Where CAN'T you drink the water?

The water may have tasted bad in Batalha, Portugal, because I recall that I was filtering my water. I have always brought along a filtering water bottle when I travel because I'm picky about the taste of water, and I do not like purchasing bottled water for environmental reasons. Other than that, I can't recall a place where I didn't care for the taste of the water.

We were advised to not drink the water in Istanbul and Ortigia Sicily. In Ortigia, I believe it was related to old pipes.

I like "World Nomads" for that kind of information.

The only place I've been unable to drink (safe) water was in Barcelona, where the tap water tasted so strongly of chlorine that I only drank bottled. But that was over ten years ago now.

Except for small villages in poor countries, i think you will have trouble finding water that is "unsafe". But because of my profession and the rules and regulations that I had to follow for over 40 years in professional practice, I still cringe when i see utility work going on and see how the plumbing is laid. Even though "safe" not up to US standards that enusre safety so I tend to shy away from the local water in most of Europe. But I do realize thats mostly my hangup.

It is a good plan not to drink tap water when you travel. Not all water is potable or may be perfectly alright for locals to drink, since they grew up with the "culture" LOL. Filtered water bottled in glass is your best bet. You can also use club soda for your contacts. I drank a lot of lemon tonic when I was in Europe.

I have visited 83 foreign countries and lived in two.

As a general rule, you can drink the tap water in Northern and Western Europe. Also, in some Eastern European countries you can probably drink the water. We recently visited Romania and our guides provided bottled water, indicating we should not drink the tap water.

We did a tour of China and were told that it wasn't a good idea to drink the water. We were told that that the government didn't want to hurt the companies that provided bottled water, so they wouldn't spend the money to upgrade the water systems.

On our tour of Ukraine and Russia we didn't drink the water.
I think we were able to drink the water in Japan, but not in Indonesia, Malaysia or the Philippines. Australia and NZ no problem.

South America, we were told not drink the water. This is largely the case in third world countries, including Egypt, where you wouldn't even think of drinking the tap water.

In western Turkey, in some of the cities on the RS tour, there were hotels that had signs indicating that you should not drink the water. This included some quite modern, business style hotels.

I drank the water in Ukraine, and most of Eastern Europe. Didnt kill me. Might have I guess. Russia? No way. I stuck to bottles. Even in countries where the water is "safe" it can suck, so someone will hand you bottled water.

We've been traveling internationally for many years - both business and personal travel - and have routinely gotten into the habit of purchasing bottled water wherever we go. For us it's just not worth the risk of getting sick while overseas ... as minimal as that risk may be in many places.

Robert, that is really the best advice.

You go to beautiful old cities where the plumbing was put in at the turn of the century using lead at times. The water supply lines are below the sewage water lines so any leak makes its way to the loose joint that is, because of the flow of the watrer, sucking, not spraying the line also feeds a 80 year old tolilet that has been backed up for years and sucking water down the line becuase the old building is not vented. .... yuck....

I did drink it when I had to drink it, but it was always the last choice.

There are plenty of places in the US where I wouldn't drink the water. Its hard to generalize about a whole country.

Ortigia in Sicily.
It had a salty taste and the host told us we should buy bottled water……..but not until two days after we asked her about the weird taste. (Rolling eyes……)
It was potable, but horrible.
We had been boiling it anyway, which is what I always do in Italian apartments until I determine if it is ok to drink.

When we were in Albania this summer our food tour guide told us to drink bottled water re: aging pipes. Our hotel gave us free water everyday, so if they give it for free I usually take that as an indication not to drink tap water as well.

I drink bottled water in Europe, but it's because one can get tasty sparkling mineral water pretty much everywhere. It's one of the little things I love about being in Europe.

Reminds me of that scene in Slumdog Millionaire where the kids have a job filling water bottles with tap water and then carefully replaced the bottle caps ...

When I travelled the world for a living, I drank Coke and beer. Oh and really hot tea. Still got really sick in Lima, I think I accidentally got some water in my mouth while showering.

Oh dear, I'm going to Lima this summer. Maybe I'll take sponge baths....

We were told to watch out for bottles in Istanbul that had been refilled with tap water. Water was so cheap that we just purchased it at small stores.

We were told to watch out for bottles in Istanbul that had been refilled with tap water. Water was so cheap that we just purchased it at small stores.

Reminds me of a scene in a movie (Slumdog Millionaire?) where they are filling water bottles, but know enough to use super glue on the lid so you get that "snap".

But in the EU, taste may be more an issue than safety in some places, especially seaside or remote areas. (Some Greek isles come to mind, Sicily a couple places) Testing and regulations are excellent across the EU, but more remote areas see more infrequent testing, and then any time you get off a central water system (water from a private well, for example, in a rural area) there could be issues.

We don't worry about it too much, usually drink bottled water anyway when out, and in the room, mainly for the taste, not a concern over safety.

Drinking tap water in northern and western Europe I knew was safe since the first trip there in 1971. I remember being told by a Swedish young woman then about her getting water from the well in her family's summer home in north Sweden. As a city boy I had no idea regarding that type of water , so thinking American , I asked if that was safe, (bad move) , only to be screamed at when she said: "this water is safer than what you have in America !"

Regardless, I buy bottled water anyway in Germany and France, mostly "stilles" as opposed to carbonated, but less often and depends on when. There are grocery shops in Paris where the price of a 1.5 Liter bottle is 50 cents, depending on the brand, obviously.

I hate buying water in plastic bottles (though you sort of must do that in restaurants in some countries), but I've had to buy bottled water in these places over the years--for safety reasons unless otherwise specified:

Istanbul and Bursa (same true throughout Turkey, I would assume)
Ukraine
Albania
Skiathos, Greece (very brackish water, but supposedly safe)
Washington, DC (I live there and depend on a filtering pitcher because the local treatment leaves a very strong taste)

I drank the water in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1972 and only later read about the very high risk of picking up giardiasis there, which I had succumbed to. As far as I know, that problem still exists. I haven't read that it's an issue elsewhere in Russia.

I don't worry about water that tastes odd as long as it's safe. I can use it to brush my teeth, at least. I'm sure I've encountered a few cities where there was an off taste, but I don't remember where they were.

I assume Mr. E is correct about the pipes in many old neighborhoods, but I've spent a huge amount of time in Europe off and on since 1972 and have only once had a digestive problem that might conceivably have come from water contamination (if you don't trust the infrastructure in Munich and Ljubljana). For me, avoiding that risk by buying plastic bottles of water when restaurants don't force me to isn't justified. YMMV.

On my most recent trip I was served water in glass bottles on some occasions. Sometimes it was tap water or filtered tap water rather than a sealed bottle. Maybe there's a move from plastic to glass in some places.

Water anywhere can have mineral or microbiological content that is different enough from what you're used to, and taste funny and cause upset stomachs. Natural minerals like sulfates, iron, chlorides, etc, can vary and cause taste issues. The pipes and plumbing anywhere including your home are not sterile. That pristine well you're drinking from can be too close to the septic tank or the fuel storage tank to be good. So it's like food safety - you have to trust people to know what they're doing. Use your judgement.

CDC publishes guidance on food & water on countries specifically to advise travelers about the general conditions in each country. They have people who track and research this kind of stuff all the time, not just a CYA thing.

Frank II,

There were a couple of places where the water was probably safe, but had a terrible taste. Two locations that come to mind are island of Hydra and Gefyra (both in Greece).

Not Europe, but as we've been in Vietnam for two weeks, it’s another “Don’t Drink the Water” country, at least for Westerners. Every hotel has provided a daily plastic bottle of water in the room (wish they weren’t plastic), and there are occasional 5-gallon (or so) jugs of water for filling up a reusable bottle. Getting ice tea has been out of the question, unless it’s confirmed that the ice was made from filtered water.

Prices are super-cheap in Vietnam, so getting basic bottled water isn’t expensive, and there aren’t designer varieties like Voss, Perrier, or San Pellegrino here anyway.

Am I interpreting this correctly, OP? Are you predicating your travels purely on avoidance of bad water?

Am I interpreting this correctly, OP? Are you predicating your travels purely on avoidance of bad water?

No, knowing where the water tastes bad or shouldn't be drunk will help me decide which water filter I pack.

I try to avoid using individual plastic bottles of water as much as possible. It's horrible for the environment.

I don't think there's anywhere in Europe where I didn't drink the water, and I've never had a problem.

In Mexico, Central America, Southeast Asia, and South America I didn't drink tap water. Some places have big dispensers in the lobby where one can refill cups or bottles. This was the case in the Galapagos, for instance. In Hoi An and in Hanoi, Vietnam, the hotels provided a bottle of water per person per day, which was nowhere near enough. In Hoi An, we bought a large bottle of water from a shop and refilled our insulated water bottles from that. (We did see someone selling large bottles on the street that had clearly been refilled, so even from the store, we were careful to make sure the bottle had not been previously opened.) In Namibia, our guide brought a big container of water for us to use to refill our metal water bottles (that he provided). If we were someplace where he said it was okay to drink the tap water, we did so.

I've also used a Lifestraw bottle and, more recently, a LARQ bottle if I think it might be iffy.

My rule is that if there are warnings about drinking the water, or if the plumbing infrastructure is clearly not great (e.g. can't flush toilet paper), I don't drink the tap water, but individual plastic bottles are still a last resort for me.

Taste hasn't really been an issue for me, but if it were, I'd probably see if my LARQ bottle improved things, or, again, I'd buy a big bottle and refill my LARQ from that.

(BTW, in North America, a lot of bottled water is just bottled tap water, although, of course, the tap water tends to be safe anyway. But I'd rather have it from the tap than have water that's been sitting in plastic for who knows how long.) https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-09-28/bottled-water-is-really-just-tap-water

When I was in Crete in 2023 they recommended that we not drink the water because of the taste.

I can't drink the water in Ireland.

Not because it's unhealthy but rather because the beer is so good that it would be a crime against Nature to drink anything else.

This topic reminds me that when my parents took my brothers and me to Europe as kids in the 80s, none of us drank the water, even brushed our teeth with bottled water (that time we only had Perrier was weird). My mother's first trip to Europe had been in the 50s, when European infrastructure was still recovering from the war and tap water there could expose Americans to pathogens we lacked immunity to because they weren't found in our reliably chlorinated water back home. Some of these water quality issues persisted even into the early 70s in places like southern Italy and in rural areas, so not drinking the water had become a habit for boomers who had traveled to Europe during those times that persisted into the 80s. I remember the first time I drank European tap water, in a restaurant just outside Munich in 1990 when I was 14. My mother was convinced I had done something stupid and was going to get sick and ruin the trip, but when I didn't, that broke the seal and my parents relaxed about European tap water. However when we went to Prague in 1994 we didn't drink the water out of an abundance of caution because a lot of the newly-opened up former Eastern bloc countries still did have Soviet-era water infrastructure that was not up to Western water quality standards. And there are still some countries and parts of countries in Europe where it's best not to drink the water still, like some of the countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, and some of the Greek islands. Traveling as an adult over the last 25 years, I've drank the water all over Western Europe and in Japan. Didn't drink it in Mexico, Belize, the Caribbean, Tanzania, or Turkey. I wouldn't think twice about drinking the water anywhere in the Schengen Zone except Romania, Bulgaria, and rural Hungary.

Our tour guide in Greece recommended bottled water for Monemvasia, Nafplio and Hydra. He was right - it really tasted awful for brushing teeth.

(BTW, in North America, a lot of bottled water is just bottled tap
water, although, of course, the tap water tends to be safe anyway. But
I'd rather have it from the tap than have water that's been sitting in
plastic for who knows how long.)
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-09-28/bottled-water-is-really-just-tap-water
Yep, this. So many Americans have convinced themselves that bottled water is better than US tap water, but the truth is, tap water, is much more stringently regulated by the EPA than bottled water is by the FDA. And a lot of bottled water is just tap water that has been run through extra treatment for taste, but that extra treatment can introduce contaminants, like in 1990 when poor maintenance of a filtration system at a Perrier plant in North Carolina caused water to be contaminated with benzene, resulting in a massive recall of bottles of Perrier. Water labeled "spring water" has to come from an actual spring by law, but that doesn't guarantee purity. One brand of "spring water" which had a graphic of mountains and a lake on the label, was actually taken from a well in Massachusetts in the parking lot of an industrial facility. The well, which is no longer used for bottled water, was near hazardous waste and had experienced contamination by industrial chemicals.

Water in Malta goes thru desalination, but can still be rather salty tasting. Many tour companies recommend sticking with bottled water there. Did not notice any problems showering.

We also avoided tap water/ice in Morocco.. (Edit: Ooops..you did say "Europe," and, of course, Morocco is on an entirely different continent ;o

I grew up in Michigan. When I consumed water it was tap water. My parents cooked with tap water. In my apartment in Michigan now I have a big countertop filter hooked up to the faucet. I avoid tap water when I can. It doesn't matter what country I am in. I buy bottled water when I travel. In September 2020 I got a horrifying disease affecting my digestive tract, in my apartment. I tested negative for coronavirus-2019. I got a rather similar disease in Seville, Spain in March 2022. I tested negative again for coronavirus-2019. I had been drinking bottled water but rinsing my mouth with tap water. I don't have any way to know whether my disease came from the tap water or whether it came with the celery, fruit, and bagged salad I bought. Maybe I got rotovirus or norovirus. Don't risk getting a disease just because you have a problem with plastic bottles. Maybe in some countries certain diseases are less common than other countries. There is no such thing as a country where you can't get a disease from the water.

I always carry a water bottle when I travel, whether or not I intend to drink the tap water, to limit my use of plastic bottles. Even if the water is safe to drink, I often want to have water with me to drink throughout the day in hot places or in places where one has to pay even for tap water. Plus, my water bottle is insulated, so it keeps water cool for longer.

"I can't drink the water in Ireland.

Not because it's unhealthy but rather because the beer is so good that it would be a crime against Nature to drink anything else. "

Some of the best advice ever posted on the Ireland forum ...
Well done David.