and of course in Slumdog Millinaire you see the restaurant workers filling the bottles with tap waterand resealing them!!!!!

I use a Pur water filter at home but cook and brush with tap water.

I used to carry gallon bottles of water in my suitcase because I usually flew out on Saturday and arrived in Europe on Sunday, late in the afternoon, too late to get to the few markets which were open.

But recently, I've just taken a few Vitamin waters and then when finished, I would fill the bottles with the tap water, keeping some in the minibar fridge. It's worth the savings in time not going around looking for bottled water.

One thing I resent is the cost of bottled water at airports. But worse, airports don't put drinking fountains, forcing you to buy bottled water. In CDG Terminal 2, I don't recall seeing any water fountains. At the new LHR terminal, there wasn't one on the part of the building with the shops and restaurants. But when you took the bus or tram to the side with the gates, there were fountains.

Of course, the other thing is bottled water at restaurants. It's the cost of going to an Italian restaurant to buy bottled water. Or marked-up wine.

"airports don't put drinking fountains, forcing you to buy bottled water."

You have no say in this, do you? Airports and stations in that part of Europe with a decent climate have never had drinking fountains: why would anyone need them?

The silly modern fad of claiming you "need" to drink something every three seconds, as if you were still suckling, is an absurd import from countries addicted to endless nibbling of salt-drenched junk food.

No-one's "forced" to buy bottled water: they've chosen to adopt an expensive and pointless habit, and it's not the job of public utlitiles to inflate their construction costs by pandering to it. Are you going to demand free cocaine next?

Hi scrb, if you are referring to the new practice of not being able to take liquids through customs at airports. Consider this...... you can take an empty water bottle through and then fill it at a tap in the airport. Perhaps in the rest rooms, otherwise if you find a water fountain - depends on the airport.

Hope that helps.

I agree entirely with the poster who provided the info about discarded water bottles and landfill. If I don't already have one with me I buy one when we arrive on holiday and refill it as required. I do occasionally throw them out when they get a bit old.

The chlorine smell evaporates out of water after a short while. Pour a jug full and leave it for an hour - the smell will be gone.

One small note on PET bottles for water.

I find that I can smell the plasticizers used to make the material supple when I open the bottle.

I don't need to drink every 3 seconds. But here's a newsflash. People connect through CDG and LHR after a LONG transatlantic flight.

Guess what, you get dehydrated on planes. And the little bottles and cups of drinks they give you aboard are often not sufficient.

So before your next flight, you need to hydrate, probably more than once.

And how the hell does adding a few drinking fountains inflate the costs of airports any more than all the pointless shops and restaurants do? Do they not use water? Do the restrooms not use water?