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Bathroom toiletries

Do most major cities offer bathroom toiletries? (Soap, conditoner,shampoo)

Posted by
2621 posts

Do you perhaps mean hotels?
Most hotels these days have soap and shampoo in large refillable dispensers attached to the wall rather then teeny bottles, but it varies. Conditioner is rare.
Anything else you need is available in stores.

Posted by
4656 posts

It really depends on your hotel or lodging.
You should at least get hand soap, but some simple 2* family run hotels may not have more than that.
If you have never been to Europe before, know that face cloths are not provided. Their hygiene routine is to bring their own natural sea sponges for the same purpose. If you want face cloths, bring from home.

Posted by
486 posts

I stayed in Rome, Florence & Siena two summers ago. The hotel in Rome and in Florence only provided a combo body wash/shampoo and it was in a small, single use plastic pouch for each day. This may possibly be a new trend with smaller, family run hotels. I ended up buying a bar of soap and a bar of solid shampoo to use instead of what was provided. The hotel in Siena (NH Hotel, which is a chain) had body wash and shampoo attached in a dispenser in the shower. I don't remember any of them providing conditioner. They all had hair dryers.

Posted by
4139 posts

If you look at the hotel under booking.com’s website, under amenities it will list what the hotel provides. I’ve read some where TP is listed, lol.

Posted by
4742 posts

It really does come down to the individual hotel, it seems like in the US almost everyone does offer this sort of thing.

Posted by
1026 posts

As everyone says it varies - most places have soap, shampoo in one form or another one place we stayed had single use toothpaste and brushes in the bathrooms. I can see how this would be a life saver if your luggage was lost but seemed otherwise unnecessary.

If you want limit your liquids or reserve your TSA limits for things you really need you can probably survive a day or two until you can get to a store on the hotel provided stuff. Keep in mind virtually any toiletry you might want can easily be purchased in Italy. You can buy toiletries at small chain markets like Conad Express, have more choices at beauty supply stores in larger cities and even at the farmicia in pinch. Note that everything at the farmicia will cost you at least 3x more than anywhere else.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Posted by
15824 posts

The cities don't, but hotels generally do.

I don't generally stay in hotels with less than 3 stars, but at 3 stars and above you will have soap, conditioning shampoo, bath gel, sometimes even body lotion, and of course towels. I'm pretty sure even 2 star hotels provide the above

Wash cloths are not used in Italy so they are not provided in hotels (Italians use bath sponges at home but sponges are also not provided in hotels, except for rarely in some spa hotels). 4 star hotels often also provide disposable slippers, and sometime shaving razors and disposable toothbrushes.

All hotels, regardless of stars, will have bidets, a standard bathroom feature in Italian homes and hotels. The smallest towels are for bidet use. Here is a bidet primer for those not familiar with it.

Posted by
16024 posts

4 star hotels often also provide disposable slippers, and sometime shaving razors and disposable toothbrushes.

If you decide to use one of the "provided" shaving razors, make sure you bring along a styptic pencil, bandages and information about your blood type.

:)

Posted by
27614 posts

I have a great deal of experience with 2-, 3- and even some 4-star (but not luxury) hotels in Europe since 2015. The only things you can be over 90% certain of are some form of soap and shampoo. It may well be the same liquid. If I see conditioner once out of 20 hotels, I am lucky. I travel with solid coditioner; conditioning shampoo doesn't do anything for me except wash my hair.

Body lotion has shown up just a bit more frequently than conditioner, but you can't count on it unless the hotel's website specifies it is provided. Usually I just see "toiletries" mentioned.