My neighbor is traveling to Munich/Heidelberg late August. Her father told her to bring plenty of coins with her as the toilets in Europe are all pay toilets. I have heard of pay toilets in London/Paris..but not widespread in Munich/Heidelberg.

Can anyone help?

I believe most of Europe has pay toilets, and often even attendants. They tent to be clean, too. Yes, make sure you have coins.

Get in the habit of carrying small coins in an outer pocket. You can use those coins for matrons in bathrooms, for pay toilets & to tip street performers. Use a pocket so you don't have to fumble in a bag, especially on the streets.

In Paris recently they were.40 euro. They used to be 20 pfenning in Germany. Do take coins but you will be surprised at the cleanliness, etc. Some also will have fresh flowers. CJ

The toilets are usually manned by attendants who guard them with their lives! They will vary from a nice polite person with a plate for coins to a surly grinch who will wrestle the coins from your palm while you are hopping in a circle in anticipation of using the facilities. So be sure and have change in your pockets.

In general, my wife and I have always been appreciative of the attendants, as they genuinely perform a service in keeping things clean. Oh, if only a few service stations and rest stops stateside could be so clean, I would gladly leave a few coins here too.

I would gladly pay for bathrooms in the USA if they were clean. I just returned from two weeks in Italy and was amazed how all their bathrooms were clean. The first dirty bathroom I saw was at the Newark airport near the luggage area.

Just remember to always have coins in your pockets!! It is difficult for us to get in this habit, and on a couple of occasions I had the attendants yelling at me while I was using the facilities and then "accompany" me after while I was trying to explain that I just needed to get the money from my husband, who was outside holding my purse. Both of these episodes were in Germany. In Italy I found the attendants to be more gracious.

hi all,

I know this might sound strange, but I have been to london and paris a total of 5-6 times now between the two of them and not once have I had to pay for a toilet.

Is this mainly a Germany or other european country thing? I saw one or two coin operated toilets on the streets of paris, but I never had a problem finding a business or resturant toilet to use.

I had one in paris in which I did tip the attendant, but that was one out of 5-6 visits.

In my mother's day, having to "spend a penny" was an English euphemism for having to use the toilet, because the doors to the stalls required a penny to get in.

Oh dear - I must be as old as Cluny's mother! The only pay toilets I've noticed in London recently have been in railway stations or the 'posh' ones in Harrods. In contrast in Germany and Italy they were everywhere.

In some parts of Europe, having to pay/having attendants serve an additional purpose - to keep the junkies out. Junkies going into public restrooms and shooting up is a problem in a lot of places.