Christina

That's true, this isn't a tourist issue. In fact, in Germany, they really do not want to give you anything but tap water, I think it is disgraceful as it is so bad for the environment.

I rarely drink bottled water anywhere in developed countries, I don't believe in it. Even when traveling, I generally buy one bottle and if I want to carry one around with me during the day while doing the tourist things, I just keep filling it up from the tap in my hotel room. I never order it in restaurants.

If you have to buy it, I think it costs about a euro from the vending machines in the metro, and supermarkets a bit less. This is in Paris.

I do buy carbonated water occasionally for a beverage but that's because I don't drink soda pop hardly ever (ie, Pepsi). SO I may order a Perrier or Badoit as a beverage in a cafe, but I wouldn't order gaseous water with dinner.

Christina

sorry, I think from the OP they want to order this in a restaurant. Well, you will have to pay their prices if you do that, you can't bring in your own bottles. It costs 2-3 euro in a restaurant, I think, for regular flat water in a bottle. Badoit and Perrier cost more, they cost about the same as any cafe drink (more liek 3-4 euro).

AnthonyGA

Restaurants may charge a lot for bottled water. Supermarkets often sell bottled water practically at cost, because it brings in shoppers who usually buy other things.

nytraveler

Many (most?) tourists carry bottles of water around with them to drink from during the day.

(Most of the people in my office have either small bottles they buy or larger ones they refill from the water cooler. When you walk into a conference room for a meeting you often see a computer and a bottle of water in front of each person.)

I always carry a small bottle of water onto planes and when touring during the day. It's important to keep hydrated. (And sorry - most tap water tastes not very good - at least to someone from NYC, where water is very soft and essentially tasteless.)

Giocomina

As has been written here the bottled water is not expensive. I suggest drinking it becaue signs about water potablility are often hard to see, many people drink the water and then discover the signs, sometimes it is not posted at all.
Water is good in Rome, or it was, but in most other places its not drinkable. You can visit web sites put out by the cities to find out if it is or not. For example in Orvieto the water is never ok for children or elderly and when it rains no one should drink it because of high amounts of lead and aluminum content.
In Puglia the water is not drinkable from the taps.
Even in the Calabrian mountain towns the water has become undrinkable from taps as pollutants have multiplied in the last decades. Better to be safe. I have lived in Italy for over 6 years and there is a lot ot learn and take account of while traveling and living here.
I think it is more difficult to find drinkable tap water in Northeren Europe where pollution levels are really high!

hetismij2

What total nonsense Giocomina. Tap water in Northern Europe is of the highest quality. All tap water must meet stringent standards and does, unlike certain classes of bottled water, which can be high in pollutants and in undesirable elements, including arsenic!

If tap water in northern Europe is so polluted why aren't we all dropping like flies from terrible diseases?

avalon

FRance also has lots of drink fountsind In Paris there is even one that has fizzy water!Personally I can go an hour or 2 without water and I have wine with meals

avalon

fountains!

Cowboy1968

I wonder why my supermarket in Munich carries at least 30 different types of bottled water. From store brands for 25c to more expensive sources for €2 per liter. No tourist ever shops there.

Few people will offer you tap water when you visit their homes here. It's considered too cheap for guests.
While I personally hardly ever buy bottled water, it's really common to do so here in Germany. Usually not the plain still water, but more often the carbonated or flavored variants. It's more a lifestyle choice than a rational decision because tap water was not drinkable. Like when you eat Italian, you expect them to have San Pellegrino and only 1 out of 100 or 500 customers would ask for tap water instead. OTOH, when you go to a Viennese-style coffee house, you expect a (free) glass of tap water with your choice of coffee. Go figure, not rational.

Though in some places like Berlin or the Northern plains where I come from, tap water is 100pct safe and under permanent control, but does not have much of a taste. Most people will have a bottled water at home if they want to drink it pure. For cooking and making coffee you would use tap water.
I guess bottled water must be one produce with the highest profit margins for companies and retail, especially the high end products.

kerouac

Some of the mineral waters available in supermarkets in France are drunk for medical reasons, although I tend to think that the medical value is mostly in the mind of the drinker except for the really nasty ones like Vichy Célestins which absolutely nobody would drink for pleasure.

In my own neighborhood, I see mostly immigrants buying the bottled water -- some of them live in extremely decrepit buildings where the water might indeed not be safe, but I think it is mostly out of habit when one comes from a country where the tap water is not potable.

kerouac

As for not offering tap water to guests, that is a bunch of hooey. I don't have any bottled water in my apartment and none of my friends do either.

xyz123

The best tap water I've ever had on my travels throughout the world was in 1975 in Sofia in Bulgaria. As a matter of fact, the local guide claimed Bulgaria had more octogenerians per capita than any other country in the world and credited it to the water (and the yogurt they ate a lot then too). Of course I haven't been back there in many many years so I don't know if it's still true.

Then of course there are the blind aste tests that are conducted all the time by Consumer Reports and what always seems to win is New York City tap water.

The only reason, sometimes being "forced" to buy bottled water wherever one is travellig is on a hot day, filling uyp a water bottle early in the morning leaves one with warm water by the middle of the day and there's nothing like a nice cold glass of water (although I am sure there are some health practioners out there who will claim cold water is not good for you.

alexyarm

Plus you have to remember all the BPA that leeches into water in plastic bottles. Tap water or glass bottles only for us.

Cowboy1968

Kerouac.. You may be surprised that local customs differ by country.
While in France or the States it may be "hooey" that you would not offer guests tap water, it is very much the norm that hosts in Germany would be very apologetic if you asked for water and they had nothing but tap water to offer. It would also be considered ill-mannered or boorish to give a guest asking for water a glass from the tap without asking first if that was okay.

Nikki

Overheard in the water aisle of the supermarket:

"It's all just Joe's hose."

Carlux

'Many (most?) tourists carry bottles of water around with them to drink from during the day. '

Well yes, but this is one of the things that my French friends (and television commentators) find very odd about North Americans. You may well feel thirsty, but this idea of always having a bottle of water (or a huge cup of coffee or a huge soft drink) is puzzling to many of us.

kerouac

Sorry, Cowboy, I always thought the Germans were down to earth and sensible. Now I have just learned that my German friends in Stockstadt have been grossly insulting me with their tap water.

Cowboy1968

LOL.. It's okay to do it with friends.
But our water works would not regulary run expensive adverstising campaigns to educate people that they can actually drink water "raw from the tap". As I said, I don't buy bottled water myself. But it's much more common to shlep home gallons of Alpine spring water (or Vittel, Volvic ). My colleague, for example, drinks nothing but Volvic. Especially the flavored/ parfumé Volvic waters.

Even though the tap water in Munich comes from a mountain source.

OTOH, bottled water is usually not tap water, but needs to come from an underground source to be mineral water. People usually think it's purer and healthier due to the mineral content. Other people may also not trust the pipes in their apartment building.

Well, marketing rules.

The only relevant information for the tourist could be that one reason for not getting tap water for free in a restaurant in Germany is that there is barely any local demand for it. Even if they had it printed in bold letters on the menu, I'd guess that only very few locals ever would order it.
It's in the same league as asking for ice for beer or wine in France.

cornelius01

We don't like to drink tap water when we travel to Europe as it upsets our systems....okay for residents as their systems are familiar with the different bacterias. When in Paris we bought bottled water in Franprix or The Supermarche and found it about half the price of bottled water in the US as well as fresh fruits and veggies.....no more expensive than US.

justineparis

I drink tap water in Paris, I order it in cafes/ restos. It is free. It has never upset my tummy, it is clean and tastes great, some people just think they need bottled water, usually very old people who are thinking back many eons when "foriegn" tap water wasn't considered safe in many places, and by the very young, who have been completely brainwashed into thinking they can't survive without bottled water and their cell phones,, lol ( I have actually read posts from younger folks who are sincerely concerned about how will they get around without their electronic map and leash,, seemingling forgetting that most of us did fine back in the dark ages.. )

Anyone trying to save money, do not bother with bottle water in Paris,, buy one bottle at the store , then refill from tap as you go.