To pay or not to pay - - - that is the question.

Eighteen years ago, I remember arguing with the toilet attendant at Pompeii because she wanted 200 Lira where everywhere else in Italy only asked for 100 Lira.

I paid the 200, used the facilities, and left. It was then that I realized I was arguing over 5 cents.

When I have to go, I find the nearest cleanest place and go. If it costs me a few cents, then it costs. Not a big deal.

Of course, in lieu of all the questions on this board about the cheapest country to visit or fly into, there must be someone out there who wants to know the cheapest country to "go" in.

Twenty years ago I remember an experienced traveler telling me that his rule had always been:

"I never pass a restroom without visiting it. I don't know where the next one will be."

In several trips to Europe I've never encountered a "pay" toilet that was dirty. So I guess I would rather pay a few coins and have a clean restroom than to get a "free" dirty toilet like I find so often in the USA.

We quickly learned that this is just another unique part of the European culture, and thus, were prepared with coins at the ready. Always delighted with the clean facilities. Always made certain to use the restroom at any restaurant or museum. No offense taken, and actually, new travelers should know this important tidbit anyway.

I usually find the fast food places to be rather filthy. Often the department stores have decent facilities as do restaurants or bars. Train stations usually have attendants too and the places can be quite clean. If I have to pay, I pay, but in department stores I dont usually. I think the store makes enough money to pay their employees proper wages. It depends on the service I guess. If I walk in and the place is real clean, smells nice, they are friendly, then they will probably get money from me. If not, then nothing from me. Keep this to yourselves, but Starbucks is very generous with letting people use their facilities and will not say no or give you a dirty look.

We pay, or use a fast food place. It depends on the urgency and what's available. If all else fails (like in Brittany), find the nearest bush, lol

And I'm not kidding!

If we don't find a public toilet and we are in town we visit the NEAREST fast food restaurant. The restrooms are always clean.

I feel obligated to buy a drink (and avoid the food). If you prefer, you can leave the place and pour out your drink.

Great! Something else to put on my list> brings coins for toilets! Hadn't thought of that and when nature calls, she screams :-) Thanks!

I remember my first time landing at Orly years ago.....standing in line with many of my fellow passengers to buy gum, candy, whatever, just to get enough change to use the loo.

Now, I make sure I take care of business just prior to landing.

I want to second the tip to always take advantage of the facilities when they are offered and cough up the money. This applies when traveling in Europe or attending meetings with tons of coffee and scheduled breaks in the US! My absolute worst experience was on Crete at the town and the bottom of the Samaria Gorge. Someone pointed me to the facility. I took one look and headed for the beach where a quick swim solved the immediate problem! Pam

I was surprised at how much using a bathroom has gone up in Europe. I was prepared for pay bathrooms but...it was alot more than the 15-25 cents we used to "tip". The autobahn now cost 50 cents (you used to "tip" a person-now it is a machine that won't let you in without paying) and in Venice bathrooms were a full euro!! Sometimes I found it helpful to keep everything in perspective. For example: we had to pay for toilets in Germany and Austria-but quite often parking was free at the sites we visited. (Dachau, Melk Abbey, etc.) In Switzerland, we found many free bathrooms but always had to pay for parking (5 euros a day in many places) And Venice is just expensive. Pay bathrooms are almost always cleaner (I would have happily paid if I could have avoided a horrible bathroom at an Italian train station) Starbucks and McDonalds never charge for their bathrooms (and we never passed one of those up)

I'm pretty good at finding what I need in the cities. My problem is when we're driving on the secondary roads. There aren't the regular autobahn rest-stops, and some of the WC's on the side of the road are not great. I've used the bushes too - desperation required it - but it's not my first choice, and I don't feel right about it.

I look at potty stops as a time to get a coffee or ice cream. I will often go into a cafe and use the restroom and order something small before i leave. When a cafe is the same ammount as using the public toilet (.50 to 1 euro) why not use a cafe. I also do not pay at the toilets if they are dirty or stinky.
I travel with my baby (now 20 months, but we've been traveling with her since she was 3 weeks old). I hate that there is never anywhere to change diapers! We have perfected the standing diaper change.

My first advice, on this topic, for people from the North America continent going on their first trip to Europe : Carry many Euro coins (or coins of the local money), for you to be prepared for paying money for entering a public toilet room in a city in Europe. That fee may seem high, to you, but do not decide to not use that facility, unless there is a decent WC that you can use for free, near by. In my experience, the toilet rooms that are entered by paying a fee are very clean : everything in the room, and the floor, were wet with Bleach, all of the time. And a toilet room attendant was scrubbing everything in there, using bleach or other disinfectant liquid, every ten minutes.// My second advice, especially for people travelling in a rented car in Europe : small urinals with bottles, made of plastic, for travelers (different items for men, and for Ladies) are availalbe at some retail businesses selling accessories for travel, in the U.S.A., and I guess in Canada, and from some mail - order catalogs in the U.S.A. //And, in PARIS, the ground near the Eiffel tower has a potent odor of human urine. When you are in Paris, at night, do as the Parisians do ? (L.O.L.)

My dad told me a long time ago to get out the headset that you are "tipping" the attendent, you are not, you are often paying their wage. In free standing toilets, like the one by the Canal in Versialles, and various other ones at Chateaus, the w/c are actually concessions of the site, the attendents pay to lease them, and then you pay to use them,, they clean and keep them stocked with tp etc.

Also the free standing toilet booths in Paris are now free, the freak me right out though, I tried it once out of desperation, and honestly if there were woods nearby I would prefer the forest to getting into that contraption,, too scary( although it was not filthy, just all wet from "cleaning")

I use Mcdonalds, Starbucks and cafes. At cafes I stop for a drink, and McD's and Starbucks I usaully get nothing ,, occaisonally a soda a Mc Ds,

I also never pass a washroom chance up.

I have been in the countryside and have encountered washrooms so evil that I HAVE used the bushes, and I did not feel even a tiny bit guilty about that...

Anytime we came across a good bathroom, we went. We also filled our water bottles at the same time.

King Edward VIII of England, when he was the Prince of Wales, had to go on many Royal Tours, and is famously supposed to have said that when doing so he "never sat when he could lie down, never stood when he could sit and never missed an opportunity to take a leak."

Many of the McDonald's in France have a special number printed on the bottom of the receipts, these are access codes to get into the bathrooms. If asking the cashier for the code to use the washroom to "clean up" before ordering our food, didn't work, then finding a receipt on the other tables did.

Keep the change, that's my motto. In Europe we divided the currency thusly: Euros (big bills), Eurettes (smaller bills), and Urinettes...all the loose change you will need for the bathrooms. They say there's no such thing as a free lunch; I would amend that to include toilets on the Continent too.

I didnt mind paying when I was in London, its just that it was hard enough just finding a toilet and having the right change (Between 30p to 50p). The tube station Loos were horrendous. Seemed to me that the pay toilets were dirtier than free ones. I did end up using the free facilities at Harrods, Marks & Spencers as well as Harvey Nicks (5th floor ..ugh). Couldnt afford to buy souveniers at those places anyhow, so that was my designer adventure. LOL. Also, wherever there was a McDonalds, I always made sure to go since they always had a bathroom (usually upstairs). The McDonalds always seemed to be a stones throw from the tube stations and much cleaner (and FREE!!!)

If you have to go go.If you dont have to go go anyway.Ive found that busy sidewalk cafes dont say anything if you walk in and use the toilet.They cant keep track of everyone that is eating and coming in and those that only walk in.I only do it in an emergency because I like to use facilities of places I patronize.

Susan,
Pay. We spent the fall in Europe. We used pay toilets and free toilets. Some of the pay toilets are not so great, but the free ones are ALWAYS horrible. Probably our best advice is to "go" whenever you do encounter a decent loo (museums often have good ones and, if a church has a loo, it's almost always clean), whether you need to or not.

Our "best loo" award goes to St. Martin-in-the-Field Crypt Cafe in London. Our worst loo award goes to almost any public loo in Italy. Our kids also got a real kick out of the Opera Toilet in Vienna.
Susan

Be sure to go before you leave the house.

The one place I do not mind paying for, is the public toilets at the Römer in Frankfurt. They may cost 50 cents, but they are always spotless and they even smell good. The ones at the train stations here are usually pretty clean too, amazingly.

We just got bacxk from a Xmas trip to London and Paris. I've been over the pond , many, many times, but for Herself, this was her first.

At first she would laugh when I'd say 'hit the loo whenever you get the chance". But after a long, cold, hurried, walk from the back corner of Pere LaChaise...it wasnt so funny after all :-)

Needless to say, somebody learned her lesson.