bottled water
 

Hello

I am just wondering if it is expensive to buy bottled water in Paris and Amsterdam. How much do one needs to put aside for 3 meals each day .. Thanks

Water is cheap - real cheap. Meal cost depends on how important "meals" are to you??? You can spend $40 per day or $400 per day per person. DO NOT opt for breakfast at your hotel if you are trying to keep meal costs down.

Stu Dudley

What is the reason for buying bottled water?

As kerouac says why buy bottled water?

If you buy it at a café or restaurant it is expensive, very expensive. Tap water is normally available for free, and generally tastes a lot better than bottled.

Supermarkets sell bottled water. Again it's not cheap imho. Better to bring, or buy, a reusable water bottle and fill it from the tap.
Better for the environment too.

Some hotels have breakfast included in the price. If it is a buffet you can often eat enough that you don't need much, if any, lunch. Evening meals can vary in price depending on where you choose to eat.

Bottled water (there's really no need for it but I do agree the water in Amsterdam tastes horrible) costs €0.25 per 1.5 liters at Albert Heijn supermarket.

As hetismij says: prices for diner vary a lot. A simple pizza may cost €15, add drinks, let's say €20 to €25 per meal. However, if you want to eat a bit better, €45 to €60 per meal is not uncommon but you can easily spend more.

Prices in France are somewhat comparable I think.

Why bottled water?

If you must, at least buy it at a grocery store, where prices will be cheapest.

Amsterdam water is very good. Nearly as good as where I live. It is filtered through dunes and I think it tastes just fine. Far better than in many other cities around the world.

€0.25 is the price for a tetra-pak of water.

Plastic bottled water costs more, and the larger bottles have a deposit on them. Smaller bottles should be placed in the appropriate recycling container.
But why buy it when you can have it for free. You will not be able to consume water you have bought in a supermarket with your meal, anywhere, unless your meal is a take-away.

The main brand in France -- Cristalline -- is about 0.25€ for a 1.5L bottle too.

>>Water is cheap - real cheap<<<

>>Supermarkets sell bottled water. Again it's not cheap imho<<

>>Bottled water ..water in Amsterdam .. costs €0.25 per 1.5 liters at Albert Heijn supermarket.<<<

>The main brand in France -- Cristalline -- is about 0.25€ for a 1.5L bottle too.>>

I guess there are different opinions of what "cheap" is.

Stu Dudley

Water from the tap is so cheap they actually call it "free." The whole bottled water thing probably originated in Europe, got glamorized in the US, and generates a lot of revenue for stockholders.

Buy ONE bottle of cheap water in a supermarket and re-fill it from the tap as you go.

I only buy bottled water if I need a new plastic bottle. At the moment, I have a bottle from 2004 that I am still using in my refrigerator. The only reason I know the date is because I brought it back from Vietnam.

Why have do many French homes I go to still use bottled water - I know the water sources are at least as good as in the U.S. and perhaps better with the vaunted ozonization process - so why do stores still stock rows and rows of bottled water - some French at least must be drinking it but why?

why do Americans more and more buy bottled water in bottles that often end up in huge pools hundreds of miles around in our oceans?

Why in a French restaurant unless you ask for tap water they automatically bring bottled water if you ask for water?

I have no idea why people buy bottled water (other than stupidity).

If you ask for a carafe d'eau, nobody will bring you bottled water.

Most bottled water in the Netherlands is tap water anyway. Unless it specifies it is from a source, such as Spa, which is a lot more expensive, then it is tap water.

Given the price we pay for excellent water per lire at home buying it in bottles in expensive, unnecessary and polluting, yet still plenty of people do it.

I don't drink bottled water at home here in the San Francisco area - I have a plastic bottle that is probably older than kerouac's that I refill from the tap. We get our water from the mountains, so it is quite good. When we lived in Laguna Beach in Southern Calif, I would not drink the tap water because it smelled so bad. I think it came from the Colorado River. We even purchased "Alhambra" water to drink ourselves and to water our house plants.

While in France, we purchast Badoit - because I like the gas content (Perrier has too much gas) and also the magnesium that seems to have a refreshing/sobering effect. The fizzy water in the US has too much fizz for me.

Stu Dudley

"Why in a French restaurant unless you ask for tap water they automatically bring bottled water if you ask for water?"

Because they make a profit out of it.

If you ask for a carafe d'eau, nobody will bring you bottled water>

OK I get it - like Pvoyageuse says - fleecing tourists but French folk would ask correctly - like my in-laws who always get tap water - but do I assume that the fancier the restaurant the more likely even French folk would ask for some kind of bottled water?

It's funny when my French son would come over for the summer when he was young he would insist I buy bottled water for him - it was not because of any tradition but he, and all other French folk I've hosted, thought our local water stunk - just tasted terrible even though I had never realized or felt that. Now with a new ozonization system like used in Europe for long our water has lost its terrible taste!

It is quite common for foreign water, anywhere in the world, to taste "weird" -- different purification technique, different mineral content, etc.

I have always considered that to be part of the trip anyway. Since I am (hopefully) eating completely different food and experiencing other totally different things -- some of which might not be as nice as at home and others which might be far better -- drinking different water, even if I don't like the taste, is not at all a problem for me.

Places with non potable water are a different problem, but not really common on the continent about which we are talking.

Places with non potable water are a different problem, but not really common on the continent about which we are talking>

hey hey to that - and many Americans who have not been to Europe may naively think in places like Italy the water is not fit to drink - I hear this a lot and it is of course completely fallacious like kerouac says - things I have read again that the ozonization process much more common in Europe is surperior to many American water purifying methods so the water in Europe may well be better of quality than the one they have back home.

That said my cousin who has been to Europe a zillion times and very much in the know will not drink water from taps in hotels - well older hotels at least because he thinks they could still be using lead piping or old pipes that produce contamination perhaps even if the water if purified well at the source. I am not sure that this could not be a concern in hotels and restaurants in some ancient cities.

"fleecing tourists but French folk would ask correctly" -

Not at all. Lots of French people order bottled water with their meal. The waiter assumes you do and usually asks "plate ou gazeuse", it is up to you to decline.

"but do I assume that the fancier the restaurant the more likely even French folk would ask for some kind of bottled water?"
Probably, yes.