How to find public drinking fountains when travelling?
When travelling for a long period of time, refilling water bottles can be a challenge. This is particularly true for long overland public transportation journeys in summer, as one cannot easily carry as much water as when travelling by car.
The availability of public drinking water fountains varies widely between countries and cities, as does information about such fountains. The topic regularly comes up on this site:
- Are there drinking water fountains airside at London City Airport?
- Are there any drinking-water fountains in Prague PRG airport?
- Are there drinking water fountains at Birmingham Airport (UK)?
- Where to find public water taps in the Netherlands?
- Is it safe to drink the water in the fountains found all over the older parts of Rome?
- Where to refill my bottle in India?
- ... etc.
I'm looking for a generic solution to this problem.
Is there any website or smartphone application that travellers can use internationally to locate a source of (free) drinking water? I'm aware the data would probably have to be crowd-sourced. Openstreetmap has Tag:amenity=drinking_water, Tag:man_made=drinking_fountain, and Tag:drinking_water=yes, but I don't know how to easily search for such categories while travelling, and there may be more complete sources that I'm unaware of.
(The safety of such water is a separate issue that I will consider out of the scope of this question.)
Pictures about "How to find public drinking fountains when travelling?"
Why are there no drinking fountains in UK?
While there might have been numerous public drinking sources in the 19th century, they have since dwindled. Most fountains fell in disrepair as time went on and, due to the lack of maintenance, most were removed.Can you drink from Roman fountains?
The answer is yes \u2013 you can drink from the fountains in Rome. The water is completely potable, and to be honest, will save you a lot of money on your walking treks around the city. Say no to the street sellers peddling expensive water bottles near the sights, and fill up your own!Can you drink from Spanish Steps fountain?
You cannot sit there, eat or drink on the Spanish Steps. The fine can get up to 200 Euro.Is Airport tap water safe to drink?
"It's absolutely drinkable," says a United spokesman. They called our water tests unscientific, and said our own samplers could have contaminated the results. "Someone with dirty hands must have used that sink," said a spokesman from National Airlines, where the lavatory sample came back positive for coliform.A Guide to drinking Fountains in Rome (Nasoni) | Walks of Italy
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Images: Scott Webb, Pixabay, Scott Webb, Andrea Piacquadio