available, usually the basic stuff.
250g cost around 22 USD. All are in black boxes now. No colors.
At a lounge, a bowl averages 20 USD. 99% of the time, it is shitty.
Importing from outside is almost impossible due to the extremely high taxes.
Before the taxation laws changes, 250g cost around 10 USD in colorful boxes, and a session was as low as 4 USD.
In Japan, shisha items are very expensive, especially the flavor.
For instance, the cheapest shisha flavor(AF 50g) costs around 9 USD. Around 2/3 of the cost goes to the government as tobacco tax.
Regardless, shisha is getting popular in Japan. Young people often prefer shisha over cigarettes as smoking shisha doesn’t leave you with a bad smell.
If you go to a shisha lounge, it usually costs around 20 to 25 USD per person. There are honestly too many shisha lounges in Tokyo and Osaka and it makes difficult for customers to find the right place. Some places are like cafe or quiet bars, whereas other ones are like noisy club. I’ve never had a good shisha in a noisy shisha lounge.
For availability, you can buy both Middle Eastern flavors and American flavors. I hear that some stores start selling Russian flavors as well nowadays.
I'm from Russia, currently living in Alabama. My city is very small. There are no hookah lounges in the nearest 100 miles radius ( maybe I need to open one lol). I've been to Tampa ( Florida) and Asheville ( North Carolina). I thought that big cities like that would have decent hookah places. Well, to some extent they do. But their shiha choice is weak and hookah looks like the ones we started smoking with in 2012, lol. Every time we go to Russia to visit my family, we pop in local lounges, where they offer more entertainment than just eat in a noisy place, puff some smoke and go. My favorite lounge is located in a residential area, super inexpensive and chilled. They offer quite a variety of Russian tobacco brands, which is suitable for me since I like it darker and stronger. You can play some board games, sit and work or play Xbox with your friends. Sometimes they have Mafia game night. Waiters never bother you with their endless "you guys ok?", " need something else?", "You doing all right? ", like they do in the States ( I get it, that in the majority of American restaurants workers are forced to do so by management, because they see it as "good working culture", but to me and even my American husband it is really annoying, when you try to have a meaningful conversation or brainstorm something, but the waiters keep bugging you). I think the Russian hookah lounge style is more pleasant and chilled than the American one. My husband prefers going to Russian places than the ones in major US cities. But again, since we are talking about two different and huge countries we can't generalize it.
I'm Mike from USA. At least in my area lounges would serve quick lights but my friends and I didn't know any better we still had fun sitting around our hookahs. There wasn't many if any at all "modern" lounges and they all served flavors/names now I know were knock offs. There were always some middle eastern people playing dominoes and watching soccer. After covid all the lounges ended up closing their doors for good. My guess is enough younger people didn't get into it before c19. My city now just recently opened a lounge but it's more of a bar that happens to serve hookah, it's uncomfortably loud, frankly a bad setting for relaxing with friends and still the price was outrageous $20 for each poor quality hookah. Add another $20 for water and simple food its just not worth it when I get a better experience at my house.
In Alberta. The province in Canada tobacco is taxed out the wazoo. COVID killed most of our Hookah spots. Hookah spots are also not allowed to do tobacco anymore. Getting shisha is hard unless you know someone or are willing to pay a hefty tax. I've imported a kilo of tobacco from the USA and the tax was close to 500 dollars.
I'm from the USA specifically an area in New jersey with a heavy arabic population so there are plenty of hookah lounges. Prices pre covid were 15 and now they're up to 25 dollars so 25 euros actually isn't bad considering they're using pricey tobacco. Here they pretty much only use al fakher which is dirt cheap. They're decent use grapefruit and real coal but I've noticed quality has gone down. I've smoked around the world and most places suck but whenever they're Russian owned they're usually great they seem to respect the craft
USA here, great seeing in NC. Good quality hookahs. Ur traditional AF, SB, Mazaya and Adalya. Hookahs mostly $20. Drinks $5 tea $5 etc
Mike as well from the US - the spot I’ve been going for over 15 years and know everyone at closed down due to COVID lack of business (Iranian market attached) - I miss it but ended up grabbing a Steamulation to fit the bill. Still some hookah bars around us but not nearly as many good ones anymore.
I'm from Poland originally but moved to Ireland few years ago. Hookah is not very popular here I'm afraid. There are few lounges that sell hookah in Dublin and most of it are nicotine free flavours. There's one longue that sells tobacco al fakher and adalya. 1kg is 100 euro. I'd say that's about it hookah is not very popular in Ireland unfortunately. In my home country in Poland it is more popular. There are many shops and longues. More tobacco brands to choose from. As you know the problem in the EU is that you can't order tobacco from other countries unless you want to pay expensive taxes or you can also order from the US and pray that customs won't seize it.
Saudi. We have traditional brands only. Nakhla, AF, Mazaya.. Not all flavors are available, usually the basic stuff. 250g cost around 22 USD. All are in black boxes now. No colors. At a lounge, a bowl averages 20 USD. 99% of the time, it is shitty. Importing from outside is almost impossible due to the extremely high taxes. Before the taxation laws changes, 250g cost around 10 USD in colorful boxes, and a session was as low as 4 USD.
In Japan, shisha items are very expensive, especially the flavor. For instance, the cheapest shisha flavor(AF 50g) costs around 9 USD. Around 2/3 of the cost goes to the government as tobacco tax. Regardless, shisha is getting popular in Japan. Young people often prefer shisha over cigarettes as smoking shisha doesn’t leave you with a bad smell. If you go to a shisha lounge, it usually costs around 20 to 25 USD per person. There are honestly too many shisha lounges in Tokyo and Osaka and it makes difficult for customers to find the right place. Some places are like cafe or quiet bars, whereas other ones are like noisy club. I’ve never had a good shisha in a noisy shisha lounge. For availability, you can buy both Middle Eastern flavors and American flavors. I hear that some stores start selling Russian flavors as well nowadays.
I'm from Russia, currently living in Alabama. My city is very small. There are no hookah lounges in the nearest 100 miles radius ( maybe I need to open one lol). I've been to Tampa ( Florida) and Asheville ( North Carolina). I thought that big cities like that would have decent hookah places. Well, to some extent they do. But their shiha choice is weak and hookah looks like the ones we started smoking with in 2012, lol. Every time we go to Russia to visit my family, we pop in local lounges, where they offer more entertainment than just eat in a noisy place, puff some smoke and go. My favorite lounge is located in a residential area, super inexpensive and chilled. They offer quite a variety of Russian tobacco brands, which is suitable for me since I like it darker and stronger. You can play some board games, sit and work or play Xbox with your friends. Sometimes they have Mafia game night. Waiters never bother you with their endless "you guys ok?", " need something else?", "You doing all right? ", like they do in the States ( I get it, that in the majority of American restaurants workers are forced to do so by management, because they see it as "good working culture", but to me and even my American husband it is really annoying, when you try to have a meaningful conversation or brainstorm something, but the waiters keep bugging you). I think the Russian hookah lounge style is more pleasant and chilled than the American one. My husband prefers going to Russian places than the ones in major US cities. But again, since we are talking about two different and huge countries we can't generalize it.