Drinking Water

You are not going to a third or fourth world country. Their water quality standards as high or higher than the US. So drink all the tap you like. This will probably offend some of the posters from Germany.

I always drink the tap water. Why should I be offended? In fact, I think bottled water in the US is a waste.

I always drink the tap water here and everyplace else I go in Europe. Am totally flummoxed why Frank thinks the posters living in Germany will be upset by his post. Buying bottles of water is a huge waste of resources and money and there is absolutely no reason for it. Edit: nah, I not offended by the OP asking this. It gets asked on the forum at least once a month.

@Jo, I think Frank thought you would be offended by the OP, not his.

Erika, As the others have mentioned, Germany has excellent water standards so you should have no problems with the tap water. If you were travelling in parts of Greece, it would be a different story. My normal practice is to buy a 500 ml bottle of water at the airport, and then just refill from the tap when required. When that bottle wears-out, I buy another one. I can usually get through a trip with the same bottle. Cheers!

C'mon. Frank thought they might be offended because he was suggesting people drink a lot of water instead of beer.

Hi Erika : ) Just wanted to assure you that your question was well worth asking. Water considered safe by the locals can have entirely different consequences for the visitor. You've never been to Germany before! LOL That's what this site is for! Please don't be discouraged or hurt by responses that were less than encouraging and enthusiastic. Have a wonderful trip and remember: there is no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid mistakes! Safe travels!

Jeff - reminds me of my dad, his excuse when he was in Germany was that the beer was cheaper than water.

So, Rosemary, water considered "safe" by the locals might make you ill? If I come to your town, should I question the water safety or would you wonder why I was asking? Don't you think that people know FOR SURE that their drinking water is safe for everybody and not just for the residents? I think it is pretty well a given, that water in any 1st world country is safe for everyone to drink. All of N. America, Australia, New Zealand, and of course the E.U. The guidelines that are in place in the E.U. are just as stringent and modern as in the US and maybe even more so. For example, people don't flush old meds down the toilet in Europe like they do in the US. This is a horrifying contaminent to the US water supply and difficult to remove. Though the question from the OP is a valid one and I have taken it seriously, I do wonder why it gets asked over and over and over again on this forum.

What James said. The water is perfectly safe, but that doesn't necessarily mean it tastes good. I never bought bottled water before moving here, but the tap water in the Mannheim area has this astringent taste that I just can't get used to. At least its easy to recycle the bottles here.

Overall, the tap water in Europe is quite safe. Even in rare instances where the supply has been tainted, notices are up everywhere and the hotels, B&Bs & restaurants are very much on top of the situation and alert their guests. In 2007 I was in Galway, Ireland and the city's water supply was found to have unsafe levels of bacteria. I'm in Galway all the time and normally drink the tap water. In this isolated instance, I had to stick with only bottled water for drinking and brushing teeth, but it was ok to bathe in the water. If you did happen to pick up a stomach bug from drinking, it's less likely the water and more likely the cleanliness of the fixture it came out of. I worked in hospitality and oversaw housekeeping operations and can't begin to tell you how many times I had to lecture the cleaning crews about using fresh paper towels and not dirty cloth rags to wipe down public drinking fountains and bathroom sinks. Ice dispensers from some soda fountains at fast food places and some restaurants are also another way to pick up some unwanted bacteria as they aren't always thoroughly sanitized. Overall, the chance of getting sick is still pretty slim. Will the tap water taste the same as what you are used to at home? Probably not.

If you react so strongly to "Europe cooties" wouldn't you react to those in bottled water too? And at least in Germany the legal threshold for impurities (i.e. anything not H2O) is actually higher for bottled water than for tap water.

I can't stand the taste of the water at my brothers farm in Ohio either, too much iron and sulphor, but the taste doesn't mean it is unsafe. The water here in Frankfurt is very hard and leaves lime-scale on my pans, but it doesn't mean it is unsafe. Lots of places have water where we may not like the taste of it as it is different than what we are used to, but it is still safe and won't make anyone sick.

I am very sensitive to the taste of chlorine, added to many urban water supplies (tastes like drinking a swimming pool). I had no trouble drinking tap water in Germany. It comes out of the tap colder than room temperature, so it was better (and cheaper) than bottled.

Guys, I think this is a valid question. By "safely" I think Erika meant will the tap water make her ill because it's different (chemical wise and bacteria wise) to what she's used to at home. My husband was horribly sick when we visited Florida and he guzzled buckets of tap water at a seafood restaurant. That's because even though the water was safe to drink it wasn't what his body was used to and so voila! run to the nearest toilet! I've had plenty of friends who have had issues with drinking water in Europe because it was "different" not because it wasn't "safe".

I would agree with Kathleen's comments. The water is safe, but you might still get sick. Particularly if you a prone to that type of thing. Particularly for a short trip you have to ask yourself is it worth the the risk. Not that you will get anything serious, but having two days in which you are feeling under the weather and are looking for bathrooms frequently on a 10 day vacation worth saving the money of not buying bottled water? Probably not. On the other hand if you are moving there for 6 months, then it makes sense to get accumulated to the new water. Of course a lot of this has to do with your own history. If you have a history of easily getting an upset stomach then using bottle water makes more sense than if you have a pretty high tolerance in the past to changes in water sources.

I must have a high tolerance for different water since the water in Germany tasted better than our Texas water! No tummy problems either.

@Larry - I would say that is normal. My best guess is problems only affect about 1 out of 6, maybe even less than that. But if you don't know if you are part of the 5 or the 1, why risk ruining a couple of days on an expensive vacation to save a couple of dollars on bottled water?

While water may be safe to drink, each supply is somewhat different in mineral content. Some people have very sensitive digestive systems, and changing the water they drink can cause diarrhea. Bottled water can have the same effect. Traveling can be quite a challenge for these folks. I'm glad changing water doesn't bother me. It seems that I see much more tap water on the table in restaurants all across Europe than in the past. We just returned from Ireland and Scotland, and we saw very few people drinking bottled water.

The tap water is fine unless it specifically says it isn't. Like the US, the expectation is that water is safe to drink (in many other parts of the world, the assumption is the opposite). I do drink more bottled mineral water (light fizz for me) in a week in Germany, than I would in 20 years at home. It's a common drink with meals there and I prefer to eat the way locals do when I'm traveling.

Just returned from 2 weeks in Germany and we had no problems whatsoever. Within 10 minutes of arriving in Kracow we were told twice, by locals, that we should not drink the water. We took them at their word.

One case: from last week Thursday to Sunday the authorities warned that there were Coli bacteria detectable in the tap water of the Spandau district here in Berlin, and that that was the reason why the tap water was chlorinated.
That was extensively covered in the local news, and there were emergency procedures for hospitals and senor homes. Through the local news I also learned that the last time bacteria were detected in Berlin tap water was seven years ago in the Zehlendorf district.